[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] vprabu:
I consider myself a heavy user of all iDevices (iPod, iPhone, iPad, Macs, Apple TV), Blackberry phones and I could not resist myself the moment I saw the Galaxy Note. I ended up owning one and I really fell in love with that device the moment I held it my hands.

My experience with Note is just 1 week old and I wonder if there are any features that I am already / will be missing from iPhone/iPad world going forward. This is not a review and it is just my observation, opinion of what I feel :-)

Here you go!

Hardware:

The galaxy note IMO is far more superior in the hardware specification than the iPhone 4s right the processor speed, performance, resolution, screen technology, feel.

OS:

Is it better than iOS? Well, can't say! iOS always had a clean interface. No cribs on Android either. Highly customizable, looks great and ICS looks promising (can't wait for it though) :-)

Too many options are good :-)

Battery

Note's battery lasts for nearly 16 hrs on moderate use and is definitely better than iPhone.

Display

One word! Gorgeous! Black is truly black and I believer that there are just too many posts complaining about patchy surface beneath the screen. I guess that is by design and I am not worried. The performance is flawless! Show stealer and all my friends who saw the demo could not close their mouth ;-)

Gestures:

I am not missing anything here! Supports all the gestures!

Apps:

I almost find all the apps in the Android market place that I used to use daily on my iPhone / iPad except a few (Love ArtRage on my iPad). I am sure the developers must be working on it. Only crib is that I need to buy them again. I wish there is a platform independent licensing mechanism.

iCloud

Yes, I am missing the iCloud backup / Restore across all my devices. But, at the end of the day I own only 1 Android phone and I believe the backup is happening here on either Google/Samsung. Experts?

Airplay

Yes, I miss it and I am not quite happy with AllShare (DLNA) as the videos don't play. This only plays Audio, Photos on DLNA certified systems and not what I watch on youtube etc.

In Apple world, the AirPlay is just awesome and helped us watch things directly on the TV using Apple TV.

PC Indepent

Truly it is. Till date iOS always depended on a machine and this dependency is removed only with iOS5. In the past one week, I have not connect my Note to any of my machines even once and fully operational within minutes of the purchase!

Audio / Call quality

Not missing anything here. Had too many confusions after reading user reviews and finally i wanted to give it a try and compromise even if the SQ is not that great. I am glad that I did it.

To my ears, the sound is equally good between iPhone and Note. But I found that the music quality is much better with the stock player than using 3rd party EQ/Amps. Somehow, the PowerAmp kills the quality. Not using it any more.

Missing iTunes? I don't think so. I copy my songs the microSD and job is done. Genius playlists? Never use them. No cribs!

iTunes Music Match? Wont work in my country!! :-)

Oh, Did I say the FM quality is good?

Similarly no complaints on call quality either. crystal clear and I am using all default settings while placing the call. I am not disabling noise canceling as some users do.

Car friendliness:

Well, not too much happy as holding it on one hand is an issue while driving. Connects seamlessly with my Parrot BT hooked up to my Alpine and hence no major issues!

However, iPhone is equally bad and not superior. '

I guess it is more to do with lock screens and touch screens as I am more used to using my Blackberry Bold for business purposes to engage in conference calls (Dial a bridge and key in a 6-10 digit PIN code). Just imagine typing the PIN using one hand in Note. Really a struggle and it is too dangerous! On BB, I can feel the keys and type, while I watch the road.

Voice Recognition

Frankly I am not a big fan of this and hence not considering Siri too here. I don't think we can mimic US accent, how much ever we try and hence giving up on that!

Tamil eBooks

My tamil collection worked nicely on iBooks and on Note, I had to struggle a bit for Android. Finally I ended up Moon Reader and Cool Reader for tamil language support. I like Moon+Reader better than the Aldiko!

Timer control to make the phone sleep is missing in Note.

Mails / Messages

Both seamlessly connect to Exchange 2010 and IMO, Android uses advanced features (integrating the SMS) with Exchange better than iOS.

iPod Docking

In my car I am used to connecting my iPhone using the provided dock and connect to Parrot BT using bluetooth.

I know my Alpine suppers hard disks, USB disks etc. Need to buy the accessory to mount my phone so that I can play the songs! Will update once i get it!

Some of the above are just OS related and really not device related though!!

My 2 cents!