The Galaxy Note was announced by Samsung during IFA 2011 in Berlin. It was released to the public starting with Germany in late October 2011, with other countries following shortly after that.[2] By the end of November, it was available in most major markets, including East Asia, Europe and India.
In December 2011, Samsung announced that 1 million Galaxy Notes were shipped in less than two months, and that Galaxy Notes will be available in the US February 19, 2012 from AT&T.[3] In early January, advance units, customised for the AT&T carrier, were supplied to the media, in preparation for its public release in the United States market.[4]
Size and construction
The Galaxy Note, with a 135 mm (5.3 in) screen, occupies a niche in Samsung’s Galaxy range, bridging the gap between their smartphones such as the Galaxy S II, and the Galaxy Tab tablet. Reviews regarding its size have been mixed. Some have said that it’s too big to be a true mobile phone, citing the difficulty of using it single-handed [5], storing it in a small pocket, and the perceived ungainly appearance against the face [6]; while others have hailed it as a pioneer in a new market segment (despite the lack of success of the similarly-sized but stylus-lackingDell Streak), combining the best features of both device types.[7] Its potential as a games consolehas also been pointed out.[8]
Like most recent smartphones and tablets, the device is constructed in the “slate” format (see Slate phone and Slate tablet). The body is built from plastic with a metallised rim.[9] The front panel is Gorilla Glass,[10] a strengthened glass often used for high-end devices such as this.
The front panel houses one physical “home” button (for activating the device and switching to the home screen), two illuminated touch pads (“menu” and “back”), the display, the front-facing camera, and light and proximity sensors. At the back is a thin plastic snap-on panel with an indent for a fingernail to facilitate removal, for access to the 2500mAh battery, SIM card and SD Card. The back panel houses the speaker and main camera and flash. The metallic rim houses several controls; at the top edge is the 4-pole 3.5mm jack socket for connecting the headset (which incorporates in-canal earphones, FM radio aerial, microphoneand volume control) and a pinhole microphone; at the bottom is the micro-USB socket for charging and data transfer, another pinhole microphone, and the well for storing the stylus; and the sides house an on-off button and a volume control.
Hardware and software features
Hardware specifications of the device include:[11]
- a dual-core 1.4Ghz processor, But Sk telecom, KT, LG U+ use 1.5Ghz Snapdragon S3 Chipset
- a 5.3” WXGA (1280 x 800) HD Super AMOLED screen
- an 8-megapixel main camera that can record 1080p video, and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera
- 802.11 b/g/n support for Wi-Fi
- HSPA+ 21Mbps 850/900/1900/2100 mobile network support.
- positioning using both the a-GPS and GLONASS systems.
[12]
Software
The Galaxy Note is equipped with Android 2.3 ”Gingerbread”, but Samsung have said that they will be releasing an upgrade to Android 4.0″Ice Cream Sandwich” during 2012.[16] The standard Android user interface is overlaid with Samsung’s TouchWiz 4.0 interface, which includes comprehensive support for the device’s stylus, among other things.
As with all smartphones, several application programs are pre-loaded on the device. These include the standard Android applications such as email, web browsing, and media playback, as well as some programs aimed mainly at business users, such as Polaris Office, personal information manager software, the note-taking application, and one game, Crayon Physics Deluxe.
Cameras
The device features an 8-megapixel (2448 x 3264 pixels) main camera with flash on the back panel, and a 2-megapixel (1200 x 1600 pixels) camera on the front, primarily for video phone calls. The clear lens cover of the main camera lies flush with the back panel, exposing it to the same scratches that the panel might suffer, which has been a source of criticism.[6] However, the quality of images captured with the main camera has been praised.[6] Video recording through the main camera is 1080p (“Full HD”) at 30 frames per second. Photo-editing and video-editing software is supplied with the device.