In today’s smartphone world, the entry of the smartphone slash tablet hybrid was ushered in by the Dell Streak 5. However, the Dell product got a lukewarm reception from the smartphone-buying public because the handset suffered from an identity crisis that got it confused if it was an undersized tablet or an oversized smartphone. Samsung on the other hand followed suit with the announcement of the Galaxy Note but unlike the ill-fated Dell Streak 5, the Samsung phablet did not have the issues associated with the Dell hybrid.
The Samsung Galaxy Note was launched by the Korean electronics giant last year and although the initial reception for the phablet was a bit lukewarm, people started getting used to its massive screen real estate and the possibilities offered by the device soon made it very popular among our smartphone-crazed brethren. Despite the fact that it was manufactured as a niche device designed for a specific portion of the population, the Samsung Galaxy Note still became very popular as shown by its 7 million sold units.
Buy the Samsung Galaxy Note starting at $199.
When it was launched, the Samsung Galaxy Note still ran Gingerbread for its operating system and the Android 4.0 refresh that was supposed to get rolled out to the device in Q1 got pushed back to Q2. Samsung atoned for the delay though by including a Premium Suite of applications designed to enable a user take advantage and maximize the S-Pen stylus of the phablet. In French territories however, the excitement felt by users of the Samsung Galaxy Note at the prospect of getting their devices updated to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich turned into an unbearable misfortune.
Samsung finally rolled out the Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Samsung Galaxy Note in France recently but the official firmware file unleashed by the manufacturer caused the phablet to get bricked after the whole update process. A bug in the firmware of the ICS update is said to be the reason why the French Samsung Galaxy Note got turned into an expensive paperweight and an outage of this proportion definitely infuriated the users of the device in French territories. Samsung has reportedly pulled the update and is already working on a fix to get the issue taken care of.
Lesson learned? It wouldn’t hurt to proceed with caution whenever updating your Samsung Galaxy Note or any device for that matter even if the update is officially released by your device’s manufacturer.
As for the Samsung Galaxy Note, it has its circuitry built around a QualComm MSM8660 SnapDragon processor and this SoC brings a dual-core 1.5 GHz Scorpion processor and a full gigabyte of RAM to the phablet. The storage onboard the device comes up to 16GB but a user has the option to have this expanded using the microSD card slot of the Samsung Galaxy Note. Its claim to fame however is its massive 5.3-inch SuperAMOLED panel with a resolution of 800 x 1280 pixels while its dual-shooter configuration outfits the phablet with an 8MP shooter at its back panel and a 2MP snapper at its front bezel. Buy the Samsung Galaxy Note starting at $199.
July 5, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Not just France – I have seen users from UK, India, Germany report this as well
July 6, 2012 at 12:58 pm
This problem isn’t territorial. The problem is international! It’s due to the eMMC bug. Upgrading to ICS can trigger the bug and cause a brick (either soft or hard brick) but it has always been a hit or miss. Samsung should do something about it and have the cellphones with the defective eMMC recalled (virtually every note sold) before they ruin their reputation