While the HSPA version of the Note has been around elsewhere for a few months now the one that's launching here has LTE support. There were some demos of the speedtest app which showed speed test results over LTE of around 50mbps which is inline with the HTC Raider and Samsung Galaxy S II LTE.
With a 5.3" display you're probably wondering about the size. You will receive funny looks so you'll probably want to skip the Note if you're self conscious. It's definitely a device that requires 2 hands - if you wear tight skinny jeans you may have problems with it.
left to right: Galaxy Tab, Note, Nexus, S II 4G, S, original Galaxy and the iPhone 4s.
The extra screen size does add some utility to the Note. You've got more space to view webpages. There's a stylus which you can remove from the bottom of the device. It's NOT a capacitive stylus - rather it's magnetic.
Samsung includes the usual stylus apps like a special note taking application which also allows you to insert images, sound clips and then share them. You can takes screen grab and write on them. One thing I noticed is that you can even take screen shots of video games.
You can quickly launch the note taking application by pressing the button on the stylus and double tapping the home screen.
One neat stylus feature is that you can write and mark up MS Office documents using the pen and then save and email.
While it's nice that Samsung has tried to make the stylus useful I have my doubts whether I'd ever use it. Still, it's great that it fits in the device and doesn't cost 80 bucks.
The Note feels solid - it has a heft to it that you don't get from the Galaxy S II or Nexus.
It comes with a 2500mAh battery - I'll have to run a battery test on it to see how much benefit it actually brings.
Besides having LTE the LTE Note also has a 1.5Ghz dual core Qualcomm SoC. While it's clocked higher than the HSPA Note's the HSPA Note's Samsung Exynos processor has a faster GPU. If you have a lot of widgets on your home screen you'll notice it can be a little choppy but out of the box it's smooth. The problem is that the Samsung SoC in its current form doesn't support LTE.
Anyways, I've tested the LG Optimus LTE which has the same processor and a screen with similar resolution and have found that it's not suitable if do a lot of 3D gaming. Then again, I'd argue that HSPA Note's Exynos can also barely handle gaming at this resolution.
The LTE Note will ship with Android Gingerbread with a Ice Cream Sandwich upgrading coming in the first half of this year.
Look for a full review of the Note in a couple of days.
What do you think? You getting a Note or is it too much phone?
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