{"id":15026,"date":"2012-12-19T17:24:17","date_gmt":"2012-12-19T23:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcitement.com\/?p=15026"},"modified":"2012-12-21T14:41:38","modified_gmt":"2012-12-21T20:41:38","slug":"review-samsung-galaxy-note-ii-the-big-and-small-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/hardware\/review-samsung-galaxy-note-ii-the-big-and-small-of-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Samsung Galaxy Note II, The Big And Small Of It"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Samsung<\/a><\/p>\n

When Samsung announced the first Galaxy Note in 2011, it was met with confusion, disbelief, and some snickers. The idea of a phone with 5.3 inch screen seemed absurd. We were just getting used to the idea of 4\u201d<\/del> 4.3\u201d<\/del> 4.5\u201d<\/del> 4.65\u201d phones, and here was a phone that seemed to be questioning whether it should be called one at all. The Note was mockingly called a \u201cphablet,\u201d half phone, half tablet, with no hope of finding an audience. It\u2019s doubtful even Samsung thought those naysayers would be proven as wrong as they turned out to be. Samsung sold 10 million Galaxy Notes in its first nine months of availability, even as it took almost half a year to hit a single U.S. carrier, barely showing at all on a second. An unqualified success, the Galaxy Note II has been shipping over the last two months to 5 million users worldwide, with versions now available from AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon.<\/p>\n

I’ve been testing the AT&T version, but from design to specifications to software, Samsung has built almost exactly the same device worldwide, with only some pre-installed apps differing between the carriers.<\/p>\n

First Impressions<\/b><\/p>\n

The Galaxy Note II manages to have an even larger screen than the original Galaxy Note, while being less comically large than the previous edition. The 5.3\u201d screen is taller and less wide, and the phone\u2019s body is thinner, making it easier to hold and use one-handed. A potential purchaser’s biggest question is if the phone can be comfortably held, making an in-store tryout a non-optional pre-purchase requirement. But if you could stand the original Note, you’ll find the Note II more comfortable and an improvement in many other ways. The Note II\u2019s design follows Samsung\u2019s current design ethos, with the smooth, natural, and rounded feel of the Galaxy S III, only larger, with the major differences coming on the software and features side. Ignoring those elements, you could be confused that this is a larger S III. While the Note II is more than that, from a looks perspective, it isn\u2019t. The Note II is beautiful, doesn\u2019t make an effort to rip off designs from its competitors, and is more solidly built than previous Samsung phones. While the Note II is mostly plastic and glass, the body feels like one solid block, with no flex or cheap feel. The phone even allows for a removable back cover for access to the battery, an increasing rarity with modern smart devices.<\/p>\n

Samsung has kept things simple, with a single physical home button on the front, flanked by two\u00a0capacitive buttons on either side, with Menu on the left and Back on the right.\u00a0Google’s grand plan for Android involves eliminating the search and menu buttons, implementing their functions in software, while using only buttons for Back, Multitasking, and Home. Samsung ignores this. While I didn’t miss the multitasking button, which is better handled by a long press on the Home button on the Note II, I did miss the Search button. Samsung’s desire to have a big Home button requires an odd number of buttons, and something had to be left out to keep things simple. The capacitive buttons get bright, but there is a setting to disable the backlighting on them completely, which I did within minutes of turning on the device. Along the left side is the volume rocker, while the right side has nothing but a power button. The 3.5 mm headphone jack takes up is positioned at the top of the phone, while the bottom has the Micro USB port and the S Pen holder (more on that later).<\/p>\n

The back cover has the camera, an LED flash, a small but decent speaker, and on most devices, a small carrier logo. Verizon’s version of the Note II has a ridiculously large Verizon 4G LTE logo, plus a Verizon logo on the Home button<\/a>, which is a source of annoyance for many buyers. That annoyance has led to the creation of a tiny sticker you can buy<\/a> to cover up the branding. Behind the back cover, which is mercifully removable, you’ll find the 3100 mAh battery and slots for Micro SIM and Micro SD cards. There are also contacts for NFC, and on mostly international versions, wireless inductive charging. The box contains nothing but a USB cable, USB charger, manuals, and the phone itself.<\/p>\n

