Pricing and availability for the Samsung Galaxy Note II in the UK have been confirmed, with retailers now accepting pre-orders for the 5.5-inch phablet expected to ship in mid-October. Announced at IFA 2012 last week, the Note II will be priced from £546 including tax ($866) for the 16GB model, according to Clove, with six variants on offer.
Samsung is pushing three storage options – 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB – and two colors, Marble White and Titanium Gray. Aesthetically, the Note II is now more akin to the Galaxy S III than its blocky predecessor, with subtle curves and a slightly longer casing that accommodates a thicker, longer pen, with a new rubberized tip for more comfortable sketching and writing.
Inside, there’s a 1.6GHz quadcore Exynos 4412 processor paired with 2GB of RAM and running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It also gets a 3,100 mAh battery, microSD card slot, WiFi a/b/g/n, and Bluetooth Smart 4.0, along with an 8-megapixel camera on the back.
Samsung has loaded up the Note II with its own TouchWiz interface and various pen-enabled apps; you can get a better feel for what the new smartphone/tablet hybrid is capable of in our hands-on. As for US availability, Samsung has confirmed that the device will be headed over “later in 2012.”
Update: Clove tells us that, initially, only the 16GB model is available for preorder.
The folks at iLuv have revealed their full Galaxy Note II collection of accessories for the new Samsung hero devices. This collection wraps the device, covers the device, and even adds a couple extra pens to the mix so you have options beyond the S-Pen embedded within the phablet. This group is letting you know that in addition to the Samsung-made collection of accessories made for the Galaxy Note II, they have their own set – fully prepped for the Fall season of devices falling out of your pocket!
The Samsung Galaxy Note II is a device that’s slightly enhanced compared to the Galaxy Note already on the market – with a slightly larger display at 5.5-inches, an exterior design that looks much closer to the next generation of Samsung devices, and technology inside that connects quite well to your Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 10.1, you’ll be bumpin’! Of course you don’t want to be bumpin’ against the ground too much without protection.
iLuv presents first the Pocket Agent – this protective leather case also works as a stand so you can tap away while eating a sandwich – two viewing angles included! The Gelato Shield will have your front face protected from scratches while a soft cover keeps your edges and back safe from harm as well. There’a Clear Protective Film in the works as well that’s just a bit thinner than the Gelato Shield and, like the Shield, is guaranteed not to interfere with your device’s functionality or viewing.
There’s a Glare Free Protective Kit that’s made specifically to allow your touchscreen to work with zero distortion, regardless of the sun blasting it right into your eyeballs. A couple of already-released accessories that’ll work well with your Galaxy Note II are the ePen and the ePen Pro – both will be stylish additions to your device, but wont be working with S-Pen functionality like your built-in S-Pen would. These should be considered mostly fabulous due to their stylish appearance and ability to fit in with your pocket protector.
This whole range will be priced between $12.99 and $44.99 and some are available straight from iLuv’s online store right now. The rest will be popping up closer to the release date for the Galaxy Note II – makes sense!
We’re still recovering from the onslaught of goodies shown off at IFA 2012, but there’s one thing we didn’t notice while perusing Samsung’s gadgetry. The team at German site BestBoyZ discovered S Cloud in the settings menu of the Note II, which included the option to sync user data with Dropbox. Apparently, Samsung reps didn’t have much to say on the matter, and BestBoyZ believe that’s because it’s not quite working yet (we’re willing to agree, given the variousdelays). It’s looking like the feature might be ready in time for the Note II’s launch, which ties in nicely with the 50GB of free Dropbox storage you’ll snag if you pick one up. Owners of other Samsung gear needn’t be disappointed though, as it’s suggested that S Cloud integration will be part of the Jelly Bean upgrades expected soon. We’ve embedded the reveal vid below, and don’t worry if you can’t speak German — you’ll still get the gist.
