OK, so long story short... I am considering upgrading my HTC HD2 to a Samsung Galaxy Note, once I have confirmed that it will be upgraded to Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

Anyone got any opinions on this?

Here are a couple of links which may help

Official Micro Site Link

Tech Radar Review Link

Discuss!

It looks good, were it not for the Galaxy Nexus I'd get one.

It is too big for a mobile, and too small for a tablet... What exactly is it trying to be?

I'm not sure Dave, but having thought about it for a few days I'm still tempted.

I'd have one. When I got my phone I was weighing up a 'dumb' phone + tablet but it didn't make sense carrying two devices. Because of that I bought the biggest HTC I could (4.3") to take care of games, browsing, Kindle and phone duties. If this had been out then I'd have gotten it!

I think it really is at the size limit though of what I'm prepared to use as a phone.

That is a very big phone. Do you have a large enough pocket / shoulder holster?

Went into Phones4U yesterday, to see what sort of deal I could get, (a free upgrade for my HTC HD2 contract would be nice) but apparently they haven't got them in yet.

Everyone else has...

And so, the waiting game begineth.

Can the pen be used as a stylus too (as in use the pen instead of your finger for "clicking" through)?
Samsung has announced 10.1 Galaxy Note tablet with a pen...

I can see nothing that might go wrong with this.

Jon

So, I got the Note on Wednesday and so far it seems to be really really good. I'll give more details when I get some time.

I used to say the same thing about the iPad. Too small (and keyboardless) for a laptop and too big for a mobile. But that didn't stop it selling by the bucket load.

That's partly because when the iPad launched, there wasn't really anything like it on the market already. It had a chance to carve out it's own section of the market.

That's much harder to do once there's already someone in the market though, and even more so if the person already there is you. Just because Product A is slightly bigger (or smaller) than product B doesn't mean it will find it's own niche. At some point, the distinctions become effectively moot for the large majority of buyers and then you're just competing with yourself. Are there that many people who want a 5.3" screen Android phone rather than a 4.3" screen Android phone? Really? And are there that many who want a 5" Android tab rather than a 7" Android tab?

This is, IMO, why Apple haven't done a 7" iPad yet. It seems to me they believe that while a 7" iPad would take some market away from the 7" Android tabs, it would also cannibalise a lot of the 10" iPad sales, so in the end they really wouldn't end up any better off.

The problem HTC had last year was simple - they were making too many products that were too similar to each other. Given Samsung now have 4.3", 5.3", 7" and 10" android devices all of which are to some degree competing with each other and (at best) only two of which are really competing with the iPad, isn't there a risk of them falling into the same trap?

The reason why Apple haven't done a 7inch version iPad is because Mr Jobs decided over his dead body. Now he is dead who knows but one thing is certain it will be an idea that some will deride upto the moment Apple deliver a similar size option to the market.

*shrug* I own a 7" android tablet. I find the 7" form factor works better for some things and worse for others than a 10" one but I can't come up with a use case for the 7" where the 10" is completely unviable. I question the idea that there's a horde of people sitting around thinking 'you know, I'd buy an iPad if it was only a little bit smaller'. You can now get an iPad 2 for roughly the price of a decent 7" Android tab - yes, you can get 7" Android tabs for 100 quid but all the ones I've tried have been uniformly rubbish. However, the decent 7" android tabs are certainly 'good enough' that if someone just wanted a specifically 7" tab, they'd have bought one by now. The only people left in the market for an 7" Apple tab are people who specifically want an Apple Tab but don't want a 10" one. I personally don't think that's a very big market segment.

I've been wrong before - I predicted the iPod Nano wouldn't sell - but generally speaking I've not been too bad at predicting what Apple won't do, even if I'm equally as bad as everyone else at predicting new things they pull out of their hat.

Just because 'analyst reports' say something is going to happen doesn't mean anything. If it did, we'd already have the iPhone 5, we'd have had a 7" iPad about two years ago and the Apple Televsion would have been on the shelf for about six months. There may be a 7" Apple tab at some point but that just proves if you say the same thing every three months for about five years, there's a fighting chance that eventually you'll get lucky.

If I wanted a 7" tablet I'd happily buy a Galaxy Tab. I wouldn't wait for an iPad that may or may not turn up at any indeterminate point in the future. I wonder if I'm that untypical.

Jon