A middle class gadget review*
Getting a smartphone or tablet with a stylus has always been a dream of mine. I gave it a try, writing on a Galaxy Note phone once and I was pleasantly surprise of how delightful it is. Ever since then I made it my mission that my next secondary smartphone will be a Galaxy Note (an iPhone will always be my number one). At the time of writing, the latest Samsung Galaxy Note model is the Galaxy Note 8 which is way beyond my budget. The next best thing, the Galaxy Note FE however is priced much-much more cheaper at slightly over 2,000 ringgit which is what I decided to buy instead.
Galaxy Note FE or Fan Edition is basically a refurbished version of the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 with slightly smaller battery and multiple safety features. It has exactly the same design, form factor, stylus and all the great features of the Note 7 but at a hugely discounted price. As a (former) flagship Samsung phone, the Note FE comes with a deluge of accessories including a fast charger, USB-A to USB-C adapter, micro-USB to USB-C adapter, fast charger, earphones and a Note FE Clear View case.
Out of the box and turned on, you couldn’t help by admire the huge 5.7” Super AMOLED screen. The phone is sandwiched between a Gorilla Glass 5 but no matter how tough they claim the glass is, using a case is highly recommended if you value your brand new expensive phone. The home button doubles as a fingerprint sensor although you can also unlock the phone using the iris scanner feature. The S-Pen stylus is tucked in at the bottom of the phone. Unlike the previous Samsung Note version, you can’t insert this stylus wrong-side in and damage it. Like all recent Samsung flagship, the FE also has IP68 certification which makes the phone dust proof and waterproof up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes.
The Note FE provides a hybrid dual SIM tray which means you have 1 slot for a nano-SIM and a hybrid slot for another nano-SIM card and a micro SD card. I only used the single SIM card tray and utilized the other one for a micro SD card. Although the internal storage is a generous 64GB, I plan to use the micro SD card to store all my captured photos and videos amongst other stuff. Samsung uses their very own Exynos 8890 octa-core processor which promises a blazing fast performance, coupled with the huge 4GB RAM.
Now on to the software. Out of the box it features Android 7.1.1 Nougat. There’s rumors that it will receive 8.0 Oreo but I didn’t get any further than 7.1.1 for the duration of my use. To be honest, I’ve never been a fan os Samsung TouchWiz UI in the past. However they have much improved the software over the years and now it is actually pretty decent. Using resource-intensive apps or games flies by mostly without a glitch. One thing that still frustrates me to this day is the occasional time when an Android app closes itself for no particular reason. If it’s an entry-level Android phone with minimum RAM, I could understand but this Note FE has a fricking 4GB of RAM so no excuses. Although not all Android apps act that way but it’s still numerous and happens almost every day so it’s pretty annoying in the end.
Let’s go to the main reason I bought the Note FE in the first place - the stylus or S-Pen. As expected, the stylus works beautifully on the touch screen. I like the way the menu appears every time I took out the pen and how I can quickly scribble anywhere on the screen, apart from the dedicated apps. Writing is a pleasure and really precise. I was pretty excited to use the S-Pen at first since it’s kind of a novelty but over time, I started to use the pen less and less until I rarely take it out of the slot again and just use my fingers for everything. One reason is the screen protector or tempered glass.
Since the more recent Samsung flagship phones features an infinity edge display which curves to the sides, finding a tempered glass that fits snugly on the screen is a real challenge. The first tempered glass that I got from a Samsung reseller covers much of the screen but not entirely so there’s a little border or space between the tempered glass and the screen which incidentally put another frame on the phone. What I mean is when you’re attempting to draw or write on the screen, you tend to limit your sketch to within the borders of the tempered glass thus limiting the real estate of your drawing. The same goes when I’m typing on the screen, the smaller frame of the tempered glass created a little border in between the virtual keyboard. This becomes problematic whenever I’m tapping on certain letters that sit right at the edge of the tempered glass where I tend to mistype or unintentionally tap another letter. This problem became annoying enough that I got rid of that expensive tempered glass and got myself another one which covers the entire screen ride to the edges.
