Samsung Galaxy Note – Great Screen, Great Battery Life

If you can’t decide between a new phone or a new tablet, the new Samsung Galaxy Note means you no longer have to. In fact, many people are calling the device a phablet, rather than try to choose between calling it a phone or tablet.

Samsung has been in the business of making large screen phones for a while now. The Nexus, for example, has won widespread critical acclaim for its Super AMOLED Plus screen which at 4.65 inches has one of the larger displays around.

But with the Galaxy Note Samsung are taking things further by introducing a massive 5.3-inch 1280×800 resolution screen. It uses the same Super AMOLED Plus display technology as many of Samsung’s other top-of-the-range 4G phones – it’s just much larger.

You could really describe it as hybrid device where a phone meets a tablet. It has a much larger screen that any previous phone (more than an extra inch wider than the current 4.3 standard) but at the same time it’s more portable than the average tablet.

It’s also a pretty powerful device. Note users will get access to AT&T’s growing high-speed 4G LTE network, a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor, a full 1GB of RAM and Android 2.3 with future OTA updates to Android 4.0.

For users who don’t like messing up their gorgeous phone display with fingerprints – or simply prefer the precision of stylus input – the Galaxy Note is equipped with an S Pen stylus that really comes into its own with tasks like making sketches or drawing quick plans or annotating emails and todo lists.

Other features worth noting are the 8-megapixel auto-focus main camera on the rear, front-facing 2-megapixel camera and the generous 2500 mAh battery. Given the very large screen you might expect the Note to be incredibly heavy but at 6.28 ounces it’s weightier than the average phone but not that much more.

Android devices tend to be battery hungry and the thought may well have crossed your mind that this device – with its huge display and high-speed 4G LTE connectivity – could be a major battery drainer. Not so, the Note holds its own and through a combination of good power management and a large battery easily ranks with the DROID RAZR MAXX as one of the best performing 4G Android phones.

The Good and the Bad

Good: AT&T 4G LTE network speeds, fast dual-core processor, amazing battery life.

Bad: Size, which may be just a little too large for some, price which will be beyond the budget of many phone buyers.

Price & Availability

The Samsung Galaxy Note is available now for the AT&T 4G network from AT&T stores, Best Buy and other stores.

Standard pricing is $299.99 on a two-year contract* making it more expensive than the other high-end AT&T 4G phones like the LG Nitro and the Samsung Skyrocket – but that’s not surprising given the both the impressive size and specs of the Galaxy Note.

* Amazon have the Galaxy Note on offer at the moment.