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.

Samsung Galaxy Grand I9082 review: GrandisSIMo

This is by no means intended as a moment of relief from the building tension, but our timing isn't without a sense of humor. Assuming that all eyes are set on Samsung to, again, deliver the godfather of Android smartphones, the one we're about to review is more like the...grandfather.

It may seem quite unfortunate for the Galaxy Grand that a week from now it'll be yesterday's news. But on a second thought, it has a better insurance policy against irrelevance than most of last season's Samsung phones that tried too hard to emulate the Galaxy S III.

     
Samsung Galaxy Grand official pictures

Dual-SIM support is obviously not a universally sought-after feature but demand for smartphones that can operate two SIM cards has been consistently strong in certain markets. This fact should at least begin to explain why the Galaxy Grand is currently the second most popular handset in this website's database.

So, Samsung has been busy lately releasing phones styled after the outgoing flagship, the Galaxy S III. Think a particular screen size and level of equipment, and the Koreans most likely have it. Now, a massive screen and dual-SIM support doesn't sound like the combination on many people's minds but what do we know. It may've made all the sense in the world for Samsung to unleash a big fat five-incher in a niche that other smartphone makers like Sony, HTC and LG are very much interested in too.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM (SIM 1 & SIM 2) and 3G (SIM 1 only) support
• Dual SIM stand-by
• 21.1 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support (SIM 1 only)
• 5.0" 16M-color TFT capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution
• Android OS 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Nature UX
• 1.2 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU, 1GB of RAM
• 8MP autofocus camera with LED flash, face and smile detection, image stabilization
• 2MP secondary camera
• 1080p HD video recording at 30fps with stereo sound
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n support; DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity and GLONASS; digital compass
• 8GB of inbuilt storage, microSD slot
• Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB v2.0 port with MHL
• Stereo Bluetooth v4.0
• FM radio with RDS

Main disadvantages

• The five-inch diagonal stretches the WVGA resolution really thin
• Middling screen contrast and overall quality
• Poor low-light video recording
• No dedicated camera key

The dual-SIM Galaxy Grand is powered by the same dual-core chipset as the recently released Galaxy S II Plus. Switching from Exynos to Broadcom looks like a minor step down in terms of GPU, but as we saw on the S II Plus the superior power efficiency more than makes up for it. In fact, combined with the low (by today's standards) screen resolution this might turn the Galaxy Grand in one of the longest lasting smartphones on the market.

   
Samsung Galaxy Grand I9082 live pictures

Oh well, that's at least one redeeming quality of a screen that has the pixel density of an entry-level HVGA unit - the Galaxy Mini II should be a proper reference. The huge 5" diagonal obviously stretches the resolution (480 x 800 pixels) thin.

Other than that though, there isn't much else that's seriously wrong with a handset that clearly positions itself in the midrange. The Galaxy Grand has some of the advanced features courtesy of Android Jelly Bean and the latest TouchWiz. The build quality is above average and the battery backup sounds promising - and that's an important asset for a dual-SIM phone. Let's see. We start with the design and build, as usual.

Samsung I9082 Galaxy Grand 360-degree spin

The Samsung Galaxy Grand size is about halfway between the original Galaxy Note and the Galaxy S III. To silence potential alarm bells, we'd go ahead and say that the Grand feels decisively more comfortable in-hand than the first-gen Samsung phablet, and we're happy that Samsung managed to keep the thickness below 10mm.

The smartphone tips the scales at 162g, which is more than reasonable for a device this size: 143.5 x 76.9 x 9.6mm. The first generation of the Galaxy Note weighs 178g.

Design and build quality

The design is - unsurprisingly - influenced by the Galaxy S III, and the similarly sized screen means you will have a hard time telling the Grand apart from the smartphone flagship from a distance.

  
The Galaxy Grand next to the Galaxy Note

The Galaxy Grand features a similar paintjob to what you get with the other post-Galaxy S III Samsung devices, but the finish is slightly different. It doesn't look quite as nice as the Galaxy Note II plastic, so we assume Samsung were after some cost-cutting too. This applies to both the white version we had for the preview and the Black one that is here for the review.

Controls and handling

The controls on the Samsung Galaxy Grand follow the same general layout as most Samsung smartphones. Below the screen we find three keys - the capacitive Menu and Back keys on either side of a hardware Home button.

 
The three-button combo below the screen

The keys are well sized and spaced to allow comfortable use and the capacitive touch technology makes sure the transition between them and the screen is seamless.

Above the display you can see the earpiece, a couple of sensors and the 2 megapixel front facing camera, which can do video-calls. The duos logo is there to remind you that you can pop in two SIM cards at once, in case you ever forget, and is only present on the I9082 model.

  
The usual array of sensors and the front-facing camera surround the earpiece

The top of the phone features just the 3.5mm audio jack.

   
The top is where the audio jack is located

At the bottom are the microUSB port and the mouthpiece. The microUSB port supports MHL, enabling HD video out (up to 1080p) and multi-channel audio output.

   
The primary microphone keeps the MHL-enabled microUSB port company

On the left side of the Samsung Galaxy Grand we find the volume rocker, while the power/lock key is symmetrically placed across on the right. There's no dedicated camera shutter key.

   
The power key is on the right, while the volume rocker is on the left

The 8 megapixel camera lens, a single LED flash, and the loudspeaker grille are the things to note at the back of the device.

   
The 8 megapixel camera is the star backstage

The back panel is fairly easy remove, but still fits tightly in place, no wobble whatsoever.

Underneath the battery cover, you'll find the two SIM compartments, as well as the microSD card slot. The primary SIM and microSD slots are only accessible after you remove the 2100 mAh battery, which means hot-swap is out of the question. The secondary SIM (on the dual-SIM I9082 model) is in the bottom right corner and is hot-swappable.

 
Taking a peak under the hood

In terms of handling, the Galaxy Grand is about what you'd expect from a 5-incher. The bezel is a bit too wide and the slippery plastic would occasionally cause problems, but if you have bigger hands (or are willing to use both of them most of the time) you will be fine.

   
The Galaxy Grand plastic is more slippery than that of the Note II

Samsung Galaxy Mega : Specs confirmed

Samsung is all set to introduce a new series of "Galaxy Mega" smartphones and the detailed specifications of the first of those have surfaced online.

According to a report from SamMobile, the Galaxy Mega 5.8, which is codenamed as GT-I9152 will be a Dual-SIM phablet. The Galaxy Mega will sport a 5.8" qHD display with a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels and will measure 164 x 83.8 x 9.7mm. The device will feature a 1.4 GHz Dual-core processor with 1.5 GB of RAM, 8 megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front shooter.

Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 will come with the latest connectivity options, which include Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 80211 a/b/g/n and GPS support. The upcoming phablet will be powered by Android 4.1.2 or 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and as usual Samsung will be preinstalling its own Nature UX on top of that. The juice for the phablet is coming from a 2,600mAh battery.