The device known over the ocean as the Samsung Pebble has been released in the USA this week as the Samsung Muse, bringing with it Samsung’s clearest answer yet to the Apple iPod. This little device is made to be a companion for the Samsung Galaxy smartphone line and is compatible with essentially every model that’s come out in the past two years, Galaxy S II, III, Note, Note II, and more. What the Muse represents is the slightly more miniature and more mobile version of the music you already work with on your Galaxy smartphone – for runners, first and foremost.
This device hooks up with your Samsung Galaxy device and keeps your tunes to itself so you can leave the smartphone at home. Three music services that are compatible with this device right out of the box are iTunes, Google Music, and Amazon MP3. Of course you can also load up your MP3s you’ve ripped from your CDs just as easily, all of this done with the “Muse Sync” app also available for download from the Google Play store this week.
The Samsung Muse comes in Blue at the moment, the surface and the color matching up with the Cobalt Blue Samsung devices that’ve been released throughout this past year. You’ve got 4GB of storage inside this little unit, and each of the control buttons are touch-sensitive, this meaning you can activate them with a tap rather than a hard push. Interestingly you do not connect to this device directly with a microUSB cord to sync and charge it up, you use one of the package’s included adapters that connect through the 3.5mm headphone jack.
You get one 3.5mm-Micro USB Adapter, a 3.5mm-USB Adapter, and a lovely EHS61 Stereo Headset (earbuds) with the package. Have a peek at our hands-on with this device from earlier this year to see what you’re in for and pick one up for a mere $49.99 USD from Samsung starting this week. See Samsung’s full compatibility list for this device as far as Samsung Galaxy smartphones go right this minute and make sure you’re hooked up for the holidays!
Samsung joins hands with Korean premium jewelry brand Stonehenge to offer very special experience to Galaxy Note II purchasing customers. Samsung Electronics announced the arrival of the limited edition of “Galaxy Note II with Stonehenge Earcap,” the earphone jack accessories. The limited edition of Galaxy Note II with Stonehenge Earcap has simple but graceful design highlighted by sterling silver Cubic Zirconia.
Samsung Electronics announced on the 19th that Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE—the 4G version upgraded with new features—would be consecutively released via three major Korean mobile carriers. Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE simultaneously supports the voice call, video, and data transmission with the latest LTE technology such as VoLTE (Voice over LTE) and Multi Carrier, which is five times faster than the previous 3G technology. Equipped with a slew of new features, Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE runs on the latest Android …
Queen Elizabeth II is catching up in the digital age and will be adding the first tablet to the Royal Collection. The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 was chosen as the Royal Collection’s tablet by the Royal Commonwealth Society charity over the iPad, and will house Queen Elizabeth II’s “digital time capsule.”
It’s not said why the Royal Commonwealth Society charity chose the Galaxy Note 10.1 over Apple’s iPad, considering the latter is a defining product in the tablet era, but in any case, the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet will house videos, photographs, and text submitted by participants who have recounted memories from Queen Elizabeth II’s reign during the past 60 years.
In total, 150GB of data was collected, which is obviously a lot more than what the Galaxy Note 10.1′s max storage space of 64GB can hold. Because of that, the project has been limited to 60 selected entries that were picked by a panel of judges, including the director general of The Royal Photographic Society as well as the Royal Librarian.
More than 37,000 people from 66 countries took part in the project, including Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, and even Prince Harry. The most popular submission was the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, which was submitted by more than 200 people. The tablet will be stored at Windsor Castle as part of the Royal Collection, and will be used by Queen Elizabeth II as a fun way to look back on her 60 years of reign.
