I have it, and it is ****ing awesome.

5.3" high def screen that makes everyone @@ and oo and ahh.
This includes iphone users and galaxy S 2 users. Yeah, it's pentile, but at high res it looks fantastic. A big screen just makes everything better. Reading books, games, facebook, pics, movies, texting, keyboard, etc etc.
Having a keyboard onscreen which has both letters/numbers readily available is wonderful.

It has been as comfortable and as pocketable as my mytouch 4g.
I wear jeans most of the time, and it's in my front pocket 24x7 for the most part. It is getting close to the limit of pocketability, and I'm a bit wary about what case I want to put on it.

It's deceptively light. When I had it to people, one of the first things they usually do is go 'huh?!?' and pull out their phone, and then declare that the note is lighter than their phone. It's (usually) not - it's 178 grams. But it's close.


GPS lock is really fast. It has a barometer to detect altitude which helps things and it uses both the normal GPS satellites AND the russian Glonass GPS satellites. My mytouch 4g gets a lock on 8 satellites. The note gets.... 17. Wow.

It's very snappy - I have a ton of apps, and it boots up in about 40 seconds fully loaded (my mytouch 4g takes 4 minutes ugh). Wifi takes 6 seconds from 'turn on' to ip address.

I haven't really used the stylus much, to be honest. Once ICS comes out, and I start running tablet apps, I see it being quite handy.

I'm not getting the ridiculous battery times others are claiming (engadget said they had 9 hours of movie time - I get 5 hours of screen time with pretty conservative screen settings). But compared to my old phone, which got about 3 hours of screen time I'm quite happy with it. 2500 mah battery doesn't hurt.


The only real complaints I have are:
1) The phone is small because the bezel is quite small. But it's, imho, too small, and when I try to use it one handed I often accidentally rub against the back/menu capacitive buttons. That's very annoying.
2) It's really a tablet, though, and it's meant for two handed operation. One handed is awkward and you're just likely to drop the phone. I might change my stance a bit after some practice using it.
3) No LED light. I can use noled but geesh.
4) I'm on t-mobile so I only have 2g speeds. Might have to break contract and go to AT&T.

- Frank

 

Was contemplating that phone/tablet as well. Really miss having a stylus. Reminds me of my P800 and HTC Wizard but this is everything I wanted that phone to do back in the day. Where did you get it from? Cyanogenmod builds are already up for it:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...4#post19056824

 

Ordered it from the UK.
I rooted it already, but I'm not going to go crazy with roms yet.

- Frank

 

Oh okay, that's what I figured. Its a little more than I'm willing to spend at the moment to import. The screen should be very similar to the Galaxy Nexus since the resolution is almost exactly the same just the the screen is silghtly bigger than the Nexus. I wonder if future Cyanogenmod builds will incorporate the stylus. I'm guessing once Samsung open sources the S-Pen like they said they would, all CM phones will be able to use it.

 

Sounds good, my dad wants this phone...

If you get custom ROMs/kernel, I'm not sure if it has it yet but when BLN comes out for your phone, it will solve your no LED dilemma. It basically lights up your capacitive buttons. I have it for the NS works great.

 

Is it really difficult to hold in one hand and talk on the phone? That would be a deal breaker for me. I would love to see more phones get a stylus especially if they implement it the way samsung is doing.

 

It's absolutely fine. Perhaps if you have really small hands, you might want to make a mockup out of cardboard and try.

- Frank

 

Once I go back, I'm thinking of selling my iphone4s and get Note 2 when it launches for Verizon in LTE version.

How much do you think it will cost without a contract?

I'm in Korea and this thing looks pretty amazing!

 

Soon after I decided to keep my iPhone5 and bought an otterbox case and Applecare for it, I saw and dummy Galaxy Note 2 and I thought, "OH MAN, I SHOULD HAVE RETURNED MY DAMN PHONE."

My biggest gripe with the iPhone5 was that it still felt small to me (even though reviewers said that it wouldn't). That ridiculously huge Note 2 would have been perfect for me...to be honest, I don't even put the phone up against my ear anymore...it's all bluetooth, so it wouldn't look THAT ridiculous...

eh...maybe I'll sell my phone this Xmas

 

US cellular implied $800 off contract. I got mine for ~ $750 from handtec.
There's a US galaxy note event on october 24th, se we might know more then.

- Frank

 

Just got a GS3 last month. I'll be dammed if I don't get the Note 2. I played with an international version, I'm excited.

 

^ Same. I bought my GS3 off contract, but I'm due for an upgrade in Jan 2013... hopefully the Note 2 will be here by then and I can use the upgrade.

 

preordered my note 2 from verizon..

meanwhile, i should shop for some decent case while i'm still in Korea lol