Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 16GB Sim Free Mobile Phone - Dark Blue

I bought mine from amazon.de, saving myself over £100 on the prices listed above, and that's including VAT and delivery. I really don't understand the reason for the UK prices to be so extortionate. Note only did I benefit from the enormous price saving but I've also had the phone since 7th November. :-)

The box it comes in appears quite small - smaller than the box for my previous phone - the Orange San Francisco - which only has a 3.5" screen rather than 5.3". But take the lid off the box and the sight that greets you is a huge phone, almost as though the box has some Tardis like properties. I had never seen the phone in the flesh before purchase, but had seen videos on YouTube, but still I was a little taken aback. Now I've had it a few days I'm already used to it and far more comfortable about it.

I make and receive very few mobile calls, so for me the beauty of this device is to have a "tablet" that fits in my pocket (easily!) and still allows me the occasional text or call when necessary without needing a second device. I don't expect to wandering around shouting into it and drawing attention like Dom Jolly. Due to the size I did wonder for a short while if I had made a mistake and perhaps the Galaxy S2 would have been a wiser choice, but now I am happy with my decision.

The screen is glorious. Some people moan about the pentile display, but I have absolutely no issues with the screen. Performance wise I've only found one annoyance, which is a distinct delay when waking the phone before the lock screen is displayed. Other than that it's worked beautifully and has shown a massively clean pair of heels to my poor little San Francisco.

The biggest negative so far is that the huge screen size makes it impractical (impossible) to operate the phone single handed. It needs one hand to hold it and another to dab away at the screen. Definitely not the end of the world for me, but maybe an issue for some people. I'm also not a fan of the button placement for power and volume. They are on opposite sides of the phone and I find that when seeking for one I end up squeezing the phone and pressing the buttons on the other side too. I don't understand why the power button is not at the top. It has been on every other phone I've owned. You do have to wonder whether the people who design these things ever actually use them. Anyway, that's just something I will have to get used to and deal with. It's already becoming less of an issue now that I'm getting used to the form factor.

As far as pocketability goes I wear cargo pants and have voluminous pockets, so no drama there. I've had it pocketed while walking the dog and it's no bother at all. It will slip into a shirt pocket too, but is too tall to be fully concealed and looks a bit daft with the camera lens visible above the top of the pocket. As supplied I find the phone to be a little on the slippery side and combined with the size and weight I have felt on times that the thing might well slip from my grasp if I'm not paying attention. The solution, I think, will be a gel case. I don't want the official flip cover or anything along those lines. I've always gone bareback with my phones and PDAs and never had a problem with damage. The only reason I want a gel case for this is to make it a bit more grippy, although I won't object to a little extra protection.

All in all I love this phone and I'm happy with my purchase. The device gets 5 stars, but only at the price I paid. There is no way I'd spend almost £600 on this. As good as the phone is, that's a budget buster for me.

I bought my Note on a recent business trip to India and I saved about a third over the UK price. I was so impressed with this phone that I bought one for my wife and one for my mum (Christmas prezzies!) and like many of the reviewers I got them from Amazon.de. One of the phones went missing in transit but I have to say that Amazon customer service in Germany is just as good as the UK and once I got someone who could speak English well they resolved the problem no questions asked and sent me a replacement. In my opinion Amazon are the best retailer out there today, no comparison. I've used an iPhone since 2007 and my last one was an iPhone4 which is undeniably a great phone. However I got very frustrated with a couple of things; the screen size is too small for me, iTunes in the worst program and user interface imaginable, Apples restrictive 'walled garden' policy, it's tendency to abuse its market position to dominate other companies, much like Microsoft in the 90's. For all these reasons I felt it was time for a change. I'm quite into technology so I knew about the Note and it looked very interesting and for me at least a perfect device. I thought it could replace my phone, tablet and laptop and to be honest that is proving to be the case so here is my review of the Note.

Build Quality - Samsung does use a lot of plastic in their phones so this does not feel like a really premium product. However the build quality is very good and the phone is ludicrously light for it's size and also stupidly thin!. An iphone 4 feels like a dense brick by comparison. The overall fit and finish is excellent. The back cover is made from a very thin plastic and looks like it could easily snap in half but in fact it is very flexible and can be folded in two with no sign of breaking(it's on You Tube). Don't try this at home though!

Screen - This is the largest screen on any phone to date at 5.3 inches and I find it fantastic. It uses Super Amoled HD at a 1200 by 800 resolution and the colours are extremely vibrant and super saturated. Although not quite the same pixel density as the Retina Display on an iPhone it blows it away in terms of brightness and colour. Off axis viewing angles are very good indeed though I do note a slightly greenish tinge which is due to the pentile display matrix. You will never use the phone this way however so its not an issue for me but it is there. Movies look amazing as do pictures. This is probably the best display on any phone at the moment.

Size - The most common criticism of the Note is that it is too big and that you have to have massive hands to use one. I find this to be totally untrue. I have average sized hands for a man and it's quite easy to use and comfortable to hold, even for long periods. My wife, who has much smaller hands than me also does not find it a problem. The other issue sited is that you will look stupid when using it as a phone, again totally untrue. I've used it out and about, the street, restaurants, pubs. No one has ever given me a second look. Not that I would care anyway.

Speed - This is without a doubt the fastest phone I've ever used. It has a 1.4Ghz dual core processor and 1GB of ram. To put this into perspective if you go back about 5 years this would have been a respectable spec for a desktop PC running Windows XP. This power is now in the palm of your hand which is amazing. Currently this is the fastest phone on the planet.