4K TV, Windows tableteering, segment straddling smartphones, and cross-company sniping: another year, another IFA. We’ve seen the show coalesce around a few key themes before, and 2012 proved no different, as manufacturers took a suck-it-and-see strategy to try to cash in on holiday hardware sales. As always, the specter of Apple loomed heavy, despite the Cupertino firm’s resolute absence. Read on for the highlights of IFA 2012.
Windows tablets have been the weeds of IFA, springing up just about everywhere you looked. Samsung, Dell, Sony, and others each brought along their interpretation of an iPad-rivaling, usually keyboard-toting slate, with sometimes multiple models – often split between Windows 8 and Windows RT – from individual firms.
It’s a strong showing of support out of the gate for Microsoft, certainly, though with just about all of the hardware left unpriced (and with release dates generally vague) there’s really no telling whether any of the models will be competitive. That’s even before you get to quite how practical some of the hardware itself is; just because a tablet has a keyboard, it doesn’t make it the perfect hybrid of notebook and slate.
In contrast there was only one “phablet” at IFA, but Samsung’s Galaxy Note II is arguably more compelling than any of the Windows touchscreen models shown. If the original Note, announced a year ago at IFA 2011, was a tentative step into a new market, then the Note II is an altogether more confident product. Samsung, buoyed by widespread popular response to the idea of a sizable, pen-enabled smartphone and rewarded by surprisingly strong sales, has come up with a more refined product that doesn’t stint where it’s most important: software.
“Too often we’ve seen great hardware let down by sloppy software”
Too often we’ve seen great hardware ideas let down by sloppy or simply absent software support, but that’s not a fate destined for the Note II. Samsung has continued to polish its stylus experience, signing up compelling names like Moleskine in the process, and giving Galaxy Note II buyers not only a good reason to pick up the phablet on day one, but to keep using it in the months after.
Big screens weren’t limited to phones. 4K TVs, promising resolution four times that of regular HD, made themselves known at IFA this year, and while they’re still targeting the richest living rooms, basking in their extra detail is enough to convince where 3D might still leave you cold. Where Samsung could flesh out the Note II with its own suite of functionality, however, the TV industry is stuck waiting for 4K content to proliferate. Right now, it’s a case of resolution oneupmanship; more boastful than truly beneficial.
It’s also been a show of jostling and sniping, as companies in an increasingly litigious and competitive marketplace jostle for position. Samsung CEO JK Shin got the ball rolling, obliquely describing courtroom rival Apple as a “hindrance” that the company would be sure to overcome. (Apple snapped back by adding the Galaxy S III and other recent devices to the list of devices it hopes to eject from stores.) Lenovo’s EMEA chief Gianfranco Lanci was somewhat more sanguine about Microsoft’s Surface and its potential for undermining the company’s own ThinkPad Tablet 2, suggesting the own-brand slate was “very welcome” and acted as “a good advert for us.”
Welcoming competition is all IFA’s starlets can really do. With several weeks of high-profile launches ahead – including Nokia’s new Windows Phone 8 range, Amazon’s Kindle refresh, and of course the inescapable iPhone 5 – the Berlin show was an opportunity to get in early with headlines, if not actual sales. How many of the products of the past week will be remembered when the dust settles at the end of September remains to be seen.
You can find all our IFA 2012 coverage in the show hub!
Messe Berlin subsidized SlashGear’s trip to IFA, contributing to airfare and accommodation costs. No requirements, guidelines or expectations were placed on coverage or content, and Messe Berlin had no involvement in our editorial processes.
If you thought the fabulous accessory lineup that came with the Samsung Galaxy S III was about to stop with the smartphone, you were wrong. There’s a whole load of Galaxy Note II covers, protectors, and pens you can grab for the next-generation Galaxy Note phablet, and they’re being shown off this week in Berlin at IFA 2012. This set of accessories pretty much replicates what’s already available for the Galaxy S III, but a couple more colors have been introduced – and of course they’ve got an spot so the S-Pen can exit the machine.
There’s a set of three pouches made of either leather or faux-leather that you can slide the Galaxy Note II into while it sits in your bag or pocket. There’s a collection of protective cases prepped for the device with a bumper around the edges to protect against drops, the back appearing to have a relatively thick plastic in the same set of colors currently revealed for the Note II – and there’s a lovely soft pink for you cuties out there. These cases protect the sides and the back of the device and include an S-Pen slot.
