Some of the biggest talk of the two trade shows this year, CES and MWC, has been about Samsung's controversial device. Finally making its way to AT&T, the Galaxy note made its long-awaited splash in the States and keeps on splashing. Unlike most devices that quickly lose their hype in the fast paced market, the Galaxy Note keeps on keepin' on, and people continue to talk about it like it was released just yesterday.
Samsung is putting a marketing effort to be reckoned with behind the Note. They paid a cool $10 million to advertise the Note during the Super Bowl with the longest ad during the entire event. Featuring The Darkness and highlighting their stylus, dubbed the S Pen, some felt the ad was in bad taste. Hit or miss, irrelevant or not, it has people talking.
Just the other day, I was talking to a friend of mine about how I'm dying to get a Note. Every one of Aaron's 30-day challenge videos that I see, I grow more and more envious. And every time, I become less interested in my Nexus – as hard and sad as that is to say. But my friend looked at me like I was losing my mind. Like most people do when I get a little teary-eyed over the Note, she called me crazy. And as she held one of Best Buy's display models in her hand, she said, "Why would you want that thing? It's huge!"
To that, my answer is always, "That's the point."
After we had gone our separate ways, I was kicked back watching an episode of Burn Notice on Netflix later that evening when I received a text message from her that read, "Just saw a commercial for the Note. No wonder you want it, it looks awesome!"
I'm not the only one who's getting green with envy, however. A handful of Verizon customers are upset that there has been no official word on a Verizon-bound Note yet and have started a petition. We've heard sparse and questionable rumors on a Galaxy Journal, which I was hoping to hear more about from Barcelona. No cigar. Instead, the AT&T exclusivity was rubbed in our longing faces as Samsung announced that they have already sold two million Galaxy Notes worldwide and hope to reach 10 million by the end of the year.
Even Aaron had a first-hand run-in with the Note's odd ability to get people talking while on his trip to Spain. In his most recent 30-day challenge update, he tells of two separate airport security checks that stop him to check out and drool over his abnormally large phone.
Why? Other than size and the stylus, what is so special about the Note? I thought those things are what people hated about it.
Earlier this morning, both Jordan Crook and John Biggs of TechCrunch gave the Note "Die" status in their Fly Or Die series because it's unwieldy (read: doesn't fit in Jordan's pants pockets) and the stylus is a gimmick. Yet everyone seems to be talking about it and is still interested in it. Aaron, who at first hated it, is slowly falling in love with it and might have a hard time getting rid of it once the challenge is over.
But what is more confusing to me is how people who wouldn't normally be interested in it – like my friend, for instance, who found the DROID X to be a bit too big – find it to be awesome. The television ads don't do the size of the Note any justice – making it little different from most other Android phones. Then there's the S Pen, which most people who see it in passing don't even know what it's actually capable of.
For me, it's all about that display size. I do an insane amount of Web browsing from mobile. While I have my Transformer Prime and I use it all the time, I don't always have Wi-Fi wherever I go and lugging around a 10-inch device isn't always convenient. The Note is a pocket-sized tablet. While that sounds entirely ludicrous, I like the idea. No. I love the idea.
I also love the flip cover (pictured above). As simple of an idea as it is, I wish they had an option like this for other phones – a leather cover for the face of the device that is built-in to the battery door.
Possibly the most important factor is how resistant to the typical obsolescence this thing has proven to be thus far. There are far less 5-inch and larger phones coming to market than there are 4.7-inches and below. If you get used to a larger display, it would be hard jumping back down to a measly 4.3-incher. Maybe that's why I want it so bad, so I can quit worrying about having a new phone every couple months.
Then again, I've tried that a million times now to no avail. Something always comes out and I lose interest on whatever I currently own.
Tell me, readers. Are you interested in the Note still? Do you want it to come to Verizon? What's doing it for you? The S Pen? The sheer size? Or is it, like me, about finally having a device that you might want to keep for more than a couple months?
