Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

I got an MHL adaptor today: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005R5DCVW.

Video out over HDMI (through my AV receiver) to my flat screen looks really nice, but the test video I played (a rip of Avatar with AC3 5.1 sound) is only detected as 2 channel PCM on the Denon, and even with my AMP boosting the input volume by 12dB, it's still quite low.

I just tested with the stock video player - are there other players in the Android market that allow 5.1 sound out over the HDMI, or is this a limitation either of the Galaxy Note's HDMI audio output, or of the cheapo (£8 MHL adaptor I bought?

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

I now have the Note and like it very much. Rav pretty much hits the nail on the head.
As I also have a N9, I thought I'd indicate some differences between the two (with occasional
reference to n900), but I should point out that I'm not interested in being a "fanboy" of any particular device.
In my view I want everyone to succeed so, as a consumer, I benefit from progress made on all fronts.
Regardless, these are intitial observations and conclusions can change as I learn how to use better them or
take advantage of software that is available.

Swipe on N9 is great for managing tasks. Very intuitive and hard to go back to old ways once
you use it for a couple of days. The multitasking is a little clumsy on Note compared to
N9. For example if you edit a document and press home button, the editing is suspended and
you are placed at the home screen. You can then try something else like use web or maps and then
return to home screen again. If you now hold the home button down for a second you are
taken to the task bar which lists the most recent processes you have not closed yet. You can then
select document editor and you are automatically returned to the point you left off. Not sure of the
maximum number of items you can put on task bar but I had 4 or 5 there one time or another.
Anyways the Note's multitasking is not as nice as n9 or N900 but doable.

Speaking of editors, the Polaris editor is very good at reproducing somewhat sophisticated documents
with, for example, scientific equations. The only thing really better is open office on n900.
but the problem with the n900, in my view, is that it needs a bigger screen and more ram to handle open office.
The editing with Polaris is adequate for many typical documents. As mentioned in a previous post
having Libre Office would be a awesome on Note. Hope it happens. For the total control freak, nothing
beats Latex (which works nicely on N900 thanks to easy debian). The N9s document editor wasn't as
capable as Polaris. Reproduction a documents with equations was poor. It is ok for minor text editing.
Hopefully a better editor is in the works for the N9.

On Note, maps is very good. You can pinch and rotate which is nice. One thing I though looked cool on the N9 is how the street names snake along the roads when you move the map image around. 3D renderings are also nice on n9.

Well these comments just scratch the surface as I've just got the Note and N9 but if there is anything you
want me to compare between Note and N9 let me know and I'll give it a try.

EDIT: Actually task management is much better than I originally thought. See post http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...&postcount=158

EDIT 2: In this comment I had previously indicated that the Nokia maps are about 5 years old based on not seeing a renovation I had done on my deck back then. Actually on closer inspection the renovated deck is probably in the image. It's hard to make out for sure as the image is a bit blurry. The Google satellite image was shaper and clearly shows the new deck. Up shot is that the Nokia maps are more recent. Probably summer 2010.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

One good thing concerning Openoffice is that Galaxy Note owners are offered a free subscription to Power Office, basically a login to a fedora desktop with Firefox, Openoffice, Chrome and other goodies.
If you want it, Go to S-Choice and install "PowerOffice Business and Creative Suite".

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

I should note that so far I'm very happy with my Note.

also, rooting and installing Ubuntu in chroot on a sdcard was nearly as easy as EasyDebian. You can chroot or ssh into it and or access X11 via VNC.
there is also a native X11 server implementation in development http://groups.google.com/group/androix-users

USB-host is built in - I just need to get a USB OTG cable.

I'm really looking forward to the upcoming ICS upgrade which will integrate the inductive (!) S-Pen much better into the whole system.

The note fits perfectly into my jeans (even slim fit ones). I can even use one-handely for simple tasks.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

Overall how is the build quality of note? I am waiting for its WHITE counterpart to arrive

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

Yesterday I used for the first time the Note as a otg device. What should I say? Perfect. No problem at all with flash sticks.

I also tried to connected a couple of terabyte-size hd's through a hub. This time didn't read them :-/ But I'll try again

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

One thing that bugs me in Android so far is the inability to find and mount Windows/Samba shares on a LAN.

There are third-party utilities on the Market that claim to do this, but all the free ones I've tried only let you browse through the files on a share and *download* them to the device, not *open* them directly from the share (like playing a video).

