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back to article Samsung Galaxy Note 2 review

I’ve no idea what the Korean is for “let’s stuff everything we can into a phone and ram it up Apple’s jacksie” but it’s a fair bet the phrase was used at the inception of the Galaxy Note 2. This Android handset is the feature-packed successor to the surprisingly successful Galaxy Note that I was quite taken with late last year …

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    1. 7-zark-7
      Reply Icon

      Re: no thanks

      There are quite a few potential customers out there that hardly use their phones for voice but email/netflix/fb/internet; they can't justify buying a separate tablet type device due to cost; Its bigger than a phone but a small enough tablet to put in your pocket. I can see the appeal.

      Also some people are giants. I work with one such behemoth and this will appear normal sized in his shovel like hands.

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      1. mumm-ra
        Reply Icon

        Re: no thanks

        "Also some people are giants. I work with one such behemoth and this will appear normal sized in his shovel like hands."

        We prefer the term "differently average". Or something.

        I am one such, a happy user of a dainty little Galaxy S3, and think this looks like a fantastic device.. Can't justify the upgrade right now, sadly, but it does look damn fine.

        (My girlfriend used the phrase "clown shoes", and I sulked. I probably should have woken her up dressed as a clown, that'd teach her.)

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    2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Trollface

      "too big to be a phone, too small to be a tablet"

      You are now reading this in the voice of Johnny Cash.

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    3. Chet Mannly
      Reply Icon

      Re: no thanks

      "too big to be a phone, too small to be a tablet"

      Sales of the first note (which was essentially the same size) beg to differ...

      Besides, just get an S3 if this is too big

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  2. Martin Huizing
    Coat

    "The S3 looks like a too big phone but the new Note looks like a beautifully proportioned small tablet.

    Size and weight are close to the original, so the new device will still fit in the back pocket of my jeans without issue."

    The S3 looks, in this case, like a perfect phone. Are you carrying them both in the same back-pocket?

    Maybe better leave the note in the inside pocket of your coat, in case you sit on it!

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    4G/LTE is missing

    Hi,

    I nearly bought one on Oxford Street.

    Carphone Warehouse have the white one sim free at £550

    Phones4U had it sim free for the grey one at £570

    3 had it at £515 but locked to their 3 service. So, you would need to unlock it and then no doubt lose your guarantee.

    I want it off the High Street as I have bought phones of the net before and if there is a problem then its hard work to sort it out. For £50 more I will pay for the privilege of being able to walk up to someone and complain.

    The reasons I did not buy one are:

    Missing 4G/LTE - The UK model does not have this, even though the iPhone5 does.

    Only 32GB - It seems you can only buy the 32GB models at the moment.

    Grey Price - The white one is everywhere, but the Grey one is only it seems at Phones4U in the high street and costs extra :(

    I suspect as the US model is delayed to November this so, that it will have 4G/LTE (which the Yanks will expect as standard). By that time I am hoping that the Note 2 in the UK will be shipping a newer model with 4G/LTE, 64GB and Grey at a the same market price of the White ones.

    Therefore I am going to wait a month and then but it once we hall all the features available.

    Spending that amount of money on a phone, I am willing to spend more for it to be 4G compatible as this will then allow it to last longer before the next big upgrade.

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    1. Rob
      Reply Icon

      Re: 4G/LTE is missing

      Apparently according to the interwebs news, EE will announce the 4G model on the 15th October which will no doubt coincide with the release of their new tariffs. Phones4U sales person said the same as well.

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      1. Dave 126 Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: 4G/LTE is missing

        >Only 32GB

        It has USB OTG... with microSD cards (and the tiny little adaptors that make them USB thumbsticks) being about £0.50p per GB at the moment, I personally am not too fussed about the internal memory. You then have the advantage of being able to drag and drop your files from any machine (WinXP/OSX/Linux)* without installing any software.

        Okay, it might fiddly, but you only have to do it after watching all the movies you have on your internal 32GB...

        *Android devices show as as being MTP, not Mass Storage Class devices, so XP and Mac can be tricky. Presumably Linux too. Using Sony Bridge on MacOSX to transfer files to the internal memory of my ICS phone is very slow.

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        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: 4G/LTE is missing

          Because a OTG connector and a USB stick looks just so cool.