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Someone in Canada got one of those f*cking ridiculous Samsung Galaxy Notes and then decided it was too f*cking big, so he decided to sell it. Which is great, because his Craigslist ad is f*cking hilarious. Sadly it was flagged and removed. More »
In the Samsung Galaxy Note II we’ve got an experience like no other – similar to the first Galaxy Note with its massive display and S-Pen action, but here with processing power and software just great enough to carve for itself a unique place in the smart device universe. The T-Mobile version of this device is so very similar to the rest of the carrier editions here in the USA that it’s almost foolish to review it more than once – the differences have been sliced down to the apps included inside, Samsung once again flexing their brand power to keep the device near-identical across all carrier borders. This device is to the Galaxy Note line what the Galaxy S III was to the Galaxy S line, continuing very much with Samsung’s coming-of-age – very wise indeed.
Hardware
We’ve already had a peek at this device in one other iteration in our Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (international edition) review – keep that in mind as you jump down the list here with this USA-bound device. In the end they’re extremely similar, this certainly a testament to Samsung’s newfound power to demand essentially the same device on any carrier it works with.
This device is what appears at first to be a super-sized version of the Samsung Galaxy S III, the smartphone you’ll also be able to pick up at each of the carriers this Note II is on. What you’re seeing is Samsung’s family brand integration taking hold, with the company hoping to ring in a true product with the best elements of both the original Note and the S III at once. The display is 5.5-inches rather than 5.3 as the original was with a smaller bezel and thinner body to boot – it’s really a nicer device to work with on the whole.
Samsung Galaxy Note II / Galaxy S III sharing abilities
Samsung took some time molding this 80.5 x 151.1 x 9.4 mm beast, making it feel smooth and round as the Galaxy S III, cashing in on the design language that they’ve successfully made the public understand with that one giant cross-carrier release. The Galaxy Note weighs in at aproximately 182.5g and sticks to this weight no matter which carrier its on, with a body that remains the same for case integration and a much more likely 3rd party accessory manufacturer success story.
Hands-on with T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note II features
This device comes with a T-Mobile back panel that’s the same glossy plastic as the Galaxy S III series, here with a lovely Black tone right off the bat instead of just Blue or White – though they’re coming out right away as well, if you like. The display has a subtle curve around the edges, there’s still the faux-chrome edges as the Galaxy S III has, and they’ve also both got the same sort of Samsung-made case/back cover replacement accessory that flips over the front and keeps your display safe in your pocket or purse or backpack.
The display has less pixels across it than the original Note, but also replaces the PenTile technology used there for a lovely HD Super AMOLED unit instead. What you’ve got here is indeed less pixels than before, even though you’ve got a larger display – but the trade-off (if you can call it that) is well worth the result: this display is 1280 x 720 pixels (rather than 1280 x 800) and is now compatible instantly with masses of 720p apps right out of the box. It’s both sharp as you could ever want it to be and brighter than your eyeballs should reasonably need.
The cameras on this device include a 1.9 megapixel front-facing unit ready for video chat and OK-looking photos and the back has a rather nice 8 megapixel camera with single LED flash. Both cameras have a fabulous backside-illuminated sensor and are capable of 1080p video. The headphone jack sits in the top left, the main speaker sits on the back under to tiny slits near the S-Pen slot, and the S-Pen slot is on the bottom with a whole new hole (and S-Pen, mind you) for much more intuitive action and use.
The back of this device is replaceable and sits on top of a massive 3,100 mAh replaceable battery. Also under the hood you’ll find a space for your microSIM card and a microSDHC card – this device can take up to a 64GB card, just like the Galaxy S III can. You’ve got the option of picking up a Galaxy Note II in one of three different internal storage sizes (depending on the carrier you’re aiming for), those being 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB.
Inside is also a collection of a who’s-who of top-tier connectivity options including Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX, NFC, WiFi a/b/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz) with WiFi Direct, and USB 2.0 Host. The USB 2.0 Host works through your standard microUSB port, and you’ll need a converter of some sort to connect to your external storage devices. Accelerometer, digital compass, proximity sensor, gyroscope, A-GPS, Glonass positioning, and S-Pen technology that we must assume was developed by wizards.
