Tried it for 5 minutes, probably didn't give it enough time but it sucked for me, also my thumb couldn't reach allot of the keyboard i also didn't use the samsung keyboard feature so that may of helped (adjust to use with one hand) SwiftKey Cheesecake
I've had the original Note for 6 months. It's still awesome. Swype is brilliantly usable, providing you're happy with two handed operation (which I am). That said, you can get away with one hand if you've big hands and you're careful. I think the Note 2 is totally where it's at for Android right now.