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Hi Guys. I'm carrying on from my previous video, part
three. If you haven't watched that video,
Make sure you do, the link is here, In the last video I covered the screen, user
interface, keyboard, media experience, and GPS.
In this video I'm going to talk about the s-pen, s-memo, camera, and battery life.
So, to begin with, the s-pen. Now the Note's actually unique in the smartphone
world, because it uses two input technologies together
on it's screen. It's got the normal capacitive input, which
recognises your finger touch, as well as Wacom digitiser technology which
uses an inductive input, And needs the s-pen to activate it.
The inductive sensor technology is the same one you used to get in some of the Tablet
PCs.
The difference between the two is, Inductive sensors use a magnetic field to
detect a stylus, And capacitive sensors use an electric field.
To sort of briefly explain it... The s-pen picks up electromagnetic energy
from the inductive sensor in the Note's screen, it passes this energy through a circuit inside
the pen, and then reflects it back to the sensor,
and that's how the pen's position on the screen is worked out.
The s-pen won't work on any of the other touchscreen devices,
It's tip is too small for capacitive sensing, and it's specific to the technology inside
the Note.
Now, capacitive sensing is what's there on all other touchscreen devices.
So, in this case, the sensor has an electric field,
and it reacts to conductive objects, like fingers,
or a conductive stylus with a tip large enough to lower the capacitance of the area of the
screen it's touching.
It's all very technical, but that's how I've understood it so far.
Practically, how it works in the Note is that, When you're using the s-pen, the capacitive
function is switched off. So you can't use the s-pen to activate the
capacitive menu or back buttons. And if the s-pen is touching the Note's screen,
you won't be able to activate the capacitive buttons with your finger.
Even if the s-pen is within 5mm of the screen, and not touching it,
the capacitive buttons still won't work. So next time you're using the s-pen and your
menu key won't work, Don't worry, your Note hasn't frozen,
just move the s-pen away from the screen.
You can also use an ordinary capacitive stylus on the Note,
Like the Wacom Bamboo Stylus. It'll work just like your finger,
and you'll be able to activate the capacitive menu and back buttons with it.
Also, if this stylus is touching your screen, the capacitive buttons will still work if
you press them with your finger.
I know the s-pen, or any type of stylus, won't appeal to some people in this age of
touch screens, but, I quite like it.
And I think Samsung have done a good job with it's design.
It's thin and light, but still useable. It fits quite firmly into it's housing in
the back of the phone,. I'm never worried that it's going to fall
out.
I tend to use it for writing quick, short notes, and taking screenshots.
And I think that's what most people would use it for,
if they use the s-pen at all.
By the way, you can take screenshots by pressing the button
on the s-pen and then long tapping the screen. You'll then get an option to edit the picture,
before you save, share, or delete it. I've actually compiled a bunch of tips and
tricks for the Note, and this is one of them.
I'll be uploading this and the other tips and tricks as a separate video soon,
so stay tuned for that.
The s-pen's also handy when you're playing games like Crayon Physics,
But my main use for it has been with s-memo.
So, in s-memo you've got the option of writing notes or typing them.
I've found that it's quicker to just use the s-pen when I want to jot down something.
But writing with the s-pen isn't like writing with pen on paper.
The glass screen doesn't give enough friction, so you have less control.
You're never going to get perfect handwriting from it.
Also, it's not exact. There were the occasional moments when I'd
use the s-pen but nothing would show up on screen.
I did try out the s-memo and s-pen to see how drawing with it felt.
The Note uses Wacom technology, and I'm quite familiar with that, since I've
used Wacom tablets for many years. Compared to other Wacom tablets, the Note's
functions are pretty basic. There is a small amount of pressure sensitivity,
where if you press hard with the s-pen you get a thick line,
And pressing softly gives you a thin line, And I liked the different drawing options
included in the s-memo, you can choose different colours, line widths,
and pen, paintbrush, pencil, or marker pen to draw with.
It's a lot of fun, if you like doodling. And there's lots of art applications on Google
Play to try out, like sketchbook pro, and zen brush,
if you're into art in any way.
Apparently, The Note's coming upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich,
will also bring some new s-pen related apps. It looks like s-memo will be getting an upgrade,
And then there will be the new "S-Note" and "My Story" apps as well.
It sounds really interesting, But even with these new apps,
I get the feeling that Note users will remain split into two camps,
Those who use the s-pen, And those who don't, at all.
Now I'll get to the camera. It's an 8 mega pixels camera with autofocus
and LED flash. I found the picture quality was quite good
when taken in normal light. You get a lot of options in the software like,
focus mode and exposure. But most of the pictures I took were on the
auto settings, and they came out fine.
My only issue with some of the pictures is over-saturation of the colours.
The camera records 720p and 1080p video. You can see some of the videos I took in 1080p.
I've kept the audio, so you can judge the quality for yourself.
Then there's the 2 mega pixels front facing camera.
The videos you get aren't as detailed as the rear camera,
but their good enough quality for video chat.
One thing I want to mention, is while I was recording or taking photos
with the Note, i found it quite awkward to hold.
Because of it's size, and the slippery sides, I couldn't really get a steady grip on it.
But I think that problem could be solved by getting a case.
Next thing is battery. I've got some usage figures based on different
activities. Now, all these tests were done with only wi-fi
switched on, and 50 percent brightness. I found that a one hour 1080p HD movie drained
battery by 17 percent. Half an hour browsing the web drained the
battery by nine percent. Ten minutes of gameplay drained the battery
by six percent. And a ten minute call drained the battery
by just one percent.
In my daily use, which usually involves a bit of everything,
like calls, email, browsing, so on I find that the battery easily lasts from
around seven in the morning to eleven at night, getting down to around 20 percent by then.
I charge it every night, so I've never needed to carry a spare battery around.
I'm quite happy with the battery life on the Note.
But for really heavy users, You can buy larger batteries,
The only drawback is you'll end up with a thicker and heavier phone.
So, overall, I'm happy with the Note's performance. I still haven't had anybody stop me in the
street for carrying such a large phone, And actually I've found that since using the
Note, I've been a bit more productive. It's a Jack of all trades phone that lets
me do different tasks on one device. I found the s-pen was handy, but I wasn't
using it as much as I thought I would. But really the one thing that kept bringing
me back to the Note was that big screen.
Still, It hasn't shrunk any since I first held it.
I do have to carry it around in a bag, and I can't use it one-handed.
A lot of people would consider the Note to be more of a niche product.
It's a tablet masquerading as a phone. And now that the latest phones have 4.7 inch
screens, I don't think the Note will be your first
choice if you're just looking for a smartphone. But, if you're someone who wants a large screen
phone, and doesn't want to buy a separate tablet,
Then the Note's probably the perfect choice for you.
Well I hope this video was useful. And I'll see you in the next one.
Bye.