Of course the S-Pen connection, outlined in its own fabulous section later in this review, is aided largely by the Samsung-made Exynos processor that powers this device. The Exynos 4 quad-core processor runs here at 1.6GHz per core, and that’s ARM Cortex-A9, mind you. Everyday use with this machine makes the case for the processor without a doubt, here utilizing essentially the same power that the significantly larger Galaxy Note 10.1 uses to roll with this 5.5-inch machine – it’s a monster, for certain (see our standard benchmarks below as well.)
S-Pen
With a new Note comes a new generation of S-Pen, and once again Samsung does not disappoint with improvements over the past release. Here the pen feels more like a standard No.2 pencil (a classic size, of course) and has a fine new collection of software enhancements to go with it. The pen also still sits inside the Note II snugly, able to be removed and replaced with ease yet staying firm when in transit.
The S-Pen is now another level ahead of the competition in its software implementation – where the S-Pen’s original iteration took Wacom technology to punch the capacitive “finger-dummy” styluses of the past right in the face, the new S-Pen gives it a double-wallop. The first and most apparent place you’ll see this second level is in its ability to appear as a floating nib – you can be about a half-centimeter above the display and you’ll have a sensor showing on the screen: this marker on the display has a collection of uses.
The S-Pen has a variety of new features throughout its software and hardware builds, but some of the most interesting bits come from the S-Pen hover feature we were told about some weeks ago. The S-Pen is now able to give you previews of many different items including emails (in your email app, not Gmail quite yet), S Planner calendar, and videos in your Samsung Videos app. Your standard gallery app too will allow you to preview the images inside a gallery folder, flipping through sets piece by piece.
With the Note II you’re able to set the device to detect when you’ve left your S-Pen behind. You can bring up a new home page that only exists when the S-Pen is out. You can take a screenshot with a tap and hold on your display, these shots then able to be written on and shared at will. This functionality makes us wish Google integrated such an ability into the basic version of Android, it’s so helpful on a daily basis.
The S-Pen also works now with Quick Command drawn-commands, with a question mark followed by “Weather” bringing you web search and an exclamation mark followed by a location bringing you to that location in Maps. Similarly you’re able to write out commands with S-Voice, though this is a bit less intuitive as wherever you’re going to be in a position to hear S-Voice speak, you’re probably going to be able to speak out loud yourself.
After the software integration with the S-Pen, there’s always the usability factor. The comfort with which we’re able to use the S-Pen has far increased over the previous generation Galaxy Note, reaching now for the same highly-tuned size of the pen included with the Galaxy Note 10.1. Here we’re using something much closer to a pencil where before it was just a teensy bit too thin.
Software
In addition to the S-Pen being the star of the show and having most of its features advertised surrounding this stylus, Samsung’s TouchWiz and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean have added some awesome enhancements that will bring your mobile experience to a new level. One of the oddities is the ability called “Page Buddy” to have a sort of “peekaboo” home screen that appears only when you plug in the right accessory. There’s one for your S-Pen (as mentioned earlier), one for docking mode, and one for your headphones as well. Rather helpful stuff for plug-and-play sorts of folks.
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is your standard system here with Samsung’s TouchWiz integrated within, and a set of T-Mobile and Samsung apps added to the standard Google fare. Of course Samsung’s TouchWiz integration no longer sits around as the same execution for every single device as such additions did at the start of Android – now it’s unique for each device, allowing enhancements to take hold exactly as they should depending on the device’s abilities.
Galaxy Note II hands-on with custom vibration notifications
You’ve got such fabulous abilities as recording your own vibration combination for notifications, circling items with your S-Pen to take miniature screen-shots, and the calling forward of S-Note with a double-tap on your display with the S-Pen once again. This S-Note calling feature links in with other pop-up windows you can use, these first appearing way back on the TouchWiz UX software update to the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 – it’s come a long way since then, to say the least.