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          1. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: 4G/LTE is missing

            >Because a OTG connector and a USB stick looks just so cool.

            The connector and the USB stick is only attached for the five minutes required to transfer your movie onto your device- you'll ideally then plug it into to USB power according the Reg guide to maximising the lifetime of your li-ion battery (keep it beween 100 and 80% if you can). Chances are, the movie will either be on the phone's screen (no one else will see or care) or via HDMI on a big TV (in a darkened room... no one will see or care, they'll just be happy there is a film to watch).

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 4G/LTE is missing

      Weirdly, one thing that works if you're looking for a sim-free phone, and don't trust all the dodgy geezers is.. Amazon!

      I haven't lost my mind- they often have stock before other people, can do quick shipping, and are super helpful with returns, so you never ever get screwed. I bought my old HTC Desire that way, back when they were brand new, and no bugger had any, got it as a Saturday delivery- was very stress free.

      There are tons of dodgy little twats selling phones online, so your caution is wise.

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    3. Chet Mannly
      Reply Icon

      Re: 4G/LTE is missing

      "Only 32GB - It seems you can only buy the 32GB models at the moment."

      So buy a 64gb microsd, making it 96gb. If you need more than that buy a $3 USB OTG cable from ebay and plug in as many flash drives as you want.

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    4. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 4G/LTE is missing

      I have an email from CPW saying the Note 2 on sale in their shops has 4G, and the chap in the shop showed me the spec on his screen but he was looking at GSM Arena who also have made a mistake. How confusing now that Tesco are selling Note 2s on Orange and these are not the 4G compatible devices. But if you buy directly from Orange (today) you can get the 4G version!!!

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  4. David Paul Morgan
    Go

    HTC Flyer would have been nicer...

    if the 3G version had had voice enabled by default.

    Yes, I know that you can root it and enable voice, but we love our Flyer and it's little e-stylus .

    These notepad devices are coming to be very popular and do seem to be meeting a demand.

    More choice, I say.

    (I'm still using Palm graffiti on my Asus transformer...)

    i think Samsung could have saved themselves a LOT of bother by not putting the oval ON button right in the middle of he bottom border!

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  5. the-it-slayer
    Happy

    It's not a phone/smartphone due to its size...

    That is all.

    1 9
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It's not a phone/smartphone due to its size...

      Agree. Take it to the pub and let your mates rip the p*ss out of you. Phones to not have to be tablets - I hate the word PHABLET how about TAHONE?

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      1. TheRealRoland
        Reply Icon

        Re: It's not a phone/smartphone due to its size...

        I'm telling you: phlappy.

        But, to get this clear, you're buying a specific phone so you don't get embarrassed in a pub?

        Hm.

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        1. Tom 11
          Reply Icon

          Re: It's not a phone/smartphone due to its size...

          It's a slate....

          End of ;)

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  6. Ants V

    Different formats of phone should be encouraged

    This phone is too big for some people - but it's great to see variety. People have different needs, after all, but mobile tech seems to be forever trying to squeeze consumers into one-size-fits-all solutions (the ubiquity of laptops with wide format, glossy, and lousy resolutions is a common years-old complaint with few alternatives).

    Personally, an X One/S3/5s-sized phone with double the thickness to support an over-sized battery would be great for me - because personally battery life is something very important and I find it lacking in present gen smart phones. But it isn't made (excluding the cheap aftermarket "solutions" for the S3) because I suppose the market isn't thought to be big enough and the present products should be good enough for everyone's needs.

    Which means I like the idea behind the Note, and welcome its second version. And if it has even more success maybe other manufacturers will go out on a limb and try different things.

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  7. 7-zark-7
    Paris Hilton

    Pen retention?

    Can someone tell me how the pen is kept in place and whether the mechanism will wear to the point of uselessness over a 2 year contract?

    I have memories of my old M2000 where the friction keeping the pen secure failed after a year. Turn the phone upside down and out fell the pen.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Pen retention?

      Stylus - really - in this day and age. What next a slide out keyboard?

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      1. GregC
        Reply Icon
        Stop

        Re:"What next a slide out keyboard?"

        I live in the constant hope that this feature will return in a high end smartphone.