Phone calls - As a phone I would rate the Note as average, it's no better or worse than my iPhone 4. To be honest I rarely use it as a phone so this is not that important for me.

Battery Life - With a massive bright screen and dual core processor I thought that the Note would struggle to make it through a day. How wrong I was! It has a 2500mAh battery which lasts a day with heavy use and over 2 days with light use. I do charge the phone every day but most evenings it still has about 30% charge left unlike my iPhone4 which would either be dead of dying at the same point. For a smartphone this is a great battery life.

Camera - 8MP shooter that can do 1080p video as well. Not quite as good as the camera on an iPhone4S but still takes extremely sharp and vivid photographs.

S Pen - Samsung calls the stylus that comes with the phone an S Pen. It works very well but I don't use it much as I'm not very artistic. My friend who is very able loved it however and drew some very good pictures in a few minutes. It is useful for taking notes and I have used it for that. Nice to have but not that important to me.

User Interface - I have to say that after years of using IOS I have found Android to a revelation in terms of flexibility and control. I love the widgets and the fully customisable interface. I have to say it, the iPhone just looks dated and stilted in comparison with its rows of icons. Even better news is that the Note will be updated to the latest version of Android in the spring of 2012. Samsung uses its propitiatory Touch Wiz interface which I like well enough.

Android Market - It's true to say that the Android Market does lag behind Apples App Store in terms of selection and quality. However the gap is closing quite rapidly and most of the apps you really want or need are there, many for free.

Storage - Although not officially supported this phone works with a 64GB micro SD card which I have installed giving me a total of 80GB storage. All my music and films go on the SD card and I can load up days worth of entertainment. I love the fact that I can plug the phone into my PC and just dump files onto the SD card which the phone will recognise and categorise for me. No conversion required, and joy of joys, no iTunes! This for me is the biggest plus, I can put whatever content I want on the device with no hassle.

For me this is the perfect device, it does all that I want very well and is also a unique and beautiful product. I love it!

I've now owned this phone for 10 days and am incredibly happy with it.

The first thing to discuss is the size; frankly, the 5.3" screen makes this a love-it-or-hate-it device. For some people it's too big and clumsy to use as a phone and too small to replace a tablet; for others (including me) it's the perfect compromise for someone who wants an all-in-one pocketable device which really lets you enjoy internet and video on the go. If you're even considering buying it, you're likely in the second camp, in which case I can tell you that the bulkiness is less of an issue than you'd think. It's easily pocketable; I wear normal not-particularly-baggy jeans and it's really fine. If you put it in the inside pocket of a jacket you'll even forget it's there.

Other than the size, pros include:
- Beautiful screen. Just wow. The colours are fantastic and the resolution terrific.
- Perfectly decent 8MP camera with 1080p recording (though certainly not top of market, and the lens is a little exposed to scratches)
- Good battery life by smartphone standards (2 days for me with moderate use)
- Fantastically snappy with a good basic UI layout - the taskbar has sensible shortcuts on it (you can turn on and off wifi, bluetooth, gps, silent mode and screen autorotation without delving into settings menus). The drag-down taskbar and good processing power mean you can, for example, recieve an email or text alert, open it up and see who it is from, and close it and return to what you were doing (e.g. listening to music) within two seconds flat without experiencing any lags or feeling like anything's been interrupted; it multitasks with style and ease.
- Touchscreen is nicely responsive; misclicks, even on small links on fully zoomed out webpages, are uncommon. Of course, the screen's size gives you a lot more leeway to zoom, and to type very accurately on the touchscreen keyboard, even if you're not particularly dexterous.

Cons:
- on/off and volume buttons opposite each other, meaning trying to press one can result in pressing the other too
- micro USB port is pretty tight (I have two chargers; one is a slight squeeze, and one I really have to use a lot of force to insert and remove it)
- Stylus a little hard to remove (which I quite like, since it makes it very hard to lose, but this will bother some people)
- The width of the phone does mean you worry a little more about dropping it; it has narrow, smooth edges and it's hard to get a comfortable, secure grip on it with one hand. At first, you'll find yourself holding it extra carefully, rather than just holding it intuitively.
- Let's be honest: apps and security. The Android marketplace leaves you more vulnerable to malware than Apple's app store, so you have to be a little more careful when downloading unknown apps. Plus, you'll have a slightly narrower range of quality apps to choose from. For me this is the one significant downside of owning an Android device vs an iPhone, but it's not nearly enough to overcome all the upsides.

I bought mine off Amazon.de (at a cost of about £460 all inc with 3-day shipping). In the box, there was a charger (micro-USB to USB cable, coupled with a USB-to-German-two-pin-plug adapter) so if you buy from abroad, remember to buy another charger or travel adapter unless you want to exclusively charge from USB. There was also a basic handsfree kit (set of in-ear noise blocking headphones with an inline mic) which is perfectly functional, but lacks good sound quality for music and doesn't do a great job of blocking ambient noise either, so I don't use it. There wasn't any sort of case, although I've seen reviews elsewhere suggesting that it does sometimes ship with a flip cover case.

I love this phone/mini tablet hybrid despite a few flaws. If you want an all-in-one powerful device which you can truly enjoy using for media consumption while on the go, and fit in your pocket, get it. The screen, UI and tech specs won't disappoint, and you'll find it more portable than expected. If you just want a phone which does everything else pretty damn competently, you might well be better off with one of the many <4" screen smartphones on the market.