Benchmark Performance
The Samsung Galaxy Note II brings on a level of fluidity and instant-reaction taps that we’ve only otherwise seen on Android with the LG Optimus G. Both devices use quad-core processors, with the G using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro and the Galaxy Note II using Samsung’s own Exynos quad-core architecture – essentially the same as is used in the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet. Have a peek here first at some Asphalt 7 gaming action to see how well the unit holds up in a racing situation.
Next have a peek at the benchmarks that show this machine to be acting right up in with the other warrior we just looked at, Qualcomm and Samsung here duking it out for supremacy. Have another look at our LG Optimus G review to see how closely these two new beasts get, keeping in mind that the LG device has a slightly smaller display with a similar amount of pixels in the end.
Camera
The 8 megapixel camera on the back of the Samsung Galaxy Note II has never looked nicer in the Samsung family of devices. That’s a feat in an of itself, mind you, as the Galaxy S III brought on some fury of its own just a few months ago at its introduction to the world. Now we’re seeing no drop in quality and a lovely interface crafted for the Galaxy Note II so you can make photography, however odd it looks with a device of this size, your own high-quality experience.
Both up close and far away we’re doing well here, with Samsung certainly leaving this device out in the rain for quality on either the front or the back camera. You’ll find that 1080p video works well and 8 megapixel photos, be they HDR or standard – or an array of other odd filters – look rather nice. Have a peek below at a selection of examples from the Galaxy Note II and see how they compare with the Samsung Galaxy S III review – look similar to you?
Battery Performance
The battery on the Samsung Galaxy Note II has had a rather easy time getting through the day with its 3,100 mAh of juice, even with a hard day’s work behind it. That said, Samsung has provided us with a set of easy to manage power-saving abilities that everyone should be well aware of by now. The display is the most power-hungry of anything on this device, as is always true of a device with a display as potentially bright as this one – placing this on “auto” will do wonders for your battery life.
There’s also the rather fabulous Blocking mode which you’ll have to switch on from your Setting menu. This option brings on the ability to disable incoming calls, notifications, alarm and timer, and LED indicator at the tap of a button – it appears in your notifications menu near the rest of the switch off/on buttons. You can also set it up to switch on and off at certain times of the day every day if you wish – and you can block certain contacts with the feature, but that’s not about batteries unless you’ve got a stalker, of course.
Samsung also includes their general Power Saving mode which works wonders once again – use this, blocking mode, and auto brightness on your display will bring you more than enough power for more than a day at a time. You’ve got the ability to replace your battery on the go, also, so keep that in mind if you’re an insane constant-use sort of person.
Wrap-Up
The Samsung Galaxy Note II is a device that any Android and Samsung-loving fan will love, but outside the faction of normal citizens that have a need for such a massive beast of an in-betweener, this machine might just fall flat. It’s not that it’s not great – this device is made for awesome high-level mobile computing and it definitely does that well, but if you can’t fit the Galaxy Note II in your pocket, you’ll probably not want to use it on the regular.
If you’re a smartphone user and have enjoyed the Samsung Galaxy S III, you’re probably going to want to at least have a look at the Galaxy Note II. It’s an enticing prospect, seeing your best buddy Galaxy blown up to a 5.5-inch display-toting size with a magic want embedded in its side. I’ve found the Galaxy Note II to be entirely enjoyable to use each and every day I’ve used it – but complaints about the first iteration of this device hold true here as well.
If the size is a boon to you, you might as well not even try it. If you want to have the highest level of mobile computing on the market right now with the finest-tuned amalgamation of both software and hardware in one device, the Samsung Galaxy Note II is the one for you. Those that want an all-in-one Android that does essentially everything any Android-toting device on the market has been able to do thus far, thus is the one.
Samsung‘s latest iteration in its Galaxy Note series will be hitting AT&T stores on November 9. The Galaxy Note II is Samsung’s latest phablet-style smartphone that features a huge 5.5-inch display, and it can finally be yours in just a couple of weeks for the price of $299 after signing a new two-year contract with Ma Bell.
