It’s not just a tablet and it’s not a smartphone…it’s the Samsung Galaxy Note. The Note has combined the function of a same hand held tablet with features of the well known Samsung Nexus phone functions. Debut at CES, it was a crowd favorite from buyers to media outlets. Seems when launched (exact date unknown) through AT&T later this year (probably around March), sales will be no issue in the sea of multi-tasking devices on the market.
The Galaxy Note’s 5.3″ display is the largest screen size with smartphone portability. The display is the world’s first 5.3″ HD Super AMOLED display according to Samsung. With a 1.4GHz Dual Core Processor, multi-tasking through apps and features is a breeze. Light weight and easy to hold in your hand, great for business professional, bloggers and social driven types. You can store all your multimedia on the 16GB of internal memory, expandable by up to 32GB with a microSD card — both of which can be accessed via the micro-USB port. There’s also Bluetooth 3.0+ HS support and 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi.
For keeping your busy life all organized, the S Planner, provides you the tools to manage complicated schedules in an easy and intuitive way. The S Pen (think stylus but more like a pen then bulky tip) is combined with the full touch screen for easy note taking, adding notes/edits, signatures, etc. With S Memo, a quick memo can be taken from any screen to capture your ideas or thoughts. Any screen can be instantly captured and annotated in detail. In addition, captured screens can be freely cropped in any shape or form using the precision S pen. You can easily personalize photos and videos using the advanced S Pen. You can scribble in personalized notes and drawings on your memories of precious moments such as family outings, a baby’s first walk and many more. I think the Perez Hilton types will most like this feature.
As a socially driven, multi-media content creator, I’m most excited about the main advanced 8mp camera with LED Flash and the front : 2 MP for video chatting. Some great camera actions added to Note are Action Shot, Beauty, Panorama Shot, and Smile Shot. For video, 1080p Full HD video recording & playback (recording: 1080p@24~30fps/ playback: 1080p@30fps) and codec: MPEG4/ H.263/ H.264/ DivX, WMV, VC-1. Let’s not forget the audio experience as well; the Note plays MP3, AAC, AMR, WMA, WAV, FLAC, OGG. Music player included is the SoundAlive. The Note has 3.5mm Ear Jack, and stereo FM radio with RDS.
Business and I.T. professionals will be interested with the comprehensive security capabilities such as the MDM (Sybase Afaria)and H/W encryption (Samsung ODE). You can access to enterprise assets securely. Samsung Security solutions cover all data such as contact names and numbers as well as e-mail, email attachments. Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync offers optimized secure access to enterprise resources. It allows for real-time communication with employee phones to remotely configure settings, monitor compliance with policies, guarantee synchronized data safety and wipe or lock managed. With professional mobile meeting, Cisco WebEx brings web conferencing, instant messaging, telephony, and fixed mobile communication capabilities to a mobile workforce. Users can view shared desktops, browsers, applications and documents.
Best of all at the end of the day is the fact with the Galaxy Note, you don’t have to have a data plan and separate cell phone plan. All-In-One plans will be announced soon from AT &T (rumors are that Verizon will be getting the Note as well this year).
Overall, this is one of my favorite new gadgets to be released in 2012. It fits any lifestyle and easy to have on hand when traveling, or walking around the office. With a 2500mAh battery, you can easily go throughout your day on one charge. The battery is estimated to have about 9-10 hours of function from one charge.
Be on the look out for my user review when I get my hands on one…let’s see how a true multi-media blogging chick can get through the day with the Note.