This post is sponsored by Samsung
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., has unveiled in India its tablets and smartphone hybrid -- the GALAXY NOTE.
Finnish handset maker Nokia Oyj continues to dominate the smartphone market. But Samsung Galaxy S 2 smartphone and other units has continued to gain ground with a market share of 31.1 percent in the third quarter, just slightly trailing Nokia's 32.3 percent, according to Canalys data.
Nokia has recently unveiled the Lumia 800, its first Windows Phone-based device while Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy Nexus, the phone co-produced by Google Inc. and the first running on the Android Ice Cream Sandwich. With the Galaxy Note, Samsung hopes to finally wrestle the lead from Nokia in the Asia's second biggest market.
Display, Specifications and Features
The GALAXY Note has a 5.3-inch screen, offering the largest screen estate among current high-end phones, but is more compact and portable than Apple Inc.'s 9.7-inch iPad, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and other tablets. According to the Korean electronics giant, GALAXY Note features the world's first and largest 5.3" HD Super AMOLED display.
This is an expansive high-resolution smart screen that provides an immersive and best in class viewing experience while ensuring smartphone portability and on the go usability. The GALAXY Note is an enlarged version of Samsung's best-selling smartphone to date, the Samsung Galaxy S2.
It sports the Super AMOLED Plus screen that provides the Galaxy S2 with unmatched brightness and colorful display, but this time supporting an eye-popping a WXGA 1280 x 800 pixel, 285 ppi resolution. In contrast, rival Apple's newest offering, the iPhone 4S sports a puny 3.5-inch screen, although it has a 960 x 640, 326 ppi resolution. Under the hood, the GALAXY Note is more impressive than the critically acclaimed iPhone 4S and the Lumia 800.
The iPhone 4S sports a 3.5-inch screen; an 8-megapixel, 1080p high-definition camera rear camera; a 0.9-megapixel VGA front camera; an A5 1 GHZ dual-core chip processor; and 512 MB of RAM. The Lumia 800 is as stunning as the Nokia N9 but is slimmer and uses the Windows 7.5 Mango platform.
The Nokia Lumia 800 sports a 3.7 inch AMOLED ClearBlack curved display, and a 1.4GHz single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with hardware acceleration and a graphics processor, 512 MB of RAM, and a 1450mAh battery. But the GALAXY Note won't be outdone, sporting a fast dual-core application processor inside, with each core clocked in at 1.4GHz; 8-megapixel photo snapper with support for full HD video recording; 2-megapixel front camera; and with 1GB of RAM.
Although the GALAXY Note may be too big (150 mm x 83 mm) to handle for some, the added screen real estate gives it extra functionality. The device is great for reading (with minimal scrolling and zooming), Web browsing, video playback, playing games, and other stuff you'd do on a tablet. While it would be the smallest tablet, it's among the most powerful. It may not be as powerful as the recently Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, which has a 1.4 GHz quad-core processor, but it offers the same multitasking and Web experience provided by the iPad 2. The iPad 2, which has 67 percent of the tablet market, sports a 1 G Hz dual-core A5 processor, 512 MB of RAM, and poor 0.3 MP and 0.7 MP cameras.
Weight
At 178 grams, the Galaxy Note is close to the 140-gram iPhone 4S and 142-gram Lumia 800. In contrast, the 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook weighs 425 grams and the iPad 2 comes at 600 grams. The Galaxy Note has been tagged as a reinvention of the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) device, which was a hit with business people during the 1990s.
Stylus pen and Touch Screen
An advanced pen-input technology, called the S Pen, combines with GALAXY Note's full touch screen to introduce a unique user experience. Taking full advantage of the large display, GALAXY Note users will be able to multi-task, create and consume more, with fewer interruptions, while on the go.
Operating System
The GALAXY Note runs on Google's Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, although it can be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Ice Cream Sandwich offers improved voice commands, an enhanced browser, facial recognition, photo enhancements, and changes to core apps such as Gmail and Calendar.
Battery Life
Although the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2 have iOS 5, which boasts of 200 new features, which Apple says takes "a mobile operating system that was already years ahead of anything else and moving it even further ahead, reports have indicated that iOS 5 is draining the battery, forcing users of the device to turn off certain apps and functions.
The GALAXY Note won't likely share the same battery life issues with its Li-ion 2500 mAh battery.
Design
The Nokia Lumia 800's stunning design works well with the tile-based user interface provided by Mango and the Metro. But as to the apps, while the Apple App Store and the Android Market (for Samsung) already have thousands of apps, Microsoft has yet to gain ground in the mobile phone market and has yet to convince developers to make more apps.
"The GALAXY Note is a device borne of our insight and innovation. We examined the fundamental elements of mobile culture, entertainment and communication in order to bring together the best experiences in a single, elegant device," said JK Shin, President and Head of Samsung's Mobile Communications Business. "The huge, 5.3" HD Super AMOLED screen is the largest, highest quality display available in any phone; the touch screen and S Pen combine to produce a uniquely accurate level of control and finesse, along with rich expressions across the GALAXY Note experience, enabling the introduction of new smartphone experiences."
http://in.ibtimes.com India
