All in all, I like the Note, very much.
What I like best is its large display, something now I need for my presbiopsy (I was always keeping my N900 at few centimeters from my eyes

HW is excellent, dual core is quick, GPS is extremely quick, thin profile is good for carrying around. Unfortunately it hasn't stereo speakers, and speaker volume is not generous at all.

In comparison to other Androids I have tried, it's absolutely top-notch. The presence of the pen, which is quite precise, is good if you're inclined to jot at meetings (or for your grocery shop): both are things I do.

If you get one, update it to the latest firmware (LC1, or LC2 for far east countries). Previous versions are somewhat less snappy and battery consuming.

Then, the dark side: I must admit I needed some time to get accustomed to the Android way of doing things, i.e. to a less effective multitasking, to the lack of an unifying GNU framework for scripting, and to a somewhat less helpful community.

The last point deserves an explanation. Here on TMO, every hack and program is documented, sources are available, and even dummies like myself have been able to make some tweaks to system and programs, or code something simple and make a deb package.

On XDA, even if it's a huge and rich resource, programs and system hacks are often freely downloadable but rarely documented or discussed in public threads, and there is also quite a bit of competition between firmware hackers, with less co-operation and open development. This has given me less chances to learn something.

For instance, there's an Android program that basically is like Swappolube, it's called Ram Manager, and seems to do its work in balancing memory needs for gaming or multitasking. It's a paid-for application with a free lite version with less options, no-one knows what the hell it does because there's no documentation (even if I guess it applies some changes to /proc), and this leaves me sourly unsatisfied. Compare that to the huge threads discussing Swappolube or several other scripts, with Simon's explanations... TMO has been another world, a better world That's the reason I'm still here.