Samsung scribbles in UK Galaxy Note II debut date

Samsung has said that its Galaxy Note II 5.6in, 1280 x 720 smartphone-cum-tablet, which was launched earlier this month at the IFA show, will be out on Monday, 1 October. The stylus centric gadget sports a 1.6GHz quad-core processor, an 8Mp camera, 2GB of Ram, 16-46GB of Flash storage, dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi and 3G HSPA+ …

[toffer99]

Its massive, said the actress to the smartphone.

I suppose the wheels are retracted in that pic?

[Anonymous Coward 101]

I wonder if this would be too big? My Note 1 fits snugly in my pocket with a case but this looks too big for that. I assume Samsung checked the dimensions of standard jeans pockets and made sure it wasn't too big?

[Mark .]

Checked Wikipedia for the dimensions - interestingly the Note 2 has a smaller width, at 3.17" rather than 3.266". It's the height which is bigger, 5.95" instead of 5.781".

Also interesting to compare the pure diagonals: you get 6.74" for the Note 2, and 6.63" for the Note. So whilst the display is 0.26" larger, the diagonal of the device is only 0.11" larger. (A similar thing is true comparing the Galaxy Nexus to the S3 - the latter has a larger display, but the device doesn't feel that much bigger.)

[Robredz]

Looks like it may fall between two stools, too big for a phone, but not big enough for a tablet, it depends on the pricing from the likes of Vodafone, and o2 .

[Anonymous Coward]

That was exactly the thing they said about the old Note, and that sold well enough.

[Mark .]

I don't understand this idea that a tablet must be "big". A tablet is a handheld device that isn't a phone. Of course you can do more with a larger device, but that's also a trade-off with portability. It's true that some people might see this as the worst of both worlds, but for some, it may be a good compromise.

Some people want a 10" device, some people a 7" device. Some a 4.8" device, and some a 5-6" device, and some have more than one of these devices to get round the problem.

[AlastairEB]

Great Hardware - Poor Software

I tried the pen input on the Note 10.1, and it is very good: the rubberised pen gives a very good "feel".

Sadly, the S-Memo/S-Note software is half-baked. Anyone who has used Windows Journal, or MS OneNote with handwriting input, will immediately see that Samsung have missed some really obvious killer features:

- Enable "handwriting search" over all notebooks. If I entered notes as handwriting, I usually leave them as handwriting. Later, I forget where I noted something. With the MS solutions, I can search, over all notes, for handwriting that matches my search term. Can't do that on a Galaxy Note.

- Select, Copy and Paste of handwriting is missing. With the MS apps, I regularly copy a diagram I've drawn, and paste it somewhere else, maybe enlarged, to add detail. Can't do that on a Galaxy Note.

- Interoperability with the MS apps. Copy from a note fron the Galaxy Note, paste as handwriting into MS Journal or MS OneNote. Can't do that on a Galaxy Note.

MyScript Notes Mobile (http://www.visionobjects.com/en/myscript/note-taking-and-forms-applications/myscript-notes-mobile/description/) seems to do these things, and Samsung have a splash page (http://www.samsung.com/sg/business/resource/business-products/mobile-device/case-study/the-ultimate-in-script-recognition?modelCode=GT-N7000RWAXSP) about MyScript having "arrived" for Galaxy Note, but no indications of how to get the missing functionality.

I've emailed Samsung about this a few times, but they don't reply. Which says bad things about their customer support.

Quite disappointing, because with those missing features, the Galaxy Note would be a real killer solution.