Striking the right balance with mobile devices (Galaxy Note 8)

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013 Tom Truong, Product Manager

Remember when I had a hard time choosing which tablet to bring with me to MWC 2013? Well Samsung just made it even harder with their just announced Galaxy Note 8”. How is it different from the recent Galaxy Note II? I got a hands-on this morning at the Samsung booth and here are my initial impressions. While the original Note had a solid “oomph” and weight for a phone, the Note 8 seems to be a bit too light for a tablet–the plasticky feel is even more pronounced with the wider bezel design. Other phone makers are going for a ‘right to the edge’ screen, so the Galaxy Note 8 feels like a bit of a step backwards in design. What do you think?

On the other hand, the software and hardware on this device are definitely improved from the original Note–the S pen finally works the way a real pen should (no lag, no need to hold the pen at a special angle) and it feels natural to the jot down notes, diagram some ideas–all very slick. Still a bit awkward is how one is supposed to use the S Pen. There are about 8 or 9 apps to showcase the S Pen–I was able to jot notes, edit photos, annotate, and share. Some of the apps are more of a novelty, and my general sense is that it feels like it should just be a single notepad app that prioritizes basic functions and lets users discover more advanced capabilities intuitively and on their own.

So how did I fare with my device selection on the first day of MWC? I decided to bring a small, yet manly, hand bag which stored my iPad Mini, Galaxy Note, some biz cards, and a portable 4000 mAh battery. I pictured myself getting to a table somewhere to take notes and write another post.

WRONG.

Mobile World Congress is a behemoth of a conference with some local news stations estimating the crowd to be about 100K people. My iPhone was great at my hotel where I had iPass Wi-Fi roaming (wasn’t subjected to the free guest access that was limited to 256Kbps and 100MB transfer), but at MWC, I had to go to specific places to get on the conference supplied Wi-Fi. This meant taking my devices in and out a lot–so I pretty much left my tablet in my bag the whole day. Both smartphones were very useful for the intermittent connectivity, and I especially liked how my Android was able to smoothly transition between the prepaid sim I bought and the Skype/Talkatone app whenever I had Wi-Fi.

In retrospect, I would have kept things super light and just brought one smartphone for the first day. With decent iPass coverage in Barcelona and Wi-Fi at the event itself, I had enough connectivity to schedule meetings, send emails, and keep in touch throughout the day.

Tags: mobile device, wi-fi access