Samsung Galaxy Note and pondering future device trends

CityK

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Just curious/polling to see what your thoughts on this device might be.

Notwithstanding the fact that it is intentionally larger (given that it straddles the line between small tablet and phone), the most common complaint that I've seen written about it is its size. And of those critiques, the issue seems to essentially boil down into concerns about social appearance: "you'll look stupid holding it up to your head and using it as a phone cause its too big",.or, "OMG, I could barely fit it into the pocket of my hip and crotch hugging $300 pair of Diseal jeans, and when I did, it was so obvious that I was, like, carrying this huge device in my pocket".

No doubt, such concerns/social preoccupations are large drivers of design and determinants of purchase in the mobile marketplace -- for example, some draw comparison of the Note to the not particularly successful Dell Streak (I don't really know about it, cause I don't follow the mobile mkt very closely).

Personally, I didn't find the Note overwhelming in size when I took a look at one in store, but then again, I couldn't give a rats ass about facebook et al. (<-- insert other social mediums and related psychological emotional insecurities here). Though, I also guess that many potential customers from the market base don't have (haven't grown up with) the same set of anchors or references -- to them, phones have always been small, so many will have their own anchoring biases.

On the other hand, it seems to me (and I could certainly be wrong) like the trend might now be towards slightly larger devices .. i.e iPhone screen too small, need bigger. My best guess is that, if there were to be a 2nd gen of the Note, then if they could retain the same screen size, but shrink the package a bit, they'd likely hit the sweet spot. Or perhaps someone else like Apple, HTC or what not, will find it first.

Anyway, from my cursory observations of video reviews, I felt that the Note's software appeared "a little lacking" -- perhaps the supposed Android upgrade to ICS would take care of some of that (I don't know). I really have to wonder about how much utility the apps for such a device can provide (I'm ignorant)...the TV advertisement that I originally saw for the device gave the impression that it was fairly versatile, and that was what drew my interest, but the majority of video reviews I've seen have seemed determined to only show me how wonderfully one could draw colourful squigglely lines with the stylus (which, btw, in my impression, seems like it needs another revision before they get it quite right) in an application similar to MS Paint circa Win3.0. Meh, I say to that.

Battery life reports seem to be skewed slightly to the "not the greatest" side.
 

CityK

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Oh, I'll add that I thought that the DLNA features are pretty neat.... though, in those regards, I'm starting to get apprehensive about security in regards to the level of networked interconnectedness in the home ... my greatest fear is that one day in the future I'm going to find out that Chinese hackers have exploited a backdoor and have infiltrated my networked fridge. Noooooooo!!!! -- warm milk with my cherrios! You bastards!!!
 

LunarMist

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Just curious/polling to see what your thoughts on this device might be.

It depends on what you use it for primarily. My Galactic S II is difficult to use as a phone and the Note is even larger. (Mostly I use the S II indoors in the speakerphone mode.) If you don't need to hold it up to the head frequently, then I can see using the Note on a belt clip, etc. with a bluetooth or corded earphone. Maybe the Note works well for men with huge hands. I did use the iPhone recently and it was much easier to hold as a phone than the larger phones. I can see why people have an iPone and an iPad as complementary devices. :)
 

CityK

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Maybe the Note works well for men with huge hands
That's a fair point. I'd forgotten that I saw a number of people (both men & women) write that they had small hands and felt that it was pretty awkward to hold the device ... I have neither small, nor big hands, but I don't find the grip size an issue for myself (so I guess that's why that facet didn't weigh too heavily in memory)
 

CityK

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Glanced through the Galaxy S3 preview and saw that they called the Note a "phablet" ... first use I've seen of that term

it seems to me (and I could certainly be wrong) like the trend might now be towards slightly larger devices
GS3 --> 4.8" screen ... getting bigger (the Note's is 5.3")
 
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LunarMist

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The S II is good enough for me. It has been shockingly problem free.
 

LunarMist

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I fail to see the connection between the new boomloader and decrease in profits. I thought that many of the smartphone companies were losing business to Samsung.
 

MaxBurn

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The connection I got was that when a certain amount of success is met the handset manufacturer has leverage and can start pleasing the end user customer instead of the carrier customer. Therefore the carriers are actively seeking to lock down the flexibility of the devices sold.
 

