Oct 26
When the Galaxy Note came out earlier this year, well, it was a giant, laggy jumble with a bum stylus. But the Note II might just have what it takes to win over our cold, size-ist hearts. More »
Oct 25
Samsung Galaxy Note II now available from Sprint for $300 on a two-year contract
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Whether you’re an existing or prospecting Sprint customer, the carrier’s new big thing is now on sale. Priced at a whopping $300 with a two-year service agreement, the Samsung Galaxy Note II is the biggest smartphone to hit Sprint since the Hitachi G1000. As a reminder, the Now Network’s Note II features an unbranded home button, a 5.5-inch 1,280 x 720 HD Super AMOLED display, a 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 1.9-megapixel front-facing shooter, Android 4.1 and international voice and data compatibility with GSM / UMTS / CDMA networks. If the aforementioned sounds pleasing to your mobile palate, then the only thing left to decide is marble white or titanium gray?
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sprint
Samsung Galaxy Note II now available from Sprint for $300 on a two-year contract originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Oct 2012 21:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Oct 24
So far we’ve had the opportunity to review the global edition of the Samsung Galaxy Note II — as well as get our hands on three of the five variants known to be making their way to the US — but tonight we got our first official look at Verizon’s particular flavor. Not that it’s much different than the rest of the crowd: it’s loaded with the same specs we’ve seen on the N7100 model (5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display at 1,280 x 720, 3,100mAh battery and a quad-core Exynos processor clocked at 1.6GHz), with the exception of Verizon-specific LTE bands, and have the same button layout that we’ve come to expect. Of course, there’s that hideous Verizon logo on the main button, but that’s the only visual difference we could spot.
Software-wise, Verizon’s version of the Note II contains the built-in apps we’ve gotten accustomed to with its Android phones: VZ Navigator, My Verizon Mobile, and Mobile Hotspot. The device we picked up was running Jelly Bean, like its counterparts from other carriers. Sadly, no pricing or availability is yet available for the Note II on Verizon, with reps at the Samsung event we’re at saying that it’s up to Verizon to loose that news.
Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung, Verizon
Samsung Galaxy Note II for Verizon hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 19:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Oct 24
Samsung Galaxy Note II to arrive at US Cellular on Friday, pre-orders ship tomorrow
Posted in: Today's Chili 
US Cellular has been offering the Samsung Galaxy Note II on pre-order for over a month now, but it just sent out an email clarifying that the device will be stocked on retail and virtual shelves beginning this Friday, October 26th. This falls in line with the “late October” timeframe we were promised; pre-orders, by the way, will also begin shipping tomorrow. As a recap, the Note II will only be available in titanium gray and with 16GB internal storage, and will cost $300 with a two-year commitment and $800 without one — a huge difference, no doubt, given T-Mobile’s $650 full retail cost. Tomorrow is the last day to pre-order if you’re worried about facing inventory shortages or long lines on Friday. The best part? No silly logo on the home button (we’re looking at you, Verizon).
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
Samsung Galaxy Note II to arrive at US Cellular on Friday, pre-orders ship tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 17:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Oct 24
Samsung TecTiles 3.0 update offers more options for NFC tagging, now available in Play Store
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Samsung’s NFC tagging app — known as TecTiles — made its official debut in June, but the company isn’t putting a halt to its progression anytime soon. This morning Sammy announced version 3.0 of the app, which includes various enhancements that allow for better customization. Among the new features, you can choose from a larger selection of settings that can be programmed into the tags, and you’ll also have the ability to send pre-written emails to a specified address, update your Google+ status, store a history of your profiles, customize preloaded profiles and create private tags that can only be read by your phone. The new refresh is ready to go in the Play Store, so head on over to download it for free — provided, of course, you’ve forked over $15 for a pack of five tags. The press release, along with a full list of supported devices, can be found past the break.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Samsung
Samsung TecTiles 3.0 update offers more options for NFC tagging, now available in Play Store originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Oct 24
More Info
The Samsung Galaxy Note II is coming to America, and unlike its predecessor, it’s not being as quiet about the move. In a completely unprecedented feat, the mammoth smartphone not only won over the hearts of four national American carriers and one regional network, it did so without having to make sacrifices in its design, specs or even its name. This is a considerable amount of progress when taking into account the fact that only two mobile operators adopted the original Galaxy Note — the inaugural phablet, if you will — and they did so months after its global launch. Heck, T-Mobile released its variant of the Note just three months ago, which likely will be a sour point to early adopters for a long time to come.
