I have been a long time Windows Phone user. So, when it was time to buy my next smartphone, I happily headed over to Croma to review (and possibly buy) the Nolkia Lumia 900. There I also started browsing other smartphones including Sony Xperia, iPhone 4S, etc.
I always knew of Samsung Galaxy Note thru TV advt., but seeing and trying out this beauty was something else. I instantly loved the big bright Super AMOLED screen and stylus. I have used stylus extensively in the WinPhone 6.5 era and missed it in WinPhone 7.
My comfort and affinity to using stylus for note taking and other actions naturally made the Note a good choice; this pro may not apply if you are not used to the stylus. The form factor itself is interesting; slim, easy to hold and use. Admitedly, it is awkwardly pocket able in a shirt pocket but serves the purpose when both hands are busy and you don’t want to place it somewhere where you will forget. Battery life could be better and just gets me thru the day.
A lot of decision making is about the OS and APPS. I leanded to the vast and mature and open Android OS and Apps (Google Playstore). WinPhone market place is getting there and iOS0-Apple Appstore is good if rest of your ecosystem is Apple - Mac and iPad.
Samsung does bundle in several good apps for the Note like S-Note for note taking, S-Calendar and Photo Editor. Also, there is the much touted screen capture-crop-edit-share feature which actually works exactly as advertised. Hardware is very good for current and near future apps (~2 years).
So, I got the Samsung Galaxy Note in White.
Important Point: I skipped the Note 2 though it was available (not in white). Reasons: Extra Rs.8, 000 did not justify the 1.6GHz Quad processor. Very few apps that you will use are really going to need this extra horse power; and I am a tech power user. Some may consider future proofing themselves. Also, storage of 16GB on phone + 32GB SDCard + 25GB SkyDrive is enough (for me).