Display and Size<\/b><\/p>\n

There’s no denying that this phone is much, much bigger than most. At 5.95\u201d x 3.16\u201d x 0.37\u201d, the Galaxy Note is barely smaller than the original Note (about three percent smaller, by volume), while packing a larger screen (5.5\u201d to 5.3\u201d) and battery (3100 mAh to 2500 mAh). The fact that Samsung managed to design more phone into less of a case makes for a significant upgrade in usability. Considering how many people use two hands for things like typing, or hold their phones with one hand and tapping with the other hand, many with tiny hands might not mind having such a large phone. More importantly, it’s easy to appreciate the benefits of a larger screen without the drawbacks of the even larger screen on a tablet.<\/p>\n

\"Galaxy<\/a><\/p>\n

Samsung has gone to great lengths to add unique features to the Note II to make it seem like more of an advantage over devices both smaller and larger than it. To compete with smaller, more convenient phones, a number of UI elements have been customized with \u201cone-handed operation\u201d modes, like the keypad in the phone dialer, the calculator, and even the keyboard. Samsung takes advantage of all that screen space to compete with tablets, with its two-pane email app (not unlike Outlook on the desktop) and apps that can run at the same time, on the same screen as other apps. You can watch a video in a pop-up window while reading a webpage or composing an email with an update already on the European edition and a select few U.S. editions that lets even more apps split the screen. Samsung also added a number of new features to Android, which are a mixed bag. For example, there are features to keep the screen on when looking at it for long periods of time and to keep it from rotating when your body is equally rotated (like lying down in bed), wallpapers that stream news headlines, home screen pages that dynamically appear only under certain circumstances, tons of gestures, a wholly unique and surprisingly advanced keyboard, and more. The sheer amount and uniqueness of the UI customizations can be covered in depth in an article all to themselves.
\n<\/p>\n

\"Samsung<\/a>
\nSamsung has made an admirable effort to extend the capabilities of Android, taking its software from what has been described in the past as annoying and slow to innovative and unobtrusive. Most of these features are off by default, but you have bells and whistles galore if you want them. Another major unique feature is the S-Pen, as Samsung refers to the stylus that disappears into a slot on the back of the device. The first Galaxy Note\u2019s screen was topped by a Wacom digitizer, a technology that allows for use of powered stylus to draw on the screen with incredible accuracy. This phones’ screen actually has a small electrical field that sends power into the stylus when nearby, allowing it to report button input, pressure sensitivity, and even proximity to the screen when not actually touching it. It\u2019s the rare technology that actually appears to work magically, considering how little impresses people anymore. There are many places on the Note II that Samsung has extended the phone to take advantage of the S-Pen. Besides a powerful note-taking app, with myriad drawing features, the phone can detect when the pen has been removed and trigger actions. When the pen is hovering over the display, specific apps will preview links, videos, pictures, email messages, and other items. The S-Pen can also invoke gestures, and there’s a handwriting input to write on the screen and have your scribbles converted to text. Apps can take advantage of an API to utilize the S-Pen, and while most popular apps haven’t, a surprising number of note-taking, drawing, and even some games and productivity apps in the Google Play store cite S-Pen support.<\/p>\n

\"Samsung<\/a><\/p>\n

Performance<\/b><\/p>\n

Powering all of this multitasking, gesture-aware goodness is Samsung\u2019s latest Exynos SoC (System on a Chip), with a four-core processor clocked at 1.6 GHz and 2 GB of RAM. Most benchmarks show the Note II is faster than all or almost all phones and tablets on the market, and the large amounts of RAM mean that running two apps at once or using extremely powerful applications doesn\u2019t slow the phone down. After a month of using the phone, I haven\u2019t run into an activity or app that can make it stutter or freeze up, a testament to a powerful chip. While the Note II has been overclocked to 1.8 GHz,\u00a0even at 1.6, it’s considerably faster than the original Note overclocked past that speed. This increased speed is likely due to the increased RAM and improved speed optimizations in Samsung\u2019s drivers and OS customizations, as well as the continued improvement of Google\u2019s 4.1 (Jelly Bean) version of Android. All of that speed should come at a price, but it doesn\u2019t. Not only does the Note II have a bigger battery than its predecessor, but the phone also uses it better.<\/p>\n