        I suspect my disappointment will continue for some time...

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      2. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re:What next a slide out keyboard?

        YES PLEASE!

        I was so annoyed when they stopped making phones with slide out Keyboards...

        I only went for a screen only smart phone when they finally made them large enough to type on, but they still pale compared to my old Kaiser II for typing!

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        1. TheRealRoland
          Reply Icon

          Re: Re:What next a slide out keyboard?

          I miss my kaiser2 (not at&t's coverage!) Same goes for my old blackberry torch 9800. Stuck with a 9930 on Verizon; simply because of the keyboard... No slide-out, though :-(

          Off-topic:

          Although the latest OS upgrade for the playbook, combined with my 9930 - killer combo :-) Sending sms messages using the tablet, bridged to the phone!

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        2. Tom 11
          Reply Icon

          Re: Re:What next a slide out keyboard?

          Ditto on both statements!

          I was so gutted when the Nokia N9 changed from a MeeGo qwerty number to a winphone7 touch screen device last year, i had to settle for a sodding HTC desire Z :( :(

          Really, the day the charge port fell out my N900 was the day my mobile social life died...

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  8. Tom 11

    Spamming Vodafone

    Brilliantly, my contract is up in 6 days time, I have been spamming Vodafone near daily with requests for the release date on this fine temptress. I own the Note 1 as a company phone, so really looking forward to one I can properly play with!

    1 1
    1. Tom 11
      Reply Icon

      Re: Spamming Vodafone

      Wow, I popped back on here to see if anyone had mentioned if the softkeys were now compatible with the stylus, and noticed a down vote?? I wouldn't expect up or down votes on me creaming over a new phone. I can only guess you're the clueless fool who works on the other end of Vodafones customer service desk. Other than that, explain yourself!!!

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      1. Dave 126 Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Spamming Vodafone

        > I can only guess you're the clueless fool who works on the other end of Vodafones customer service desk.

        Is a strong possibility. Call centre staff tend to amuse themselves by looking at the internet in-between calls. A good number of websites are blocked, but the Reg is usually allowed.

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      2. BristolBachelor Gold badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Spamming Vodafone

        @Tom 11

        I guess it could be the stupid pr#*k who's just spamming the comments as AC saying it's too big, etc. They are probably envious after signing a 5 year contract to buy their current phone, to find that maps doesn't even work)

        As for soft keys with the stylus; the Note 1 has gestures; you press the button on the stylus and draw right to left to go back, or draw bottom to top to"pull up" the menu.

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        1. Tom 11
          Reply Icon

          Re: Spamming Vodafone

          Ahh yes! the gestures, a feature I'd completely forgotten about, nice 1 :)

          BTW, Am in possession on this beast as of Saturday morning just gone. Love it, such a flawless bit of kit!

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  9. joejack

    Soft buttons in landscape mode

    Wonder how hard it is to accidentally trigger the soft buttons when holding it in landscape mode?

    Anyone?

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    1. The Wegie
      Reply Icon

      Re: Soft buttons in landscape mode

      "Wonder how hard it is to accidentally trigger the soft buttons when holding it in landscape mode?"

      It was a pain only for the first couple of days. After that, you adjust.

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      1. BristolBachelor Gold badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Soft buttons in landscape mode

        On the note1, I do find it happens sometimes with the back button. (maybe I'm holding it wrong?)

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Love the Note

    I went from an N8 to the Note 1 on the basis of the original review. I have to say I was extremely happy with the N8 and didn't think I'd be all the impressed with Android or the Note, but they blew me away. The only weakness for me is the camera, it's still decent in ok light, but the N8's xenon flash is superb. I've zero problems with the size, the stylus functionality has really surprised me and the large screen has rendered my laptops nearly redundant for surfing.

    Personally speaking I'm not sure that there are enough advances in the Note2 to make it worthwhile for me to upgrade, but I would really like Samsung to try and work on their camera sensors a bit more in future. As it is the Note 1 has been far and away the best piece of tech/equipment/gadget I have and I'm sure the Note 2 would be an equally great buy.

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  11. PassiveSmoking
    Meh

    What about accessibility?

    Last time I used an Android phone (HTC Desire, for the record), the accessibility was all but non-existant and it was pretty much unusable.

