Android 4.0 is of course an OS designed to work equally well on phones and tablets, and one of the chief features of the Note is its huge, tablet-like screen. So let’s have a look at the advantages of holding your phone sideways.
For a start, landscape mode is a great fit for a GPS device that has Google Street View!
This brings a whole new meaning to the term SatNav.
The included calendar app, S Planner, looks particularly fine on its side.
As does the updated Gmail client. Missing from the inbox view are buttons to scroll through mail. After a confounded moment, you realise that this is now done by swiping. Which is nice. The look is cleaner now. Especially when you choose to write a new mail…
How’s that for stripped down?
But making fullest use of gestures is the beta of Chrome for Mobile. It may not be quite stable yet (the main reason this post is late…) but even allowing for that it’s still better than any other mobile browser around. It’s in the “deck of cards” view that gestures really come into their own. You can use two thumbs to leaf through the page previews, a far faster way to find what you want than clicking on tabs.
I’m beginning to wonder if this really is the best mobile browser interface after all – and not the best interface of any browser, ever.