This is with 2.2 and 2.3 on a 7" Galaxy Tab. Are more recent versions of Android (Gingerbread, ICS) and/or other devices (like the Note) any better ?

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

I've taken a side-by-side photo of iPhone4/N9/SGS2/Galaxy Note.
Note is a monster of a phone...err...tablet thingy as you can see. =P

http://shootspeak.com/2011/11/24/qui...ne4n9sgs2note/

I've had a bit of play with it and I just love the darn thing.
- HUGE screen (awesome for video playback web browsing, anything....)
- Stylus (super accurate and very handy for drawing, navigating etc)
- Replaceable battery, MicroSD, best video playback capability etc etc.

Not so good for single handed Swyping though. =P

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

Is the sound quality as bad as the Galaxy S2?

This report was pretty scathing about the sound, saying it was below average for a high end smartphone, due to the use of a Yamaha MC-1N2 code, which is why I ask:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4686/s...t-redefined/13

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

can't comment re. SGS2 comparison 'cos I've never used that phone. The sound from the note on speaker is mediocre (similar in max volume to n900, possibly slightly louder but not much, and feels "piercing" rather than satisfying if turned up; mono speaker, positioned at back of phone which kills any volume/quality unless you flip the phone over). On the supplied headphones, I found the sound pretty poor too - lacking particularly in bass but generally dull & lifeless. However that was on the stock music player. I now have the cube player and fiddling with its 5 band EQ I've managed to get a reasonable sound out of the headset. Not brilliant, but on a par with N900's supplied earphones. I haven't tried it with a better quality headphone set, so again can't comment.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

See here for audio quality test:

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_gala...view-676p8.php

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

from that linked review:

"The Samsung Galaxy Note uses the standard TouchWiz music player, which is pretty good news as we cannot think of a feature that it lacks."

err, except for the ability to play an album's tracks in their original numerical order rather than alphabetically - or am I missing some obvious config option to enable that?! Seriously, I couldn't believe that in 2011 a stock media player didn't do that out of the box.

Can confirm though that piping the Note audio out (via HDMI in my case) to a decent AV Amp results in a slightly low input level but excellent quality reproduction.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

I have no network to test on, but you might try Total Commander from www.ghisler.com - install also the addons, one of which does Samba. This might perhaps work the way you described.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

so...

its time to say goodbye N900, welcome galaxy note.
my N900 goes to my wife, she will use it because its better an faster than her htc wildfire.

so she is happy, and i love my new NOTE.
forget the N900 - this device was very good, but for 3 years.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

Ernesto, thanks for mentioning this -- as it is still in beta, and not on the Market yet, I would not have seen it otherwise.

Total Commander is not only free on Android, it also has the cleanest and fastest UI I've seen of all the "alternate" file managers out there (which tend to be flashy and not very practical :-).

Installation of plugins from within the app, and without restarting, is also impressive.

Understandably, the "LAN access" plugin is still rough around the edges and not documented, a look at the support forum is required to make it work.

However, it works just the same as all the other such apps : it will let you browse a network share, but if you want to look at a file you have to download it first...

At least now I know why : in the forum threads the author mentions that all such apps use the same java library (called 'jcifs', from samba.org) for network share access.

Probably this is a limitation of the library, or at least its Android version...

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

in the interests of fairness I must admit that an OTA upgrade at the weekend to 2.3.6 fixed the stock player. Somewhat quicker than N900 which IIRC didn't fix replay order until PR1.2.

EDIT #1 - just realised that SGN stock player is still playing alphabetically if you play an album from the album view. However if you select an artist, then their album(s) are listed correctly in track order. Selecting the 1st track on an album in this view will then play all tracks in proper sequence. So, the issue is NOT fixed by the 2.3.6 upgrade, I just fooled myself into believing it was.

EDIT #2 - also I now remember that the N900 issue only affected .wma files, not .mp3's whereas the SGN is doing it on all types).

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

Thats it! Jumping into this one. Note is on order. Any words of advice once it gets here? Cases? Screen protector or no? Saw the 2.3.6 upgrade, gotta go port my N900 contacts into Google... *evil*

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

I'm using now a SGSII while I wait for my Galaxy Note, and I do not have any contact in google.

I sync them directly with my Mac using Bluetooth.