    You don't even mention accessibility in your review.

    Has Android done anything to address accessibility issues? If so, what? How do they compare against the accessibility features in iOS?

    I'll consider an Android device again but only when they can stand toe to toe with iOS devices on the accessibility functionality they provide.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What about accessibility?

      I saw a conversation in #android-dev between a Google dev and someone with poor eyesight. He said they (Google) are aware and are working on Android's accessibility features. He hinted at OS level zooming in all applications which I believe iOS has.

      Note this will be at least android 4.2+ before they're released.

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    2. PassiveSmoking
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Re: What about accessibility?

      I love how the fandroids downvote every time I point out a very legitimate flaw in their Chosen OS.

      Don't get me wrong, iOS has plenty of flaws of its own (6 and its Maps fail especially), but the point is that until they fix the broken accessibility in Android it's useless to me. And to plenty of other potential customers with vision problems.

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  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Slow SunSpider Performance

    If this has a 1.6GHz quad-core processor, why are the SunSpider results about 8% slower than on the iPhone 5, which has half the cores and a slower clock speed? Is this just down to a poor JavaScript engine within Android, or an inefficient processor?

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    1. Dave 126 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Slow SunSpider Performance

      From Anandtech http://www.anandtech.com/show/6324/the-iphone-5-performance-preview:

      "As we mentioned in our earlier post, SunSpider is a small enough benchmark that it really acts as a cache test. The memory interface on the A6 seems tangibly better than any previous ARM based design, and the advantage here even outpaces Intel's own Medfield SoC."

      1 0
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Slow SunSpider Performance

      The A6 is closer to a Cortex-A15 (but custom designed), than this which is Cortex-A9 based.

      Not the same cores.

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  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Perhaps Apple should let people use the iPad as a phone - then they could look equally as daft. This thing is too big to be a phone for human hands.

    0 5
    1. Anthony Cartmell
      Reply Icon
      Happy

      I find the Note to be an ideal size for a smart phone. The extra length means the microphone is nearer my mouth while the speaker is by my ear. In fact it needs to be a little longer to match a standard old-fashioned telephone handset. Also the screen is a joy to use, making remote administration of servers nearly as easy as on a laptop. Given that all this fits easily into any pocket that my hand can fit in, it's a very useful and powerful device.

      4 0
    2. Dave Fox
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      One can only assume that when you talk about "human" hands, you are referring to members of your particular pygmy tribe, and not the human race as a whole! :)

      My hands are average size at best, and I have no trouble holding or operating the OG Note with one hand, and I don't look daft when using it as phone.

      I really do wish people would stop using terms like "too big" when discussing the Note and Note II unless it is accompanied by the words "for my purposes" so some other such qualification.

      I have no use for an iPhone, but that doesn't mean I think they are useless - just that they don't suit my own particular needs and requirements. And it's not because I'm an Apple hater either - the 4 Macs in my house, including the particularly lovely Retina Macbook Pro I'm typing this on, are a testament to that! :)

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        I know two people with Notes and they both admit it's a HUGE phone - one says he would not buy another - the other is not sure but sees no reason to upgrade to the version 2.

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    3. turnip handler
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      "Perhaps Apple should let people use the iPad as a phone - then they could look equally as daft."

      People have already managed that one by using the iPad as a camera.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        "People have already managed that one by using the iPad as a camera."

        There is nothing more infuriating than being in a crowd trying to see over people and having the tools you speak of in front of you. The N7 got it right in this department IMO, tablets should not have rear cameras.

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    4. Chet Mannly
      Reply Icon

      "Perhaps Apple should let people use the iPad as a phone - then they could look equally as daft."

      Ever heard of a bluetooth headset?

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    5. Shane 4
      Reply Icon
      Facepalm

      Why

      Yet I still see a lot of people using flip style mobile phones which extended are longer than Note 2!

      I find it even more daft watching iphone users leaning over at lunch table at work just to try and read their tiny screens,Squint much?

      Nice try! ;)

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  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Anyone with a Note 1 better upgrade as Sammy will probably lose interest and you will be scuppered for updates.

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  15. jonathan keith
    Big Brother

    Tizen

    Put this out running Tizen and I'll have one as soon as I can get to the shop.

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