If you want to secure your own Galaxy Note II ahead of the official launch, you’ll be able to pre-order it starting this Thursday, October 25. Simply just head to AT&T’s landing page for the Galaxy Note II and off you go. The page isn’t live yet, but it will once they open up pre-orders for customers.
The Galaxy Note II features a 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED display with a 1280×720 resolution. It runs off of Samsung’s own Exynos quad-core processor clocked at 1.6GHz and comes packing with 2GB of RAM. You’ll also have your choices of either a 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB model, but a microSDHC slot will be available in case you want to save some cash.
Samsung won’t officially have their launch event for the Galaxy Note II until tomorrow, but that hasn’t stopped the device from being announced, and US Cellular even put the new device up for pre-order last month with an official launch date of sometime in late October. Hopefully we’ll hear more details about the Galaxy Note II at Samsung’s launch event tomorrow.
Samsung’s new Galaxy Note II arrives with some heritage to explain it, though a 5.5-inch smartphone can still take some explaining. After its first-gen predecessor blustered its way into a new segment – known by some and loathed by others as “phablets” – the new model tweaks the formulae some, boosting performance, smoothing the design, and polishing the digital pen elements that help set it apart from the smartphone crowd. So, if the original Galaxy Note eventually answered the question “will it sell?” can the Samsung Galaxy Note II convince us that it’s a worthwhile upgrade? Read on for the full SlashGear review.
Hardware
Though twelve months old, the first Galaxy Note still doesn’t look too shabby in terms of specifications, and so the Note II generally tightens up the package and polishes off any glaringly rough edges. Design-wise, it’s now more akin to the Galaxy S III – all curves and fake chrome edges – than the model it replaces, and side-by-side the pair are obviously from the same family. At 80.5 x 151.1 x 9.4 mm and 182.5g, it’s slightly longer and heavier than the first Note, though also narrower and thinner; slimmer bezels have meant Samsung can fit a bigger display despite the only moderate size changes, now at 5.5-inches rather than 5.3-inches.
The panel itself continues to use HD Super AMOLED technology, though the resolution has changed: the Note II drops an 80-pixel column and trims things down to 1280 x 720 (rather than 1280 x 800). That means the Note II is actually showing less on-screen than before, despite the larger display, but it also makes it more directly compatible with apps for 720p smartphones, not to mention likely making Samsung’s own software engineers’ lives easier.
There’s more to the screen change than the size and resolution, however. Samsung has thrown out the contentious PenTile panel of before, maligned for its surfeit of green pixels, and replaced it with a brand new pixel layout that gets a step closer to true RGB. The end result is a far more balanced display that looks incredibly good: bright and color-rich, with the syrupy blacks we’re used to, and a crispness to text that’s distinctly better than what the first Note could manage. Samsung’s default color temperature remains more saturated than we’d like, but you can easily tweak that between four presets – dynamic, standard, natural, and movie – in the settings.
Inside there have been some advances too, with the Exynos processor now packing four cores and running at 1.6GHz. It’s paired with a healthy 2GB of RAM – something some, but not all, of the original Note versions offered – and either 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of storage, with a microSDHC card slot to bolster that. Samsung’s default battery is also considerably improved, at 3,100 mAh up almost a quarter over the handset it replaces, and that gives plenty of juice for the surfeit of radios.
HSPA+ 21Mbps and LTE 100Mbps will be offered, though the 4G versions will be country-dependent; all models get Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX high-quality audio support, WiFi a/b/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz) with WiFi Direct, NFC, and USB 2.0 Host for hooking up accessories like external storage. There’s also A-GPS and Glonass positioning, an accelerometer, digital compass, proximity sensor, gyroscope, and a barometer, while a multicolor LED light hides up near the earpiece.