So, it's not necessary to have them on google.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

Makes sense but I had my primary list of contacts on my N900, never set it up on any machine. So with moving over to a new system I should just have folks setup somewhere.

Overall I have to agree with the reviews in this thread.... the Note is just awesome. I love how huge it is, being a big guy 6'2"/220lbs the phone just looks slightly large if I hold it to my head for a call, but overall using the Nokia BH-214 solves all that. Doing server admin work via RDP is SOOO much easier than it was on the N900, the screen real estate is just WIN.

Just need to find a holster for the phone, come summertime I won't be able to just toss it into an inner coat pocket. :)

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

Hi, what do you think about Samsung Galaxy SIII

Not sure this is true... :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pWwbCBjXHE

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

this phone is great. worthy upgrade from n900. loving the note right now!

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

Everything is particularly good except for CHEAP plastic body and below par mono speaker

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

It's definitely a fake.
(I read somewhere) The Galaxy S's will be under 4.5" and it makes sense to create the next editions with (relatively) same proportion of the previous model.
In that case, SGSIII won't be any larger than 4.5" (4.3" screen + 0.2" Navi-buttons) but the site lists as 4.6in.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

Kangal: why would that be proof? Where did you get the info that the SGS3 will stick to 4.3" screen+navigationbuttons?

I could totally see Samsung going "okay, here goes: 4.6 inch screen, biatches!"

As for the note... Ill wait for the next batches of phones to show up. Note is awesome, but not something Id sink cash into atm. Half a year ago; definitely.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

I got the Note too.
Will keep N900 anyway because still a great phone expecially for it's linux compatibility.

The Note is good for hardware but software looks to me worst in comparison to N900 mainly for two reasons:
- switching from an app to another takes too long and it's not practical
- browsing is not like destop, like was on N900. I already found some websites that doesn't work like used to be on N900; tried default browser,Opera and Firefox.

Still don't like Android but since I run my own sync service with Funambol Opensource and sideloaded apps I can forgive myself for holding a Google Os.

Still can't easily rsync or connect to nfs. I mean, it's possible I know but not as easy as I had on N900.

After all won't leave the bigger screen for a 3.5 again ... and 1Gb of Ram ... makes the difference.


Someone made work MTP with a Linux box?

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

The only thing that I like in Android over Maemo is
1) Android isn't dead just like Maemo and
2) Latest google maps that are very good for GPS. N900 still has 5 yr old map and I've seen searching is much better in Google map compared to OVI Maps.

Above all else Maemo is a much efficient OS compared to Android. It utilizes the resources in much better way. Its multi-tasking is much better than Android and WP7.5

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

Appswitching/multitasking is why I sold my SGS2 for the N9.

As for your browsing needs, get Dolphin HD. Its not like microB, because nothing beats that, but its the absolute best browser for your OS.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

So i'm using the note every day since two weeks.

i never missed my n900. Why ? big screen so its very easy to use the onscreen keyboard, with the app swiftkey X now im typing fast as on a n900... :)

and i dont want to speak about the other hardware specs :D

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

Do you want to speak about appswitching then?

;)

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

Appswitching is ok. Just longpress homebutton. Not as good as n9, but almost.

Try out the windows 7 launcher. Its better than real windows 7 :D just love the big screen, would have been better with maemo, but since nokia moving to smaller screens. They are no longer an option.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

Its nowhere near "almost" as good as N9, if its Android 2.3.X :P . I remember my SGS2... grrr...

But it works, and appswitching may not be that vital :) . Note is one hell of a device!

Personally Im starting to eye the lumia 900 a little :s ... i need help.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

After weeks of confusion in deciding between the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy Note (or maybe Milestone4)... I've come to a decision.

The Note is simply as good as or better than the Gnex in all aspects (except size-wise and browser = Note is fastest with ICS), its defnitely worth the upgrade.

Can anyone post here with the cheapest place (Australia/online) to buy a SGNote ??
Cheers

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

For me, specs away, the killer feature on the Note is his usb host port.

Just for that (and for the huge screen) will be my new device over Galaxy Prime or Motorola Razr.

