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Hmm, I'm still using my Note. I don't have any facts, but I'm pretty sure it still has a nontrivial user base. The hardware is certainly powerful enough to keep up with anything I demand of it.

I think the issue with the Gear is that Samsung noticed people with larger phones springing for Pebbles and such, and rushed late to market with a product that wasn't ready yet. The original Note identified a niche that was largely unexploited prior to its release.

I think you'll find the reviews said the Note was awful, mostly based on it being "too big" but people who bought one loved it.

It wasn't perfect (e.g. the display crushed blacks) but it was very good.

What in particular didn't you like about it?

I know it wasn't a perfect device, but most people seemed to love it when it was originally released.

I just remember it surprising me with how slow and clumsy it felt, even though it was a significant upgrade compared to my phone at the time. And then the processor had all sorts of issues with AOSP, so you couldn't really run cyanogen comfortably on it.