Too big to be a wieldy smartphone, too small to be a generously sized tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Note hasn't received a warm critical reception.
Wired's review ended with a 4 out of 10 verdict; we hated that the device requires two hands to operate. Gizmodo gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars, and felt the Note's stylus implementation misses the mark. The Verge generally liked the Note, giving it a 7.9 out of 10 score, but still opined that the phone "fails to make a compelling case to replace any, let alone all, of its targeted handheld devices."
Analysts have also been Galaxy Note skeptics. Forrester's Sarah Rotman Epps told Wired via email, "The Note is a solution in search of a problem." Gartner's Hugues de la Vergne said, "Most would prefer a smaller display and that sweet spot will eventually be somewhere in the 4.3- to 4.7-inch range."
In short, critics and analysts have not been kind to the Galaxy Note -- making recent news of strong Samsung sales figures all the more curious. Forbes recently reported that two million Galaxy Notes have been sold since the device went on sale in Europe some three months ago, and Samsung is on pace to sell 10 million more before the year's end. That's a fairly remarkable degree of success considering the Note's niche positioning.
So why is a handset that’s being critically panned selling so well? Apparently, a significant number of people want phone and tablet functionality in the same device, even if the resulting design is full of compromises.
"One of the surprising pieces of feedback we got when we launched the Galaxy Tab 7-inch was how many people asked us for voice support," Samsung Vice President of Product Planning Nick DiCarlo told Wired in an interview. So for some, the Note is a device that offers the benefits of a tablet -- such as a larger screen and the option for stylus input -- as well as call-making capabilities.
The people who want this type of device may not number in the hundreds of millions, but they do exist and it appears they've found a happy medium in the Note. And because the Note is so niche in form and mission, sales of other Samsung smartphones (like the Galaxy S II) haven't been affected.
On Twitter, a Galaxy Note user named Darragh Gamble tweeted that he runs his life on the Note, which he's had since before Christmas. "Great for browser, and e-books are easy to read. Don't use my Xoom or netbook any more," he said.
DiCarlo said Samsung designed the Galaxy Note with three types of people in mind: spec fanatics, people who carry handbags and tote bags (like women and artist types), and road warriors in the enterprise market ("This is a businessman's phone," DiCarlo said).
Brazil-based hardware and software engineer Rildo Pragana falls into all three of those categories. "The Galaxy Note is perfect to put in any pocket," Pragana wrote in an email (the larger 7-inch Galaxy Tab, he notes, is too large for this). But in addition to traditional smartphone and tablet uses like reading e-books and writing emails, Pragana uses his Note for sketching, and to prepare PowerPoint slides when he speaks at conferences. He was drawn to the Note because of its dual core 1.4GHz processor and stylus support.
Although some complain about the Note's gargantuan size and two-handed requirements, DiCarlo thinks the phone is merely ahead of the curve of an evolving public opinion concerning smartphone screen sizing.
"The one-handed measure is the original smartphone definition. In a certain regard, I feel that as a design paradigm it's a little outdated," DiCarlo said. "We truly believe the Note is a new category of device."
So far, it looks like a surprising number of consumers would tend to agree.