The usb-host port make the device to go for a whole new dimension.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

I have the n9 and the GNote and to me I can switch almost as fast between apps. And browser always go to desktop pages with tabs. love it. Better battery, USB OTG, flash when you want, styus copy/paste, but its not "real" linux ;) It's android :(

the Gnote is so much better from my point of veiw. N9 is a let down for me.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

I can not agree with that, i had Note for a week and then i returned it. How can you even call that thing that Note does multitasking? It's a joke. Android still looks like it's not done yet, had 2 random black screens in one week and one reboot. If you consider that it has 1.4GHz dual core CPU the device should be faster. Not mentioning that if you don't regularly close the apps that [don't] run in the background, the battery wont even last through the day. Thank god that i was able to return it. Got myself a Nokia N9 instead and i must say i'm delighted.. A breeze of fresh air.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

You can not even closely switch as fast between apps. Do this: open call log, to browser windows, notepad, music player, new sms, and oooh... say... gallery.

Now switch fom call log to first browser window, hit refresh, then to notepad, check the website refreshed, to music player, check browser window 1 again, to new sms, then gallery, go back to call log, go into second browser window and back to new sms.

If I could do that as fast with the android 2.3 as i could with N9, I wouldnt be using the N9 :P . IIRC from SGS2, thats... just not doable. Longpress the homebutton, see your last 6 opened apps (in icons, mind), click one, then the longpress again, hope that the app youve got running in the background is on that list of six, pick it, etc.

I prefer swipe->select over longpress->hope->select. Thats me tho :( .

Note that Im not some antiandroid dude just causing havoc just to argue here, Im just saying it doesnt compare on appswitching and saying that it does is sort of misleading for those who are considering either alternative :) .

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

have to agree that task switching with the note is slower than with Maemo, but it's as nothing compared to task LOSING :-(

I have a habit of leaving a browser session open for a while (often posting a long ramble on a forum whie simultaneously doing other background stuff & dealing with calls, texts, emails etc.on the phone as I go). Several times now, Android has arbitrarily closed down my Opera session with my long rambling post still mid-composition, despite it being the only application running on my 1GB RAM phone. Seriously unimpressed by that.

It did the same yesterday when I'd left an s-memo open to scribble down some debug info as I went through an online diagnostic log. I was adding a line to my newly created memo every 10 or so minutes. I stopped for lunch and when I came back, the s-memo was gone. Can't believe Android will just close down edited, unsaved documents like that (without even prompting first) presumably just to save a few mAh's or Megs of ram on an otherwise idle phone, WTF??

I went from Maemo to Android expecting a dissapointment in multi-tasking, and I'm sure I'll eventually find out how to disable Android's default behaviour to make it leave open stuff running until battery low or whatever, but it does indeed suck.

However that is (presumably?) an android issue rather than specific to the Note, which I'm still really happy with overall. The form factor, viewing experience and general ease/convenience of use for me continue to outweigh it's limitations in the multi-tasking dept.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

I don't think the difference is as great as you make it. The Galaxy note allows you to go immediately to task manager when you press the task manager icon. So you don't have to do the longpress (which I never really liked). Maybe the Galaxy S2 doesn't have this feature? On the Note I opened up 11 processes (browser, polaris, music, calculator, calander, gallery, terminal emulator and so forth + additional three screens on the browser and I could easily move from one to another. Anyways, don't get me wrong, I like the N9 too and I agree that swipe is nice :)

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

LOL that was a lot of switching... You have a valid point, I would need an N9 next to me to see how much easier it is to appswitch, but as much as you said you prefer one method over the other, I'm totally cool with the long home press of the Note.

Also just amazed at how well things like the CNN videos play on here, and the overall speed. Coming from the N900 though, it's just a hardware upgrade. Again, no N9's here in stores to play with in the USA, so I'll have to compare it later....

...but from what I've read about the N9 on here, there are things you need to 'tweak' to get it to behave the way you want. Much like when I did a fresh reflash of my N900, oh yeah need to load all the IM protocols, oh and the media codecs, sudo gainroot, CRAP the 64char wifi password at work (need the app for that), etc, etc, etc...

So far for this Note, all I've done was SuperOneClick to root it which took 7min and 38seconds. Everything else is just working, so I'm happy.

Re: Samsung Galaxy Note
 

Hm where do you find that icon? My memory might be flawed :o .

I remember task manager being "long press home key -> press a button called task switcher" which gave a list of running apps (not processes)?

Yeah I agree, note is pretty ****ing sweet. Better yet with ICS :) .