LunarMist

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If I were the carrier I'd want the devices locked also. I suppose the question is what harm may be inflicted on the carrier by the hacked devices.
 

time

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Even in the US, there are countless phones that don't come with carrier-customized firmware. Under GSM, there is nothing to stop you connecting any frequency-band-compatible device to a network. You're being a bit silly.
 

Mercutio

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Our largest single carrier (and also our third largest carrier) don't support GSM. And our largest carrier also customizes firmware on all the feature phones it sells to provide a consistent interface at expense of features that might otherwise be available to those phones. The US Cell Phone Market is a bit silly, whether Lunar is or not.
 

time

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I was referring to his concern that unlocked phones could harm the network.

Do your carriers customize iPhones in the same way? Or are they GSM only?
 

MaxBurn

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Apple doesn't allow any carrier customization at all. Most carriers have free apps that you can download and you are free to delete, nothing is forced on the user from the carrier. Not even a carrier logo on the phone.

The only angle I can figure why carriers don't like rooted/jailbroken phones is that they are a support nightmare which is why you generally void warranty doing that. Oh wait, also these roms allow features like tethering to be turned on even if you aren't paying the carrier for that and carriers want to charge more for tethering data rather than lumping it in with regular data. I guess that is two good reasons the carriers don't want you to have control of your mobile computing device.

I'm all for turning the carrier into a dumb pipe that they are, I don't want them to have control of the device.
 

Stereodude

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Once they're all LTE the whole CDMA / GSM thing will finally be dead. Of course they still won't use compatible frequencies.
 

MaxBurn

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I was the under the impression that voice and text wouldn't be going over the LTE network, just data. Is that wrong?
 

timwhit

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I was the under the impression that voice and text wouldn't be going over the LTE network, just data. Is that wrong?

Not yet, but eventually it will. Verizon is talking about moving voice over to the LTE network by the end of 2013. I would bet they will be the first network to make the switch.
 

MaxBurn

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Longer, we still have GPRS and EDGE in use here. That's the real problem in the US, too many old tech piling up we can't get rid of.
 

CityK

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SIII outed. "sure enough, this is another Pentile AMOLED display from Samsung" 4.8 incher. 1280x720. I was hoping for something special, not pentile.
Pure speculation, but given that the S II uses a Super AMOLED Plus, and the HTC One X a well regarded IPS, I'm wondering if this design/component selection decision was taken with the Apple iPhone 5 (or whatever they are going to call it) release being held in mind. What I'm getting at is that, provided Apple's next phone version is deemed "good" (and I wouldn't be against the midas touch trend just yet), Sammy might want to have a stop gap response waiting in the wings i.e. a slightly higher end Galaxy S III model, call it, say, the "Gallaxy S III Plus", featuring either a Super AMOLED Plus or IPS screen (and perhaps a few other bells and whistles to tide high end sales margins over a couple of weeks before the successor S IV is launched).

Anyway, its curious to me that they didn't opt for a Super AMOLED Plus -- especially given the claim that it is more energy efficient

PS -- These display names are just about as bad as the android phone names .... care for a HD Super AMOLED Plus anyone? :tounge:
 

time

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PenTile attracted some adverse attention on the original Galaxy S, which dropped the pixel density to 233 ppi from the Nexus One's 252. The S2 was only 217 ppi so Samsung elected to add extra subpixels with Super AMOLED Plus.

It's worth pointing out that Samsung has improved their PenTile implementations since the original S, but in any case, pixel densities are now too high to realize any advantage from extra subpixels. The Galaxy Nexus moved up to 316 ppi, the Note comes in at 285 ppi and the S3 is 306 ppi.

Bear in mind that unassisted 20:20 human vision can only resolve 300 alternating black and white lines per inch at 30 cm distance. Resolvability of colored lines is much less than that, and most humans don't have 20:20 vision.

I happen to have an S3 here. :) The resolution is definitely higher than I can use, even when reading black text on a white background. I suspect that a current PenTile implementation would still be flawless down to at least 250 ppi, which makes pixels 2.6 times smaller than a standard desktop computer monitor. A super-fine 2560x1600 27" monitor only manages 112 ppi.
 
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