Things went quite smoothly at first with the full screen tempered glass. Tapping and drawing on the screen were smooth for once instead of being interrupted by the glass edge. However, the full screen tempered glass started to detach itself from the screen gradually over time and before you know it, the edges started to peel off from the screen much to my chagrin. The perfectionist in me know that I couldn’t close one eye to this problem so I peel it off again and bought another tempered glass which once again covers 80% of the screen like the first time. Immediately after installing this tempered glass however, I noticed a little pocket of air round the edges of the glass. I asked the phone accessories kiosk girl if that’s normal and she said it is for Samsung phones with edge display but I know she’s bullshitting because my first pricey tempered glass was nothing like that. Still, as annoyed as I was, I’ve decided to let it go and move on. At least this last tempered glass is cheap unlike the eye-watering 45 ringgit I paid for the original one. I don’t know how other Samsung flagship users deal with this predicament, do they use a special kind of tempered glass that I don’t know of? Do they skip (gasp) any screen protection altogether? Either way, the last option is simply out of the question because I couldn’t bear living with the knowledge that my precious smartphone screen could be scratched permanently at any second.
During launch, the Note FE boasts one of the best camera on a smartphone. 2 years later, it is still has a respectably good camera. If you compare a Samsung and an Apple, I would say it fares somewhere between an iPhone 6+ or an iPhone 7 camera. The 12MP optically stabilized shooter takes consistently beautiful pictures every time and the 4K enabled video recording is up to par amongst its flagship peers. Sadly, the Note 7 or FE came out before dual camera era so no portrait mode photos for you. The best they could come up is this average-looking “lens blur” effect on your photos which looks nothing as good as a portrait mode on an iPhone or a Pixel.
Battery life on the Note FE is pretty decent. The 3,200mAh battery could last a whole day up until early in the evening with moderately heavy use. Fast charging could boost the battery level from 20% to 100% in about 80 minutes. One thing that actually blew me away is believe it or not - wireless charging. I never give it much thought before since they never had those on iPhones until recently so when I first got my hand on a wireless charger and use it, it changed my entire outlook on smartphones. It’s stupendously convenient to just place your phone on a charging pad and leave it to charge without scrambling for cables or plugging the lead into the phone. I know it may not sound like a big deal to some but it is to me. I liked wireless charging so much, I bought two more chargers so that I can conveniently charge my Note FE in my bedroom, the living room and the office. Overkill I know but I could never look at wired charging the same again after that.
As a summary, there’s so much to like about the Note FE. I love the exquisite build and design, the stylus and the camera. The always-on display allows me to take a glance at the time, date, weather, battery life and notifications icon without even unlocking the screen. The USB-C port makes the Note FE somewhat future proof to at least 3 to 4 more years and Qi wireless charging is godsend. That said the little Android-related bugs like apps closing and the trouble I had about choosing a screen protector are some of the downside of owning this phone. If you’re looking for a beautiful and powerful Samsung flagship phone with stylus at an incredibly affordable price then look no further than the Galaxy Note FE. They’re going for as low as 1,900 ringgit online right now. As for me though, I came to the realization that this phone is too big and too heavy to be my second or backup phone which I usually use for running or doing outdoor activities. Which is why I’ve decided to let it go for a much smaller phone after just two months, with a very heavy heart of course. If money is no object, I would have kept it but it is an object for which I need to get the smaller phone which was the Google Pixel phone. I’ll miss the Note FE phone for sure but in the future, if I felt like getting a stylus-equipped phone, I’d probably get one of those Samsung tablets with S-Pen (why didn’t I think of that before?).
Pros
Getting a smartphone or tablet with a stylus has always been a dream of mine. I gave it a try, writing on a Galaxy Note phone once and I was pleasantly surprise of how delightful it is. Ever since then I made it my mission that my next secondary smartphone will be a Galaxy Note (an iPhone will always be my number one). At the time of writing, the latest Samsung Galaxy Note model is the Galaxy Note 8 which is way beyond my budget. The next best thing, the Galaxy Note FE however is priced much-much more cheaper at slightly over 2,000 ringgit which is what I decided to buy instead.
