Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100

Introduction

Samsung has produced many great handheld devices in its time, but few have reached iconic status. The company builds its success on great adaptability, an eye for trends and a knack for improving on others' successful formulas. And yet, every now and then it pulls off a truly inspirational device - like the Galaxy Note last year.

The 5.3" half-smartphone half-tablet carved a whole new niche in the mobile market, which many have tried to tap into since. Competition, it seems, was caught off guard though. A year later, it's yet to produce a real Note killer. But Samsung is showing no signs of complacency - even though the first of their phablets is yet to be properly challenged, they're ready to go to number 2 and set the bar even higher.

     
Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100 official photos

The Samsung Galaxy Note II brings twice the processing power, a brand new screen (of even larger size) and a bigger battery. Those alone make the second-gen Samsung phablet a worthy upgrade, but it's just the tip of the iceberg - here's a sneak peek of what's going on under the hood.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and quad-band 3G with 21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
• Optional LTE connectivity
• 5.5" 16M-color Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of HD (720 x 1280 pixel) resolution; Corning Gorilla Glass 2
• Android OS v4.1 with TouchWiz launcher
• 1.6 GHz quad-core Cortex-A9 CPU, Mali-400MP GPU, 2GB of RAM, Exynos 4412 Quad chipset
• S Pen active stylus with deep system integration
• 8 MP wide-angle lens autofocus camera with LED flash, face, smile and blink detection
• 1080p HD video recording at 30fps
• 16/32/64GB internal storage, microSD slot
• Dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n support
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; GLONASS support, Digital compass
• NFC support
• Stereo Bluetooth v4.0
• FM radio with RDS
• microUSB port with USB host and TV-out (1080p) support, MHL, charging
• Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Great audio quality
• Very slim at only 9.4mm
• 1.9MP secondary video-call camera
• Document editor and file manager comes preinstalled
• Extremely rich video and audio codec support
• Huge 3100 mAh battery

Main disadvantages

• Large size makes single-hand operation problematic
• No dedicated camera key
• All plastic construction (would have probably weighed a ton otherwise, though)
• S Pen not as good as on the Note 10.1

So, the Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100 got a proper screen upgrade, getting rid of the PenTile matrix. It comes with an extra powerful chipset and an improved S Pen. The slim and slender body should be easier to handle than the predecessor. That addresses just about every shortcoming of the original Note, but is it where the progress ends?

Of course not - the Note II comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box, making it a member of a very elite club at this point. Even more impressively, Samsung has thrown in a few neat software tricks of its own to sweeten up the deal - Direct call and Smart stay already impressed us when they debuted on the Galaxy S III and now we get Smart rotation too.

   
The Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100 at ours

So it appears the Koreans really gave the Galaxy Note II N7100 their best. But was that enough to make it the world-beater they were hoping for? Well it all boils down to the real-life performance and the synergy of all those features listed above.

Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100 360-degree spin

The Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100 measures 151.1 x 80.5 x 9.4 mm, which makes is slightly taller, but narrower and slimmer than its predecessor. And while it is notably larger than even the biggest droids with their 4.7-4.8" screens, the Note II is reasonably easy to fit in a pocket.

The weight has remained virtually unchanged - the original Note tipped the scales at 178 g, while the Note II comes in at 180 g. It certainly won't let you forget that it's in your pocket, but to put things in another perspective, it weighs less than the Nokia Lumia 920 and that one has neither a 5.5" screen, nor a 3100mAh battery.

   
The Galaxy Note II sized up against the Galaxy Note

Design and controls

You don't have to guess very hard what inspired the Samsung Galaxy Note II's design. From a distance, you'll have a really hard time telling the phablet apart from a Galaxy S III, particularly if the two aren't sitting side by side.

   
The Samsung Galaxy Note II side by side with the Galaxy S III and the iPhone 5

We are still not quite impressed by the hyperglaze finish but it somehow looks better on a bigger scale. It could be that we are more willing to forgive the use of plastic here, as metal would've blown the weight limit. Or maybe it's just that any device with such awesomely large screen and tiny bezels will look great.

Either way, the Samsung Galaxy Note II is quite the looker and, while that's not too hard for a device of its size, it does make an impression. The second-gen phablet is available in Marble White and Titanium Grey and we got the chance to try both versions. We have a white one for the review, but last month we handled the grey phablet back at IFA and we appreciate the former better.

The front panel of the Note II has several interesting elements other than the screen. On top is the earpiece, with the 1.9MP front-facing camera and proximity sensor to the right.

The ambient light sensor and the status LED are on the left side of the earpiece. From the settings you can choose the types of events that light up the LED - charging and low battery, missed calls and during voice recording (only if the screen is off). You can add even more events or customize the colors for the preset events, but you'll need a suitable app from the Play Store or rely on the ever knowledgeable guys over at the XDA-developers' forum to come up with a tweak.

The earpiece is flanked by the front-facing camera and a bunch of sensors

Speaking of the ambient light sensor, we have to note that the Samsung Galaxy Note II got the same RGB sensor as the Galaxy S III, the one that's capable of detecting the full spectrum of the ambient light, rather than just its green channel. This leads to improved performance under some types of artificial lighting.

Also, Samsung has implemented a new way of controlling brightness, allowing you to fine-tweak the brightness without disabling its automatic mode. You set an offset, so your Galaxy Note II screen will always be slightly brighter or dimmer than the automatically selected level.

