Samsung Galaxy Note 2 review

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 review

Samsung has given in and called the Note 2 a smartphone, we can dub it the most powerful around.With a wonderfully vivid 5.5-inch Super AMOLED HD screen and meaty innards, there’s no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is the top dog when it comes to raw grunt and function.www.eraofyouth.com

Add to that the S Pen functionality, which has been given a bunch of new fancy tricks, and you can see why there’s a lot to coo over with the new device.

The design is still very ‘Samsung’… meaning that the power key is well within reach on the right-hand side of the phone, and is well crafted to allow a decent travel.

The headphone jack and the home button are all within reach too, although don’t forget the size means a LOT of jiggling in the hand if you’re going to attempt to use the Note in only one palm.

 The quad core Exynos processor has been cranked up to 1.6GHz, and is joined by a distinctly un-shabby 2GB of RAM to power things along.

And it’s fast. Really fast. We’ve tested a number of devices like this on the stands of various companies, and we’ve rarely seen anything whiz under the finger in the same fashion. It almost ruins the Galaxy S3, simply because there’s a noticeable difference between the two.

 However, before we start sounding too evangelical, let’s highlight the major problem here: the size. For all Samsung’s posturing that this is a product category that’s been dying to be exploited, we’re still not convinced that this isn’t too large.

It’s an impressive feat to keep the same Note footprint while improving the size of the screen to 5.5-inches, especially as it’s only 9.4mm thin.
It fits in the pocket just fine, providing you’re not sporting those tight trousers all the kids seem to be wearing these days, although it was pretty hairy trying to test that theory out around the thousands of watchful Samsung stand bunnies.

The design is very similar to most of the Samsung Galaxy range, in that it’s sturdy, yet slightly lightweight, plastic.

The lock and power button of Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is located on the right hand side, is well placed for easy use, as is the slick S Pen slot. This slot has been imbued with greater powers, such as automatically opening the S Memo application when you’re on the phone and remove the stylus.

It’s a neat trick, and now has an extra level of functionality through Air View. This slightly convoluted aspect means you can hover the S Pen over the display of the phone and see everything from messages to pictures to scrolling through video without actually touching the display.

It’s too big still to be used as a normal phone – people will still think you’re more than slightly odd holding it to your face – but for texting, browsing, emailing, watching movies and more, we haven’t seen much better than this.

We’ll reserve proper judgement obviously until the price emerges – if it’s anything like the first Samsung Galaxy Note, we’re in for a high-priced shock.

However, get this to the £30 mark on contract (or around $399) and, coupled with some serious marketing again from Samsung, we should have a winner on our hands.