Galaxy Note FE or Fan Edition is basically a refurbished version of the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 with slightly smaller battery and multiple safety features. It has exactly the same design, form factor, stylus and all the great features of the Note 7 but at a hugely discounted price. As a (former) flagship Samsung phone, the Note FE comes with a deluge of accessories including a fast charger, USB-A to USB-C adapter, micro-USB to USB-C adapter, fast charger, earphones and a Note FE Clear View case.
Out of the box and turned on, you couldn’t help by admire the huge 5.7” Super AMOLED screen. The phone is sandwiched between a Gorilla Glass 5 but no matter how tough they claim the glass is, using a case is highly recommended if you value your brand new expensive phone. The home button doubles as a fingerprint sensor although you can also unlock the phone using the iris scanner feature. The S-Pen stylus is tucked in at the bottom of the phone. Unlike the previous Samsung Note version, you can’t insert this stylus wrong-side in and damage it. Like all recent Samsung flagship, the FE also has IP68 certification which makes the phone dust proof and waterproof up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes.
The Note FE provides a hybrid dual SIM tray which means you have 1 slot for a nano-SIM and a hybrid slot for another nano-SIM card and a micro SD card. I only used the single SIM card tray and utilized the other one for a micro SD card. Although the internal storage is a generous 64GB, I plan to use the micro SD card to store all my captured photos and videos amongst other stuff. Samsung uses their very own Exynos 8890 octa-core processor which promises a blazing fast performance, coupled with the huge 4GB RAM.
Now on to the software. Out of the box it features Android 7.1.1 Nougat. There’s rumors that it will receive 8.0 Oreo but I didn’t get any further than 7.1.1 for the duration of my use. To be honest, I’ve never been a fan os Samsung TouchWiz UI in the past. However they have much improved the software over the years and now it is actually pretty decent. Using resource-intensive apps or games flies by mostly without a glitch. One thing that still frustrates me to this day is the occasional time when an Android app closes itself for no particular reason. If it’s an entry-level Android phone with minimum RAM, I could understand but this Note FE has a fricking 4GB of RAM so no excuses. Although not all Android apps act that way but it’s still numerous and happens almost every day so it’s pretty annoying in the end.
Let’s go to the main reason I bought the Note FE in the first place - the stylus or S-Pen. As expected, the stylus works beautifully on the touch screen. I like the way the menu appears every time I took out the pen and how I can quickly scribble anywhere on the screen, apart from the dedicated apps. Writing is a pleasure and really precise. I was pretty excited to use the S-Pen at first since it’s kind of a novelty but over time, I started to use the pen less and less until I rarely take it out of the slot again and just use my fingers for everything. One reason is the screen protector or tempered glass.
Since the more recent Samsung flagship phones features an infinity edge display which curves to the sides, finding a tempered glass that fits snugly on the screen is a real challenge. The first tempered glass that I got from a Samsung reseller covers much of the screen but not entirely so there’s a little border or space between the tempered glass and the screen which incidentally put another frame on the phone. What I mean is when you’re attempting to draw or write on the screen, you tend to limit your sketch to within the borders of the tempered glass thus limiting the real estate of your drawing. The same goes when I’m typing on the screen, the smaller frame of the tempered glass created a little border in between the virtual keyboard. This becomes problematic whenever I’m tapping on certain letters that sit right at the edge of the tempered glass where I tend to mistype or unintentionally tap another letter. This problem became annoying enough that I got rid of that expensive tempered glass and got myself another one which covers the entire screen ride to the edges.
