When I first saw it, all I could think was "cheese board." "Is that the Note? It looks absurd," said our Web Editor John. Sam Biddle over at Gizmodo called the Note a "distended LED baking sheet," amongst lots of other creative things.

Now, two and a half months later, the Note has sold well over 5 million units, making it a legitimate hit. You can bet HTC and Motorola and LG will all make a competitor--HTC's has already been heavily rumored--and last week, Samsung unveiled that its new flagship line, the Samsung Galaxy S III, would have a huge 4.8-inch screen, to the dismay of myself and many other gadget writers.

What do the people buying Galaxy Notes see that we supposed professional reviewers do not? To find out, I talked to a few Note owners and lovers.

I have average-to-small hands, and I use my phone one-handed for just about everything, so any phone with a screen larger than about four inches--4.3 at the very largest--just doesn't work well for me. I can't have a big area in an upper corner that is completely out of reach of my thumb. Also, when you get into a toboggan of a phone like the Galaxy Note, you have the curious problem of scaling the entire operating system: Android has enough trouble making apps look good on 3.7-inch phones and 4.3-inch phones. A 5.3-inch phone? Many apps look terrible.