As you may have seen in our review of the global Note II, there’s a reason for all of the buzz circulating around this new flagship device; it’s good. It’s very good. Once you get used to the idea of a 5.5-inch smartphone with an included stylus S Pen, you’ll take heed of the incredibly fast quad-core processor, the latest version of Android, the high-end camera and the litany of other top-notch features that have helped the device become worthy of our praise.
This review, as you see it today, discusses our impressions of T-Mobile’s version of the Note II and how it sizes up against the global model (the N7100), but we’re changing things up this time around. Since there will be very few differences across the five different versions offered on US carriers, we’re simply going to add our reviews of each carrier-specific unit to this space as we go along. The idea is that this review will encompass every Galaxy Note II sold stateside. Enjoy the galleries below, and continue past the break as we dig into Samsung’s latest flagship… again.
Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Note II for T-Mobile review
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung, T-Mobile
Samsung Galaxy Note II for T-Mobile review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Oct 23
Samsung Galaxy Note II to be available on AT&T November 9th for $299, pre-orders begin Thursday
Posted in: Today's Chili 
In the leadup to tomorrow’s Samsung Galaxy Note II event, AT&T has decided to make its pricing and availability known to the general public today. The 5.5-inch smartphone will be available in stores and online starting November 9th, and the cost for the LTE-enabled device will be $300 with a two-year commitment. Lest you fear having to wait an extra two weeks to waltz into a store, you’ll be able to head online on Thursday and pre-order it. The press release below has the details, so follow us past the break.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung, AT&T
Samsung Galaxy Note II to be available on AT&T November 9th for $299, pre-orders begin Thursday originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Oct 16
Sprint’s Galaxy Note II to arrive October 25th, with LTE and $300 price tag
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Fancy being more than just a statistic on a Japanese balance sheet? Come October 25th, you can be a statistic and the proud owner of a stylus and an accompanying Note II to scrape it against. The Now Network just announced that it’ll make the handset available to new customers and upgrade-eligible folk for $299.99 on a two-year contract, in either marble white or titanium gray. Expect to pay a significant monthly sum too, especially if you eventually want to exploit that Sprint-flavored LTE we keep hearing about.
Continue reading Sprint’s Galaxy Note II to arrive October 25th, with LTE and $300 price tag
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Sprint’s Galaxy Note II to arrive October 25th, with LTE and $300 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 09:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Oct 09
Yep, it’s a Samsung Galaxy Note II. With T-Mobile branding. At MobileCon 2012. Indeed, there’s not much that will surprise you when gazing upon the latest version of the quad-core Exynos-clad phone / tablet — it’s almost completely the same as the unit we reviewed earlier this week, not to mention the Sprint and AT&T models we’ve played with so far. Cosmetically, the only difference you’ll notice is the Magenta branding on the back of the device. As you’d expect, this particular Note — the T889 — won’t be getting T-Mobile LTE yet, but it does at least have LTE bands 4 and 17 (700MHz and AWS) under the hood, and it offers support for 42Mbps HSPA+ on bands friendly to T-Mobile’s network. Otherwise, the only thing that may catch your eye is the usual smattering of bloatware dedicated to Magenta’s cause. We were a little disappointed to see that the Multi Window feature hasn’t been added to the unit we played with tonight; we won’t rule out the possibility of seeing it added into the final production firmware or shortly after in an OTA update. We still haven’t been given pricing or availability (aside from being told it will be released in the coming weeks), though owners of the original T-Mobile Note will still be annoyed at how fast its sequel came out. Take a look at our images of the marble white and titanium gray version of the T-Mo Galaxy Note II below!
Myriam Joire contributed to this post.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung, T-Mobile
Samsung Galaxy Note II for T-Mobile hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 23:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Oct 09
Samsung’s Galaxy Note II is happily filling hands in Korea and the UK without so much as a release date announced stateside. We may now have one, thanks to the folks at TmoNews, who appear to have snagged an internal document which suggests the phablet will arrive at the Magenta carrier on October 24th. Coincidentally (or not), Samsung is holding an event the same day, marrying with our previous speculation that it’ll be unveiling the various carrier editions of the 5.5-inch beast there. Our suspicions are flagged, however, at the mention that Need for Speed: Most Wanted will come pre-installed, a game that isn’t slated for release until October 30th — not that we haven’t seen similar release partnerships from the Note crew before. Although we can’t confirm the legitimacy of this leak, we can suggest you start building up that grip strength just in case.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, T-Mobile
Galaxy Note II coming to T-Mobile on October 24th, say leaked documents originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 13:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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