The Galaxy Note is possibly the most talked about smartphone of the moment. “A smartphone?” I hear you cry. “It isn’t a smartphone. It’s too big!!!”
And so the complaints continue about a phone that many feel is too big to hold up to your ear and that others liken to a tablet more than a phone. Or to coin the most awful phrase of the year, a ‘phablet’. Shudder!
The Galaxy Note is not strictly a phone in the traditional sense of what we consider to be acceptable phone size, but you then need to consider how often you make and receive phone calls, and how you converse with others. If you use headphones or a Bluetooth headset (I think some people still use them), you won’t need to worry about the size of the Note. If you are on the phone for most of the day and prefer the ‘to the ear’ approach, the Note may be too big for you.
However, I think we can safely say that the majority of smartphone users tend to use their phones for voice calling less than for any other activity. This was summed up recently when I read somewhere about a child asking an adult if their phone had an app to let them make phone calls. The fact is that we don’t like talking to people anymore and would much rather text, instant message or email. We would rather view the internet on our phones, play games on our phones, play music, watch movies and manage our lives on our phones. We use them for organising and everything else and this is where the larger size of the Note becomes a huge advantage. For the majority of what we want to do on our phones, the Galaxy Note size works perfectly.
And if you are like me and you remember carrying around a Psion 5MX that could play basic games, deal with organisation and not much else, you will realise that the Note is actually quite small.
About Shaun McGill
The Galaxy Note isn’t big, i AM carrying a Tab 7 around!
It isn’t big. I hardly notice the size anymore. Infect hato check that I still have it in my pocket when I leave for work or leave for home from work. When I UAE my etudes HTC desire now it feels Luke a toy phone and even my Three year old prefers my Samsung galaxy note and keeps asking me if she can watch a movie on my phone because she likes watching it with the headphones on since it has dolby output with the headphones on which sounds great with stock video player and the free downloada from Samsung movie vouchers and song vouchers. Don’t think you get the dolby output when you use other media players but not sure about that.
Its also much more manageable than my archos 605 with a 4″ screen. But I do need a bag to lug the cables around (MHL, hdmi, otg etc), sad I know but I lug it around along with my back up flash drives, extra memory cards etc.
Oops sorry for the typos above.guess need to proof read better my Swype typed messages before posting next time
A note not only is big, it is way too big.
And don’t compare it to a business device like a Psion. A Psion you carry to your office and back home again. I’ve seen only 2 or 3 guys with a Psion in a pub (note that I’ve seen them, not met them.. for a reason) and nowadays everyone bring there smartphone with them all the time. So you need a device you can carry with you all the time. A galaxy note is no such device. And advice to all you guys carrying an oversized phone: If you like to meet girls, leave your tabletphone at home!
H Tina,
So would you say that when it comes to phones, size does in fact matter?
I think the people that advocate the Note are those that don’t find it a problem to carry as an everyday device.