Galaxy Note review: The 2011 original — the phone that invented the phablet and the S Pen.
The phone that created the phablet.
The original Galaxy Note was mocked for its size at launch, then defined an entire category and the S Pen. One of the most influential phones of its decade.
01Display
42/10042/100 is one of the weaker display results among flagship phones of 2011 — 21 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
02Camera
28/10028/100 is one of the weaker camera results among flagship phones of 2011 — 28 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
03Performance
12/10012/100 is one of the weaker performance results among flagship phones of 2011 — 39 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
04Battery
42/10042/100 is one of the weaker battery results among flagship phones of 2011 — 14 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
38/10038/100 is one of the weaker build results among flagship phones of 2011 — 21 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
06Value
26/10026/100 is one of the weaker value results among flagship phones of 2011 — 20 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
- Invented the phablet category and the S Pen.
- Huge 5.3-inch display — unheard of in 2011.
- Removable battery and microSD.
- Hugely influential design.
- Considered comically large at launch.
- Dual-core chip; 1 GB RAM; plastic build.
- Software ended at Android 4.1.
- Discontinued — a vintage device.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 70-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .