The Samsung Galaxy Note might get me to leave the pen at home

Samsung Galaxy Note image from CNET
Samsung Galaxy Note image from CNET

Was walking home and saw a nice big AT&T Wireless store and I just had to walk in and catch some buzz for the Samsung Galaxy Note. I’ve been saying for years that my smart phone is too small and the tablets are too big and when they make a tablet with a cell phone to give me a call.

Well Samsung is calling me. So I walked into the store and asked when they were arriving. Turned out that the store’s Samsung rep was in the house. So he generously stepped outside and showed me his.

Nice. Really nice. It’s been years since I was an early adopter, but I am tempted. Really tempted. The size is good. It fits into one hand (though it is big for most hands and will probably easily fly out if you are bumped). It heralds the return of the stylus which is very good. The screen is big enough for this to be my walking around computer for meetings and keeping track of daily life items like calendars, notes, access to the net and tasks. It is also big enough to read for work or play. Most importantly, I can work with it. It is a good side for the 15 minutes here and there that our lives have become.

One thing I wasn’t able to test was use under direct sunlight as it wasn’t sunny outside, but the screen did look like it would be fine in full sunlight. And I asked the rep and he said he hadn’t noticed any issues.

Battery life is of course an issue. But it is comparable to similar devices like the iPhone. And that is a trade off for the size and weight

All in all, I think this is a winner.  And I just might be leaving the pen at home.

———-