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The original Galaxy Note was very not good, but seven months and 10 millions sales later, it’s hard to deny that it’s found a niche. But will its even beefier successor live up to the hype? We just spent the morning fondling the upcoming Galaxy Note II, and you know what? We’re pleasantly surprised.
The screen has gone from 5.3 inches on the Note to 5.5 inches on the Note II. Yet it’s more comfortable to hold. This is because it’s longer, but skinnier. The original Note was 16:10, this one is 16:9. Reaching the top of the screen with your thumb is still a serious struggle (and I have pretty long thumbs), but it’s definitely an improvement. Below you see it compared to the Galaxy S III on the left and the original Note on the right.
The S Pen (Samsung’s pressure-sensitive stylus) has undergone improvements as well. As you can see in the photo below, it’s gotten longer and thicker. The first iteration was round and hard to hold. The new version is a little more squared off and is definitely easier to grasp. They have also upgraded the tip. On the original Note it was just way too slippery, and the pen would slide around like crazy. The new tip is a bit more rubberised, and so there’s more resistance when you write. I would have liked to see them go further with this, but it’s certainly an improvement.
The S Pen has added a few cool new tricks, too. The phone is now aware of when the pen is in or out. Removing it will take you to a screen with some S Pen shortcuts. The phone can also tell when the tip of the S Pen is within 10 millimetres, which it uses to some advantage (it’s called Air View). For example, when you’re playing a video, you can hover over the timeline to get a thumbnail preview of what is happening at that point, then you tap to go there. In the email app (not Google’s Gmail app, unfortunately), you can hover over a subject line and get more information before you open it. Or you can use it to preview the contents of a gallery. Unfortunately, the handwriting to text is still basically unusable.
The biggest improvement, though, is the phone’s performance. It absolutely flies, and it’s incredibly smooth. Whether that’s due to the 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor or simply the addition of Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) we don’t know, but I tried hard to make it stutter and lag, and I couldn’t. Google Now opens by long-pressing the menu button (not the home button, which still opens Samsung’s S Voice, which, meh), and it was fast and smooth. Opening up a gallery, videos auto-play in thumbnail mode. Click them and they open and play instantly. The gallery has two new graphically intensive modes (Timeline and Spiral), and they both look great, and didn’t lag at all. Really impressive.
The camera has picked up some nice features, too, the most interesting of which is Best Face. You take a burst shot of a group, and the phone recognises indivdual faces and isolates them. You can then chose which face you want for which person. Sam Biddle was blinking in these three, but here he looks nice and respectable. Mario was sneezing over here, but here’s a good smile. It then splices those faces together to make one smooth, perfect group photo. It worked really well in the demo. Like the Galaxy S III it can fire off 20 shot bursts at six plus frames per second. The shutter was extremely quick and the photos looked good at first glance.
There are plenty of other upgrades. The processor, yes, but also 2GB of RAM (compared to one on the original Note) and a new GPU. The battery has also been bumped up from 2,500 mAh to 3,100 mAh. That’s still a bit shy of the upcoming Motorola RAZR MAXX HD‘s 3,300 mAh battery, and the much larger screen on the Note II means the RAZR will probably beat it in battery life, but it should certainly outlast the original note.
Those were just our flash impressions. The size of the screen will be still be extremely divisive. You will either love it or you will think it’s the worst thing ever. That aside, it’s a serious improvement over the original, and we’re looking forward to spending some real time with it for a full review.
Sounds promising so far, look forward to the full review.
Have Samsung got a release date for us yet. Phones4u are taking pre-orders and saying delivery is the 2nd October, but everyone else is refusing to comment.
Sweet I’m looking forward to seeing it in action
I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really (you get the idea now I’m sure) want this phone.
I also want this phone in 4G and then it will be the most ULTIMATE PHONE IN THE UNIVEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRSE!!!!!1!!11one!!1!!!!exclamation!!!1!
Oh, what am I to do?
I have to say, whilst not a Samsung fan, I am very impressed with their A team of phones, fast with large, crisp displays all in a phone that is not at all sore on the eyes =]
On another “note”, can someone tell me what they use the stylus for whilst using the note, i was under the impression that one of the upsides of capacitive touchscreens was not needing to use a stylus?
it allows you to, in my case, draw and paint with not far off the sensitivity of my dedicated stuff at home. This allows me to do some sketching when mood or inspiration takes me. Kids prefer to finger paint on it though lol. Actual note taking is dead easy too.
Notee taking! You will be surprised how easy and intuitive that is! Also I used to for many powerpoint editing! Drawing and sketching is definitely the main plus
(there are some people who can create amazing art over this) and its not just any capacitive screen, It has wacom digitiser in it,which is very precise, also pressure sensitive. So the s-pen would not work, in any other capacitive device apart from (galaxy notes /wacom tabs)
10 million sales do not a niche make. That’s definitely mainstream!
I think it’s a bit unfair calling the original Note “not very good”, people seem to love it or hate it but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Endgadget gave it a very good review and praised the speed and intuitiveness of the stylus.
I agree. Not everyone likes it but niche is just an understatement when we talk about 10 millions of units. For some secret reason Gizmodo keeps saying it’s bad, it’s a bad idea and blablabla. It’s surely not a phone for everyone but many people simple love it, and it also bites a piece of the so called “creative” market away from apple (what is quite an achievement in my opinion).
I got to say although I wouldn’t buy one. I would love to have a stylus like the one with the note for My IPad. Apple has so many top creative Apps for the iPad which the stylus would be very good for, iPad photoshop being just on of them..
“The original Galaxy Note was very not good” & “but seven months and 10 *millions sales* later”
Your English is “very not good”!!
I think you’ll find there are plenty who think it was and continues to be very good!
Its the best phone I’ve ever owned, and being into my tech I’ve owned a lot!! this is the longest I’ve ever kept a phone and the only swap I would consider would be for the Note 2!!
I wish we could get a pressure sensitive stylus for other Android devices. I use a stylus a lot on my Nexus 7, but its frustrating that I cant get a pressure sensitive one. Annoying thing is the Note is a bit small for me for a tablet, and I don’t really care about a stylus for my phone