Below the screen is the classic arrangement of physical hardware Home key flanked by the capacitive Menu and Back keys. This layout has been in use since the early days of the Galaxy line and Samsung decided not to put the Android keys on-screen (as Google suggests) even on a screen this big.

 
The familiar set of keys at the bottom

Seeing how other manufacturers go about this however, we have to say we are glad Samsung stuck to its ways. You see, replacing the hardware buttons with on-screen controls would be great if the screen is stretched to make use of the freed-up space. Yet most other smartphones still have generous bezels down there, so in the end you end up sacrificing screen estate without getting anything in return.

The Home key has a very soft press, but you get used to that quite quickly.

The sides of the Note II hold no surprises either, a volume rocker on the left and a Power/Lock key on the right. Despite the ample available space there's no dedicated camera key here, which is a real pity.

  
There are just a couple of keys on the two sides

The top of the Samsung Galaxy Note II features the 3.5mm audio jack along with the secondary microphone, which handles noise reduction and stereo sound recording.

 
The 3.5mm audio jack is accompanied by the secondary adapter

The primary mic is at the bottom, exactly opposite the secondary one. The microUSB port handles charging and data connections with a computer. It's MHL-enabled, so you can output HD video through an HDMI adapter or enable USB Host via another adapter.

 
The main microphone, the MHL-enabled USB port and the S Pen are at the bottom

The stylus slot is at the bottom too, with the top of the S Pen curved to fit the shape of the Note II. The stylus itself isn't perfectly round like the original stylus, so it doesn't rotate in the slot, making it easier to put back in.

The back of the phablet looks pretty barren - it houses an 8MP camera lens and a single-LED flash near the top and the loudspeaker near the bottom. The camera lens protrudes slightly, so the Note II rests on it when placed on a level surface, but judging from the original Note its hardened glass is not too easy to scratch.

  
The back hosts the 8 megapixel camera lens, the LED flash and the loudspeaker grille

The back cover is removable and below it you'll find the beefy 3100mAh battery along with the microSIM and microSD card slots. The SIM card compartment is blocked by the battery, but the memory card is hot-swappable. The NFC antenna is on the back cover, so you are free to replace the battery without losing the NFC connectivity.

 
Taking a peek under the hood

The beefed up battery has better official specs - the Note II is said to last for up to 890 h of 3G stand-by over 820 h for the original Note. The maximum achievable talk time on the Note II is 16 h compared to 13 h 30 min on its predecessor. Drop to 2G and the Note II can give you 980 h of standby or the mind-blowing 35 h of talk time.

We ran own tests and the results are quite impressive. The endurance rating of the Samsung Galaxy Note II came out as 69 hours or just over three full days. This is how long you can go without charging the device assuming your usage is an hour of calling on a 3G network, browsing the web for another hour then watching an hour of video each day.

That’s certainly one of the most impressive scores we have seen and it proves that the Samsung Galaxy Note II is not only an extremely capable droid, but also one that be with you for a long time, before it makes you run for a charger. You can get more info on the tests results from our blog post or if you want to learn more about our battery testing routine you can follow this link.

After using the Note II for a while, even the massive Galaxy S III feels small (the flagship smartphone being 1cm narrower than the phablet). The difference in screen size is quite notable too - we were quite reluctant to switch back to the smaller screen. However, this is not to say the Samsung Galaxy Note II is impossible to pocket - tight jeans might not make it feel at home, but with average or larger pockets it's entirely possible to carry it around like any other phone.

 
The Samsung Galaxy Note II held in hand

Bigger, more comfortable S Pen

The Samsung Galaxy Note II grew in size over the original and so did the new S Pen. The old one is about 10.4cm tall and 5mm thick, while the new one measures 11.3cm in length and 7mm in thickness.

While nowhere near as comfortable as the S Pen on the Galaxy Note 10.1, the one that comes with the Note II feels more like a pen and less than a stylus, compared to what the original Note had.

The button on the S Pen now has a ribbed pattern, making it easier to locate by touch (the old one is flat and flush against the surface.

  
The redesigned S Pen

The Galaxy Note II can detect when you pull the S Pen out and brings you to a contextual page, which offers shortcuts (with preview thumbnails) of your recent S Notes. It also changes the icons docked at the bottom of your homescreen, and gives you another set of shortcuts in the notification area.

Overall, Samsung has done a really good job of the S Pen integration even deeper in the interface. We'll come back to the subject later on in this review, when we look at the software in more detail.

Since there's no lanyard linking the S Pen and the Galaxy Note II, the phablet uses its accelerometer to detect you walking away and will alert you if the stylus isn't in its slot. The feature is finely balanced and it won't trigger unless you're several steps away - so you won't be getting false positives when walking and writing, but if you really misplaced it and walked away it will start beeping.

The new Samsung Galaxy Note II screen can detect the S Pen from a distance, similar to how the Galaxy Note 10.1 worked. The hover feature, called Air View, is not part of the stylus though, we tested the S Pen from the original Note and it worked just fine.

The Samsung Galaxy Note II also features a more sensitive digitizer compared to the original. It can distinguish between 1024 different levels of pressure (quadruple what the original managed) and you can really feel the difference in the drawing apps - you get fine-grained control between thin and thick lines.