My New Phone

On Friday, I was able to pick up the newly released Samsung Galaxy Note.  At the same time, I switched carriers from Telus to Rogers since they provide the corporate plan for my workplace.  What drew me to the new plan was the fact that the regular plan is only $18 and for another $30, I was able to get a 6GB data plan.  With my old plan from Telus, I was paying $100 a month.
On to the phone itself.  As many are aware, this is the biggest hand phone on the market today, thanks to the 5.3" Super AMOLED HD screen that runs at 1280x800 resolution.  This phone is massive and one cannot properly operate it with just one hand.  But thanks to the larger screen, I find that typing is not as difficult as I am not pressing the wrong keys as often as I used to.  The above picture gives a good idea as to the size of the phone compared to my old Galaxy S and the iPod Touch.

Coming from an Android phone, the jump was not too surprising for me as my old phone was already loaded with Gingerbread.  I was already familiar with Samsung's TouchWiz skin and going to the new phone was quite smooth and painless.  I did notice a few small differences though such as the browser, certain icons, and scaleable widgets.  The biggest difference I noticed is the speed at which the phone operate.  A dual core 1.5GHz processor certainly helps.

I have not played with too many apps as I just downloaded certain apps that I already had from my old phone.  Among them are the TD Bank app, PowerAMP music player, Kindle app, Google Translate, and some of the paid games like Tetris and Game Developer Story.

Media playback have certainly been a joy as whatever I threw at the phone would run smoothly.  I inserted a 32GB MicroSD with all my music and my media transfer was complete.  I will certainly use this to watch more movies during my travels to and from work now.  The massive screen is so nice to look at that I may as well show it off.

My only downside is despite the larger battery, the new phone is still an energy hog.  It is understandable as a dual core processor and a giant screen will tend to consume more power.  I will have to be careful and make sure that I don't deplete the power before I get home from work.

Overall, despite my short period with this phone, I am loving it and I can't wait to show it off.