I have had my Note for a few hours no - probably downloaded more apps than on my Archos 80 G9 ICS tablet and my old HTC Desire (which my daughter has claimed) combined - everything is really fast.

I think Touch-Wiz is not bad, even though I'm used to HTC Sense. I'm not noticing any lag or poor animation of graphical actions that others have commented on. The screen is every bit as good as I hoped and the sound quality is better than my Desire which has be said is a little tinny. I have had a brief play with the S-Pen; I read it is actually Wacom technology, which explains why it's pressure-sensitive, so that's excellent news.

I do miss the auto text reflow feature in the HTC browser - double tapping just zooms out the display. Is it possible with the stock browser?

Still learning, but overall impressions are excellent so far!

Ian

 

I'm a long time Swype user on the Desire so simply enabled that (it's pre-installed) and I was at home instantly

Ian

 

I am testing some smartphones for my photography website (DPNow.com) at the moment and it's interesting to compare the design and build of each phone. The Nokia Lumia 800 with its single piece polycarbonate shell and moulded gorilla glass screen looks almost indestructable (which is trait that I seem a lot in Nokia phones), but it's quite 'dense' so it feels heavy. The iPhone 4 is small and angular, with sharp-ish ridges. It feels very solid but all that glass on both sides of the body makes me nervous about it getting smashed. The screen is also rather small and it feels heavy too. I have a Sony-Ericsson Xperia Arc S too - very light, very high quality scratch-resistant finish, the largest of the phones I'm evaluating, big screen, but it's let down by a creaking body and I'm always getting confused which way up it should be

I know the Note is not in the same category as these smartphones, but I think it is relatively fragile and the huge screen looks vulnerable. It's remarkably light and nothing creaks and the metallic-skinned sides improve the feeling of confidence about the construction, but I think the Note demands a protective case whereas the Xperia Arc S or the Nokia Lumia 800 I would not worry that much.

Ian

 

Thanks, but on my old HTC Desire the browser would reflow the text immediately after any rate of zoomed view so that the text was never off the sides

Ian