This might be anecdotal evidence, but it shocked me nonetheless. I used the Note II on my regular morning routine, viewing web pages, reading cached news articles, listening to music, and even watching a video while getting ready for work, commuting, and getting settled at my desk. I didn\u2019t use my original Galaxy Note at all, and both devices were fully charged and unplugged at the around the same time that morning. Even though the Note II\u2019s screen was on for over an hour and a half during those 140 minutes, and being actively used, it only drained 19 percent of its battery under heavy use, while the Note I idling away in my bag, drained 26 percent of its battery. Yes, the first Note has a battery problem that worsens the longer you use it, but the strong battery management on the Note II should make it one of the biggest selling points of the device.<\/p>\n

Camera<\/b><\/p>\n

As usual, Samsung\u2019s camera has few weak points, even if it isn’t likely to win any awards. The 8 megapixel shooter features good color reproduction, can take eight photos in short succession and choose the best shot, smile detection, HDR photos, and even some Instagram-like wacky filters. Videos can be shot at up to 1080p, and both modes include image stabilization options. There is a passable 1.9 megapixel front facing camera that deserves a cursory mention lasting as long as this sentence. The camera refocuses and adjusts to light changes quickly (under a second) and can take about four shots per second by pumping the onscreen shutter button. Samsung’s burst shot mode takes up to 20 pictures, as long as you hold down the shutter, and gets about five frames per second. The gallery app, on occasion, chokes while loading a lot of pictures, though it has a nice two-pane view, letting you switch between albums and photos quickly, when it works. You have control over ISO, color balance, image stabilization, and you can even take a picture with a voice command by simply saying “capture, “shoot”, “smile” or “cheese.”<\/p>\n

\"Samsung<\/a><\/p>\n

Hackability<\/b><\/p>\n

The developer community is active with this phone. Many hacks and ROMs developed for the international versions are easily ported to the U.S. versions, making for a large community customizing the phone. Recently an official Cyanogenmod 10 build for the international version<\/a> was posted, which should mean versions to come for other variants. On some U.S. devices, the wireless charging hardware is partially present, and some simple work or minor soldering can add that feature. The worst version to hack, as usual, is the Verizon version, the only one in the world with a locked bootloader.<\/p>\n

The Strengths<\/b><\/p>\n

Overall, this is a fast device with great battery life. Samsung’s TouchWiz continues to improve, keeping more of stock Android while adding completely optional, yet useful and unobtrusive, features. The camera is as good as most, with a lot of unique options, and the S Pen can be a huge feature if you take advantage of it.<\/p>\n

The Weaknesses<\/b><\/p>\n

The phone is damn big. That alone is going to be a reason to stay away for many, so don’t kid yourself that it doesn’t matter. TouchWiz isn’t stock Android, and while it isn’t bad, some of the changes may not be your cup of tea.<\/p>\n

Wrap Up<\/b><\/p>\n

Is the Samsung Galaxy Note II the right phone for you? \u00a0From a features perspective, of course it is. There is no phone faster, more capable, or better built currently available. That said, the size of this Note is a deal breaker for many, so get your hands on one and try it in store. If you can hold it, then its probably the phone for you. For previous Galaxy Note owners, this phone is a no-brainer. With support for the fastest networks on all major carriers worldwide, any discerning smartphone buyer should give the Galaxy Note II a shot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Samsung announced the first Galaxy Note in 2011, it was met with confusion, disbelief, and some snickers. The idea of a phone with 5.3 inch screen seemed absurd. We were just getting used to the idea of 4\u201d 4.3\u201d 4.5\u201d 4.65\u201d phones, and here was a phone that seemed to be questioning whether it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,1918,1085,1917],"tags":[34,2298,3256,2829,1175,2951,3718,3228,2903,3719,61,1541],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15026"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15026"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15322,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15026\/revisions\/15322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}