The Evolution of the Samsung Galaxy Note

Innovation and creativity go hand in hand and Samsung’s Note series is the true definition of both. Blending large screens with high-end specs, Samsung released its first Note with the iconic S Pen back in 2011. Giving birth to a new generation of smartphones, phablets, Samsung created a benchmark for what phones are supposed to be. Continuing with its journey, Samsung’s Note II made the S Pen shine. Improved calibration with the S Pen along with a better TouchWiz UI, Samsung hit the S Pen’s functionality with a basic phone functions right-on point. However, the later generation models in the Galaxy Note series saw better improvements; the real work began back in 2012.

Samsung has had many smartphone lineups over the years but their Note and S-series lineups are the most iconic. Given the recent launch of the Note 9, the team at Hometop created an infographic that looks at the evolution of the Note series of phones, from the original Note to the upcoming Note 9.

Over the years, Samsung has kept the Note pot boiling by adding newer functions, such as the Air View and gestures to control the phone, Samsung gave the world a taste of what phones should be like. Although the S Pen is the most notable feature of the Note series, the high-end specifications are no less.

With bigger screens, Samsung incorporated better storage and RAM. With its humble beginnings in the original Note which housed a RAM of 1 GB and storage options of 16/32 GB which was extendable to 62 GB via microSD cards, the Note series has come a along way. The latest model, Note 9, houses either a 6 GB RAM with storage of 64 GB or 8 GB RAM with storage of 512 GB.

Apart from this, the cameras have seen a huge upgrade as well. From the original Note’s rear camera of only 8 MP, the latest Note 9 houses 12 MP dual rear shooters. Furthermore, the company has made notable changes to the internal functioning of the cameras and has added new features to the latest model such as dual OIS, iris scanning and AR emojis. There’s also flaw detection feature to help remove photo blurrines and other human errors. The new note 9 isn’t lacking when it comes to audio department as well. It comes with AKG- tuned speaker and Dolby atmos-enhanced audio. Also, included is the AKG headphone for the 3.5mm headphone jack.

As the Note series continued to grow, Samsung made many changes to the looks. Following the design of its S series models, the Note series resemble their S series counterparts. The basic design change came with the release of Note 7. Although the best-designed Note is undisputedly the latest model, Note 9, the changes in the basic design could be seen in the Note 7.

Samsung let go of the bulky nature of its Notes and began to develop sleeker models, which were better to hold. The sleeker Notes not only look modern but also offer a better grip of the phone, which makes the use of S Pen even better. Other than this, the always-on display works well with the Super AMOLED screens.

The first Note to come with an always-on display was Note 7 and can be found in Note 8 as well. This special screen feature was incorporated to make the Notes much easier to work with. The Note 8’s always-on display is on-point and features a 100-page note-taking capacity. Allowing you to take down notes easily without even unlocking your phone, Samsung has made the Notes even better than before. Pinning reminders, editing pictures and other high-end features such as translating various words in different languages come easy with these Galaxy phones.

With Note 9’s recent launch, the Note fans simply cannot keep calm. If you’re a Note fan then check out this infographic that highlights the journey from very first Note to the Note 9.

Tom Parillo

I am interested in all things technology, especially automation, robotics and tech that helps change how society will live in the future.