Things went quite smoothly at first with the full screen tempered glass. Tapping and drawing on the screen were smooth for once instead of being interrupted by the glass edge. However, the full screen tempered glass started to detach itself from the screen gradually over time and before you know it, the edges started to peel off from the screen much to my chagrin. The perfectionist in me know that I couldn’t close one eye to this problem so I peel it off again and bought another tempered glass which once again covers 80% of the screen like the first time. Immediately after installing this tempered glass however, I noticed a little pocket of air round the edges of the glass. I asked the phone accessories kiosk girl if that’s normal and she said it is for Samsung phones with edge display but I know she’s bullshitting because my first pricey tempered glass was nothing like that. Still, as annoyed as I was, I’ve decided to let it go and move on. At least this last tempered glass is cheap unlike the eye-watering 45 ringgit I paid for the original one. I don’t know how other Samsung flagship users deal with this predicament, do they use a special kind of tempered glass that I don’t know of? Do they skip (gasp) any screen protection altogether? Either way, the last option is simply out of the question because I couldn’t bear living with the knowledge that my precious smartphone screen could be scratched permanently at any second.
 |
| Sample photo |
 |
| Sample photo indoors |
 |
| Sample photo low light |
During launch, the Note FE boasts one of the best camera on a smartphone. 2 years later, it is still has a respectably good camera. If you compare a Samsung and an Apple, I would say it fares somewhere between an iPhone 6+ or an iPhone 7 camera. The 12MP optically stabilized shooter takes consistently beautiful pictures every time and the 4K enabled video recording is up to par amongst its flagship peers. Sadly, the Note 7 or FE came out before dual camera era so no portrait mode photos for you. The best they could come up is this average-looking “lens blur” effect on your photos which looks nothing as good as a portrait mode on an iPhone or a Pixel.
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| Sample photo overcast day |
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| Sample photo with lens blur effect |
Battery life on the Note FE is pretty decent. The 3,200mAh battery could last a whole day up until early in the evening with moderately heavy use. Fast charging could boost the battery level from 20% to 100% in about 80 minutes. One thing that actually blew me away is believe it or not - wireless charging. I never give it much thought before since they never had those on iPhones until recently so when I first got my hand on a wireless charger and use it, it changed my entire outlook on smartphones. It’s stupendously convenient to just place your phone on a charging pad and leave it to charge without scrambling for cables or plugging the lead into the phone. I know it may not sound like a big deal to some but it is to me. I liked wireless charging so much, I bought two more chargers so that I can conveniently charge my Note FE in my bedroom, the living room and the office. Overkill I know but I could never look at wired charging the same again after that.
As a summary, there’s so much to like about the Note FE. I love the exquisite build and design, the stylus and the camera. The always-on display allows me to take a glance at the time, date, weather, battery life and notifications icon without even unlocking the screen. The USB-C port makes the Note FE somewhat future proof to at least 3 to 4 more years and Qi wireless charging is godsend. That said the little Android-related bugs like apps closing and the trouble I had about choosing a screen protector are some of the downside of owning this phone. If you’re looking for a beautiful and powerful Samsung flagship phone with stylus at an incredibly affordable price then look no further than the Galaxy Note FE. They’re going for as low as 1,900 ringgit online right now. As for me though, I came to the realization that this phone is too big and too heavy to be my second or backup phone which I usually use for running or doing outdoor activities. Which is why I’ve decided to let it go for a much smaller phone after just two months, with a very heavy heart of course. If money is no object, I would have kept it but it is an object for which I need to get the smaller phone which was the Google Pixel phone. I’ll miss the Note FE phone for sure but in the future, if I felt like getting a stylus-equipped phone, I’d probably get one of those Samsung tablets with S-Pen (why didn’t I think of that before?).
Pros
- Build quality
- Stylus
- Wireless & fast charging
- USB-C port
- Always on display
- Large screen
- Powerful processor & huge RAM
- Water & dust proof
- Good camera with OIS
- Fingerprint & iris scanner
- Headphone jack
- Affordable
Cons
- Buggy Android software
- Slow software update
- Limited screen protection
- No portrait mode
- Fragile
*A middle-class review is where one talks passionately about his gadget like it’s the most precious thing in the wold. Compared to a tech-blogger review where one reviews the gadget objectively and impartially but dispassionately.
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