Two cameras are included, an 8-megapixel main shooter on the back with an LED flash, backside-illuminated sensor, and Full HD video recording, and a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera, also with a backside-illuminated sensor, itself also capable of 1080p video. A 3.5mm headphone jack is on the top edge; the microUSB port is on the bottom, as is the bay for the stylus (more on which in a moment). Samsung persists in putting the volume rocket and the power/lock key on the sides of the Note II – left and right edges respectively – but they’ve been shuffled further down the body than before, and are easier to press when holding the phone around the middle.
Still, this is undoubtedly a large phone, and our recommendation with the original Note to try before you buy still holds true second time around. The slightly narrower form-factor does make a mild difference in hand-feel, as do the curvier corners, though it can be a stretch reaching down to the menu and back soft-keys – flanking a squashed home/task-switcher button – if you’re trying for single-handed use. Those with a fondness for skinny jeans may find the Note II altogether too much for comfort, though the slick, gloss-finish plastic, while not as premium in its feel as the brushed metal of the iPhone 5, does mean the Samsung can slip friction-free into the tighter of crevices.
Stylus
Ever since the iPhone launched, we’ve seen attempts to pair capacitive touchscreens with styli, but Samsung looked beyond dreary finger-mimicry with the Note’s digital pen. Instead, it turned to digitizer expert Wacom – known for its high-quality graphics tablets – for the active digitizer that accompanies the Note II’s capacitive screen. It means you can use the Note II with your finger, as you’d expect, but also whip out its pen and get far more precise input as well as pressure sensitivity, useful if you’re sketching or using handwriting recognition.
For the new Note II, the stylus itself has had an overhaul. It’s now thicker and longer than the previous version (though still fits snugly inside the body of the phone) and the tip has a new coating that’s kinder to the screen and feels more like a ballpoint pen when you’re writing. The difference in barrel width does make a difference to comfort, now less like pinching a pen refill between your fingertips, though the button on the side – which can be used to call up sub-menus of commands, app depending – still takes a little getting used to.
Samsung now supports hover with the pen, the display recognizing that the nib is floating a half-centimeter or so above the display. It gives the Note II a second degree of input: like positioning your computer cursor over an icon or control, but not actually clicking it. In Samsung’s case, the actual functionality varies depending on the app, though it means you can see things like calendar event details without having to actually tap into the appointment, preview the content of a message from the inbox list, or look inside a gallery album. You can also use hover to scroll through lists, holding the nib near the end to automatically slide through the options.
Software and Performance
Launching a new Android phone running anything other than the latest version of the OS, particularly when it’s a flagship, is grounds for a severe scolding, so thankfully the Note II runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box. For a long time we’ve been critical of companies who redress Android in their own custom interfaces, but TouchWiz on the Galaxy Note II does at least bring functionality beyond what Jelly Bean alone delivers.
The most obvious of those changes are aesthetic, but as you spend more time with the Note II – particularly with the pen – you see the tweaks and touches that go beyond design. Many of those are familiar from the original Note, of course: you still get the S Planner calendar app, which allows you to circle dates with the stylus and generally scrawl across your agenda, and S Note with its notebooks of memos, diary entries, meeting notes, and more. S Note content can be synchronized with Google Docs or Evernote, too, which makes it far more useful than traditional notes trapped in physical notebook.
Samsung Galaxy Note II software review:
Samsung’s stylus can also be used to grab sections of the display as screenshots. There’s support for the hand-side-swipe to grab a full screenshot, just as on the Galaxy S III, but you can also hold down the barrel button of the pen and snip out a shape – as basic as a circle or square, or something more finicky – and then annotate it or add it to a notebook. S Note has various preset shapes and clipart, too, and you can add voice recordings, sections of maps, photos, video, and other attachments to each note.
New is Quick Command, summoned by holding down the barrel button and swiping up the display; it works no matter what app you’re currently in, and brings up a floating dialog for pen-triggered shortcuts. Write a question mark, for instance, followed by “weather” and you’ll get a browser search for the current weather; write “@” and a name, and a new email will open up with suggestions as to the recipient from your contacts (if you’ve only one contact with that name, they’ll automatically be selected). Somewhat annoyingly, given the excellent Gmail app is one of the boons of Android, Quick Command’s email composer only works with the customized regular email application. Samsung preconfigures a number of shortcuts, but you can also train it to recognize your own.