The Galaxy S III Flip Cover is back, this time large enough for the Samsung Galaxy Note II. These Flip Covers come in a wild variety of colors like blue, green, electric yellow, pink, another pink, mustard yellow, red, black and white – if you want to keep with the basic model color, of course. These flip covers replace the back of the device (the battery cover) and have a cover that swings around the front for front-facing protection. Amongst the Galaxy Note 10.1 cases shown at IFA 2012 are a set of vehicle docks for the Galaxy Note II as well – they’re stuck right up over there to the right.
A set of alternate S-Pen devices appear here not quite a size that’s made for docking, just a bit larger for larger-handed users. A set of battery chargers is here too, all of them ready for launch later this year. At the moment there’s no pricing or release information attached, but you can bet they’ll all be hitting the market right around the same time as the actual device.
Here at IFA, the Galaxy Note II‘s glossy plastic build is practically fading under the ambush of cameras snapping away at Samsung’s booth, but clearly this phone is more than just a (super sized) pretty face, and it’s time to take a look at what’s under the hood. As mentioned in our hands-on, Samsung upgraded the original Note’s dual-core 1.4GHz chipset to a quad-core 1.6GHz Exynos processor. We put the device to the test today to see how those amped-up insides reflect in the Note II’s benchmark scores. As you’ll see below, Sammy’s latest handset fares significantly better than the original Note and the Galaxy S III.
Oh, what a difference a processor makes. Clearly the step up to a quad-core CPU is to thank for the large performance delta between the Note II and the last-gen Note, though the international version of the Galaxy S III, with a quad-core 1.4Ghz Exynos processor, also falls behind in Quadrant and other tests. The Note II also trumped its Samsung siblings on the browser-focused Vellamo benchmark, which hints at snappier performance on this phone. The phone’s graphics chops look pretty good, too, if the GL Benchmark score is any indication. Our testing got cut short before we could run SunSpider, but we’ll add that figure shortly.
Update: We’ve added SunSpider as well — the device clocked in at 1,330ms, which is a hair faster than the Galaxy S III.
We’ve been speaking to the big fiveUKmobilenetworks, finding out where British phablet fans can get their Galaxy Note II fix. So far, only ThreeUK (after the break) and O2 have confirmed they’ll be carrying the device when it arrives later in the year, while T-Mobile and Orange said they didn’t have any details for us yet. Most cryptically, Vodafone’s response was that it “isn’t involved in this,” so we figure we’ll have to sit tight for more concrete news. If anything changes. we’ll let you know.
Good news, storage junkies: Dropbox and Samsung have renewed their vows with a deal that’ll provide 50GB of free storage for two years to owners of the new Galaxy Note II and Galaxy Camera. As you’d expect, this means the Dropbox app will be pre-installed, and it also ensures that users will have easier access to their media files. Before you get too excited, however, there’s no guarantee that this well-intentioned promotion will pass muster with US carriers — we’ve certainly seen a few hopes dashed in the past.
Wondering when you’ll be able to get your hands on a Galaxy Note II and just how much it’ll cost? Well… we can’t help you. But, a placard spotted on the floor at IFA today should give us some hint as to pricing. When it lands in Germany in the coming months, the second-gen phablet will set customers back €639.90, or about $803, through Vodafone. That’s quite the hefty price tag, even for an unsubsidized LTE device. Heck, the current model is only $549 commitment free from AT&T right now. Let’s just hope the price in dollars is closer, numerically to the German price and not so close in monetary value.
We had a busy day at IFA 2012, thanks in no small part to Samsung, which had a ton of announcements for its Unpacked presentation. In the weeks leading up to IFA 2012, we had a feeling that Samsung would reveal the Galaxy Note II, the follow-up to the successful Galaxy Note. Sure enough Samsung made the Galaxy Note II official during Unpacked, just as we were suspecting.
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