akk | New Hardware Squee - Samsung Galaxy Note

Normally, I use my tech devices until they cease to function or are so outdated that they fail to perform acceptably in the contemporary world (exception: computers, but then, they are always too old, too slow, too-- *g*), when I got my Samsung Wave smartphone in early Autumn 2010, I pretty much expected the standard procedure there.
The Wave did virtually everything of a whole bunch of devices I used to carry around - MP3 player, calendar, and so on... plus a lot of things handy when doing most of your creative work while commuting: HD video playback, scanlations & other images, etc. pp. And thus I didn't look at new smartphones coming out most of the time.
Last week, I got hit over the head with an information that made me instantly hurry to find confirmation (and hardware specs):

The Samsung Galaxy Note comes with a Wacom pen for drawing and writing (when screen keyboard is not sufficient), plus it has a screen size almost on the way towards a small tablet (5.3"), enough real estate for full websites and therefore ebooks! I couldn't stop myself and plundered my savings...
...the two things I always wished my Wave could do: writing & epubs? I had to try that!

Well, I did and here's the

new hardware squee - Galaxy Note:

1. The Note is large, almost 15 cm long and 8 cm wide and its as smooth and sleek as my Wave, but it turned out, my hold on the Note is a lot firmer and less cramped than that on my previous phones. I'm tall (over 1.80m) with hand lengths to go with it, and the additional cm truly make a difference. Fits like a glove, so to speak. When it comes to an easy grip, size does matter!

2. The pen interface is indeed suitably responsive for scribbling, doodling, and sketching (and the screen is big enough for that). Even better, the handwriting recognition is actually good and fast enough not write not in images (as I inspected), but in text files, which can be directly exported for further use. This will greatly reduce the "type into file" times in the evening! ♥
A lot of people seem to complain about the pen option, because it either doesn't work for them or they don't see the reason for it, but all I can say is: it's as fast as if you're writing on paper and if you have decent handwriting, you can write into text files! But I've been using Wacom pens and tablets since the time computer hardware came still in fashionably ugly beige, and its always been my preferred input method with the fastest (and best) results, so I might not be an unbiased source here. By the way, the interface is responsive enough to be used with your fingertip, if you abhor the pen, but finger writing is much bigger, making longer words a twisted thing. ;)

3. I thought a lot about how to read (and get) my beloved ebooks on the Note, since all reviewers always talked about the Kobo reader and shop being installed (and that's not a shop I use). Turned out, I need not have worried. The Note comes with an additional ebook app installed that supports epub, mobi, pdf, (DRMed or not), which can be imported from file (hello, Calibre!) or obtained from customizable(!) online shops (read: Smashwords on the phone! I tried it. It works like a song!!!).
In addition, the ebook app has multiple page backgrounds (white, pale yellow, soft green, grey, even a black one), customizable text size, full support for the pen to scribble comments, mark passages with color, etc. Nice touch: it's got a cute effect of a real page being turned (the sound to go with it can be turned off), but...
Smashwords on the phone! That's so SQUEEEEEEEE... *ahem*. No, really!

4. Music player, camera, video playback, serving as USB storage, etc. are as good as I found them on the Wave (described here).

5. For completeness: the only thing I'll be missing is the water themed animations throughout the Bada OS of the Wave. I know it's shallow, but I liked it when the icon seemed to fill with water while downloading and installing an update... The TouchWiz/Android interface is smooth and all, but it's just not so playful & shiny...
...though the moving background of norther lights makes up for parts of it. :-)

Anyway, I'll definitely NOT return to the Wave. The Note (180 g) will replace my Wave (175 g), my paper notepad & pen(~400 g), and my Sony ereader (371 g) which will firmly reside on my bedside table for home reading (eInk is easier on the eyes than backlit phone screens), but not travel any more). Thus it'll reduce my daily commuting weight by over 600 g (!!!), now consisting of only two devices (the Note and my business laptop). I'm so...

...SQUEEEEEEE!!!!