If you’d rather not use handwriting recognition – which requires reasonable penmanship – there’s a spacious onscreen keyboard which becomes practically obscene in its size when the Note II is in landscape orientation. New for this second-gen model, though, is the ability to offset the keyboard for one-handed use: you can choose to shrink it down and nudge it over to the left or the right of the phone, making it easier to tap with your thumb while holding the Note II with the same hand. It’s an interesting approach, and worked fairly well, though the sheer size of the handset does mean it requires some balancing to keep it from toppling out of your hand.
S Voice, Samsung’s answer to Siri, is present, and triggered by default by a double-press of the home button. It’s still patchy in its usefulness, however, and we had mixed results day to day; since the processing is all done server-side, it’s possible for Samsung to upgrade and add new features just as Apple did with Siri in iOS 6, though the functionality appears to be unchanged versus what we saw on the Galaxy S III.
New with Jelly Bean, though, is Google Now, Android’s attempt to bring some context and prediction to the platform. It’s triggered from an icon in the task-switcher menu – hold down the home button and you’ll see it, flanked by a shortcut to the task killer and a button to axe all the currently running apps. As on the Galaxy Nexus, where we first saw it, Google Now is of mixed use, and you need to have invested your digital life in Google’s service if you want to get the best out of it. If you’ve set up your calendar, for instance, Google Now will remind you of an upcoming appointment and help you with directions to get there, as well as telling you the weather. It’s still early days for mobile context engines, but we’re glad to see it show up on the Note II.
Jelly Bean’s other improvements are included too. There’s Project Butter behind the scenes, keeping the interface moving slickly, and the Note II did indeed keep up with every swipe. If we ever had any hiccups it was usually down to the sheer size of the display; swiping an unwanted notification from the drop-down menu, for instance (now with a handy preview of the content of new messages) required just a little bit more of a flick than we would do by default, meaning it would sometimes take a couple of tries before it disappeared. Given time, though, we’d expect to get used to that.
In addition to Google’s own Android backup, Samsung has added in support for its Cloud service. Register for a free Samsung account, and you can sync your calendar, contacts, internet history, and S Note data; you can also do device backups, of logs, SMS and MMS messaging, and wallpapers, either on-demand or according to a regular schedule. If you’d rather not use Samsung’s cloud, there’s baked-in support for Dropbox instead.
Multi Window borrows from the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet, pitting two apps side-by-side on the display. Unlike on the Note 10.1, there’s no noticeable performance hit, and it’s useful being able to quickly review a webpage while jotting reminders in S Note, or keep an eye on an IM conversation.
We had high hopes for the Note II’s performance, and the reality didn’t disappoint. Day-to-day it’s smooth and lag-free, capable of handling any app we could throw at it. In terms of raw numbers, we saw a score of 5908 in Quadrant and 1829 in Vellamo 2′s HTML5 tests and 635 in its Metal tests, while SunSpider came in at 1044.7ms. In short, this is one of the fastest, slickest Android devices around.
Camera
The Note II shares the same camera with the Galaxy S III, an 8-megapixel backside-illuminated sensor with autofocus and an LED flash on the back, and a 1.9-megapixel webcam on the front. As with the smaller phone, it’s capable of some great shots, though it can sometimes tend toward over-exposure and we saw some interesting lens flare when trying to shoot brighter scenes. Close-up shots do particularly well, though, and while sometimes blue skies looked over-saturated on the Note II’s display, they were more realistic when we viewed them off the phone.
Samsung provides an HDR mode, which combines shots of various exposures to make one with artificially broader dynamic range, together with a burst shot mode for grabbing multiple frames in rapid succession. Panoramic capture is supported, again, just as on the Galaxy S III. There’s control over exposure, brightness, and other basics, together with the usual array of filters.
