The rather impressive lovechild of the Samsung Galaxy Note and Galaxy SIII

Samsung Galaxy Note II

So I am doing something a little unusual for this blog, not so much a review, as a preview! Although the fact I had a rare night out on Saturday means I haven’t managed to post this before the Note II made it into the shops. When I got to play with this thing there were apparently only 6 in the country and they were being guarded for secrecy. I would venture to guess that there are rather more of them now!

Anyway, this must be a pretty special phone given that they asked me and a handful of other bloggers to come up to London and have a poke around with it. Samsung also sent one of their trainers to talk us through all of the different aspects of the phone, which puts me in the unusual position of actually being relatively well qualified to write about something!

First of all, looks. Well it’s big like a Galaxy Note, but has the styling of the Galaxy SIII. That pretty much covers it and in case you want to know how all that pans out, I have a picture… This is the grey version and the phone is also available in white: –

Galaxy SIII and Galaxy Note II, side by side. As I was using my own SIII to take the picture you’ll have to excuse the phone with the cracked screen! Not my doing!

Now if you want to be bored with facts and figures about the Note 2 I am sure there are a million techie websites, phone shops and the like which will provide you with all the minutiae regarding the exact size of the camera aperture the manufacturing process used to create the sim card holder. However, I can offer a few little comparisons, I will use the Galaxy SIII, Galaxy Note and iPhone 5 for this purpose…

	Galaxy Note II	Galaxy SIII	Galaxy Note	iPhone 5
Size	80.5 x 151.1 x 9.4mm	70.6 x 136.6 x 8.6mm	82.95 x 146.85 x 9.65mm	58.6 x 123.8 x 7.6 mm
Weight	182.5g	133g	178g	112g
OS	Android 4.1 (Jellybean)	Android 4.0 (ICS)	Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)	iOS 6
Processor	1.6GHz Quad	1.4GHz Quad	1.4GHz Dual	1.2GHz Dual
Display	140.9mm (5.56”) HD Super AMOLED (1,280 x 720)	127mm (4.8”) HD Super AMOLED (1,280 x 720)	132mm (5.29″) HD Super AMOLED (1,280 x 800)	102mm (4”) Retina Display (1,136 x 640)
Network	3G HSPA+ 4G LTE	3G HSPA+	3G HSPA+	3G HSPA+ 4G LTE
Camera	8MP rear 1.9MP front	8MP rear 1.9MP front	8MP rear 2MP front	8MP rear 1.2MP front

As you can see, at first glance other than the difference in Operating System and any preferences there, the Galaxy Note II roundly trounces the competition in almost every area.

But stepping quickly away from the boring facts which I promised I wouldn’t dwell on, it’s probably better to focus on the Note II’s unique selling points or ‘usp’s.

The main distinguishing feature about the Galaxy Note range (whether it’s the Note II or the other recent addition to the range the Note 10.1 Tablet) is that it comes with a stylus (called the S Pen by Samsung). The stylus is nothing new, with palm-tops of old sporting a the exact same, but in today’s world where the touchscreen is common and on-screen keyboards are second nature, the stylus has disappeared.

Using the ‘S Pen’.

Samsung think that this is a bad thing and that productivity can be increased with the inclusion of a little electronic pen. It’s actually no bad thing.

First of all, you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to. Secondly, it’s pretty intuitive. For example, the phone/stylus can recognise when they are in close proximity even if they don’t touch. This opens up features such as the ability to scroll simply by hovering the stylus at the top or bottom of a page.

The real function of the pen has never changed though and that is to write notes and such like using your own writing rather than having to fiddle around with an on-screen keyboard.

There is an obvious downside to the Note II for some. Its size. It’s a big phone, or a very small tablet depending on how you look at it. Samsung are desperate to bridge the phone/tablet divide with this device and its massive screen is fantastic for everyday tasks. The downside is that it is a pocket/handbag filler. In reality I see this device as a great tool as a business/business-person’s phone. It will increase productivity and make life very easy. It will also do a fantastic job of whiling away the time on the train, with its big screen allowing you to watch films in HD quality.

Samsung are also very into Gesture controls lately and have been pretty innovative. The new top end TVs allow you to use voice and gestures, while the Galaxy SIII has a range of these which help out. A personal favourite is the ability to put a phone to your head when looking at a text and automatically calling that person. It gently eases the process between reading a text saying ‘I slept with your best friend’ and phoning your mum and asking what the hell she’s playing at! (My mum didn’t do that by the way, in case you’re wondering). There’s all the things you’re used to from the Galaxy SIII, but in terms of features unique to the Note II there are the following gesture controls and the like which make using this phone a more enjoyable experience: –

• Air View – Hovering the stylus over a video will give you a ‘pop out’ enlarged version of the video which will play allowing you to decide if it’s really the one you want to click on. The same feature allows you to see the content in a text or e-mail before opening or scroll to the right place in a video.
• Popup Note – Taking the S Pen out during a call will allow you to make a quick note.
• Quick Command – A cross between S voice and writing! Just write @dave to send Dave an e-mail. There are a number of little commands like this for those who feel like a bit of a pleb talking to their phone!
• Alarm control – Hover your hand over your phone when the alarm goes off and it will beep at you and snooze.
• You can also do all the normal handwriting of notes and creative bits like drawing which a stylus makes possible.

The Note II is a powerful piece of kit and a phone I’d love to get my hands on. I don’t know if I’d replace my SIII with it, purely because of size, but for work and on the go, or if I am feeling more creative it’s a great solution, particularly if you don’t want to be carrying around a phone and a tablet.

I am a Samsung Mob!ler. Details of what this means can be found on the ‘Mob!ler’ website.