Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note back in September which is supposed to be a combination of a smartphone and tablet, due to its large 5.3-inch display. This huge device can be also used a a notepad for planning your most important events, knowing that it comes with a smart in-built S-pen for those having trouble to handle such a big screen.
The stylus is perfect for writing, drawing notes and more.Samsung Galaxy Note is an impressive mini tablet which is light and slim, following Samsung’s products form factors.Taking a closer look at the handset, you’ll see that it has all buttons placed like the Galaxy S2, same classic and elegant design with rounded corners and a durable plastic material on the back.
Samsung Galaxy Note is the biggest smartphone with its enormous 5.3-inch Super HD AMOLED screen and an excellent resolution of 1280×800 pixels. Actually, it’s pretty hard to use the handset with only one hand and hold it comfortably, which means you’ll have to use both handset for a good operation. Making abstraction of its display, the image quality is very clear, vivid and bright, showing awesome photos without seeing any pixel.
Still, if you can’t get used to such a large screen, you can opt for the Vivid which comes with a smaller 4.5-inch S-LCD touchscreen and a lower resolution of 540×960 pixels, but offering great shots. As most of Samsung’s phones, the Galaxy Note is protected by Gorilla Glass technology which keeps the screen safe and secure by unwanted scratches, scuffs and more dirt. Both use a different user interface, HTC Sense UI (no 3.5), respectively TouchWiz UI.
Looking at the camera section, both handsets include a rear 8 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED (dual LEDs for the Vivid) flash coupled with a frontal 2MP camera for the Galaxy Note, respectively a 1.3MP cam for HTC Vivid for video chat. Each of these tho devices have special cam features such as geo-tagging or face detection, being capable of capturing videos at 1080p.
Samsung’s huge Galaxy Note is powered by a dual-core processor ARM Cortex A9 with the Exynos chipset clocked at 1.4GHz, while HTC Vivid comes also with a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm APQ8060 Snapdragon chipset. There is 1GB of RAM inside for both devices. Regarding the storage space, both have two models available: 16/32GB with the posibility to expand it via a microSD card slot.
Software wise, Samsung Galaxy Note runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, including special pre-loaded apps such as Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration or Adobe Flash 10.1 support. Actually, the handset has the “S Pen” interface, which brings a selection of apps designed especially for the included stylus. HTC Vivid is also using Google’s platform, Android OS with the 2.3.5 Gingerbread version with pre-installed apps and more to be downloaded from Android Market.
Samsung Galaxy Note supports Adobe Flash, includes NFC feature, TV-out (via MHL A/V link) and 4G LTE connectivity, barometer sensor just like the Galaxy Nexus plus a battery of 2500 mAh. HTC Vivid is also coming with fast 4G LTE network plus a standard battery of Li-Ion 1650 mAh. None of them will run Android 4.0, but they will probably be upgraded anytime soon.
Samsung’s smartphone/tablet hybrid has hit the UK market in early November, with no specific infos about an US release date. HTC Vivid is already available at AT&T for $200 with a two year agreement. Surprisingly, HTC Vivid doesn’t get HTC Sense 3.5 UI or Android 4.0, but it does pack top rated specs, familiar for any high-end smartphone. The Galaxy Note is great for watching movies or play games on its super large display with an excellent resolution.