Video, meanwhile, is captured at up to 1080p Full HD resolution whether with the front or back cameras, and marks another solid showing by the Note II. There’s little in the way of motion blur, even with faster moving scenes, and the Note II can handle reasonably low-light scenes without descending into too much noise and grain. Stereo audio is also captured.
1080p Full HD video sample:
With support for MHL-HDMI output, with the right adapter you’ll be able to hook up the Note II to a display or projector and review whatever footage you’ve recorded. Alternatively, there’s Samsung’s AllShare technology for wireless streaming, either to the company’s own HDTV dongle, or to any DLNA-compliant device.
Phone and Battery
Holding a device of this size to your head and making voice calls is still a good way to feel self-conscious in public, though the growing popularity of the original Note means there’s less of that “talking into a tablet” conspicuousness than before. We experienced no dropped calls on the Vodafone network. The extra length of the Note II does mean the microphone and earpiece are well spaced, and voice calls in general were of high quality. The speakerphone, too, proved loud and resilient to crackle. If you really do feel too ridiculous holding the Note II to the side of your head, there’s Bluetooth for wireless headsets, and the aptX support meant, when tested with an aptX-compatible stereo headset, music playback quality was noticeably improved.
Samsung has outfitted the Note II with a vast battery – 3,100 mAh, and since it’s user-replaceable you could feasibly swap it out for another – though the big display and quadcore processor means it’s not shy about drinking power. Nonetheless, even with a day of heavy use – including push email turned on, using the camera and then automatically uploading photos and video to the cloud, Google Maps, the browser, some sketching with the pen, and a couple of YouTube videos, not to mention a couple of short calls and some SMS messaging – we reached the end of the day with juice to spare.
There are new power management tools on the Note II, too, with the existing Power Saving mode (which dims the screen and throttles back the processor, among other things) joined by a new Blocking Mode. That allows you to shut off incoming calls and notifications, alerts from the alarm or timer, and even whether the LED notification light blinks, either permanently or within certain hours. It’s ideal if you leave your phone on your nightstand when you’re sleeping and don’t want to be perpetually disturbed by bleeps and flashing, particularly because you can also set a list of priority contacts who will be allowed through the lockdown.
With some sensible use of the settings, then, you could feasibly have two days of use on a charge, though that will depend on how much you use 3G (on this European-spec model; US versions will have LTE, which is even more power-hungry) and other features.
Wrap-Up
For some, the original Galaxy Note was a monstrosity: not quite a phone, not quite a tablet, and not standing any chance at all of ending up in their pocket or bag. They’re unlikely to be any more convinced by this refined, faster successor, since the main criticisms are the same: it’s big, it’s heavier than many phones, and it often requires two hands to use it properly.
Those not immediately turned off by the Note II’s size have a more tempting prospect ahead of them. The new phone offers a bigger display and better pen functionality, not to mention a jump in core performance and – until Samsung can push out OS updates – a newer and more user-friendly version of Android and TouchWiz than its predecessor. It’s nicer to look at and hold, faster in use, and lasts longer; most importantly, it takes greater advantage of the digital pen, something which continues to set the Note II apart from most of the competition.
First time around, Samsung had to convince us there was still a place for the stylus with today’s smartphones. That ice has already been broken for the Galaxy Note II, and while its audience is undoubtedly smaller than for the Galaxy S III, perhaps, or the iPhone 5, those opting for Samsung’s biggest smartphone will find themselves with a handset whose capabilities are even bigger than its display.
We’ve already asked around to let you know that British phablet fans can get their Galaxy Note II fix on ThreeUK, O2 and Vodafone, and now we know the date, too. Anxious S-pen lovers will be able to grab the new device from October 1st from the carriers, or pick ’em up at the Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U — in either Marble White or Titanium Grey. If you’d like to read the words “whole new level of innovation,” then head on past the break for the company line.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
