Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Review Thread - All Reviews To be Posted Here

First impressions mini review

I was lucky enough to be one of the first to buy the phone on the pre-launch day in London 30th September. I previously owned the Original Note and currently also have a Galaxy S3 so I was keen to compare them.

First thing I noticed was the Note II seemed less bulky but also appears to be heavier in the hand than the original. It's subjective but I also feel it looks more premium and more attractive. Some people aren't fans of the S3 styling but if like me, you are, then you'll love how the Note II is clearly the bigger brother of the S3.

The screen is vibrant and definitely brighter than original. Loss of the pentile matrix isn't that noticeable, there isn't a blue tint but I can't help feel there is a tiny hint of red instead. It's hard to tell.

Placing the S3 and Note II side by side however revealed something that made me a little disappointed. The text just isn't as sharp as the S3 and although I realise this is down to the overall resolution and on a much bigger screen, it just made me feel a little let down. It's still amazing of course and it was always going to be a challenge to beat the S3. Fortunately the Note II has many more goodies to distract you.

The S-Pen is better, being longer and now has a slight texture to the button making it easier to locate. Also shaped slightly different for easy slot loading. These are welcome changes. There's also a few neat tricks that have been introduced in what happens when you remove, insert or leave behind the pen. Some new gesture commands and clever interactions with various apps have been introduced.

I am not going to dwell on these features as they are all demonstrated in any of the online reviews you look at online. This review focuses on what my first impressions.

For the first time in a long time though I actually had to consult the manual to work out and discover the new smart features, because there are many of them! Various gesture and motions to interact, some useful others gimmicky. I found that: with the screen off and phone laying flat, you place your hand near to the screen and it glows and fades in slightly to reveal any missed notifications. This was a handy one for me. Then there's a way the phone knows you are laying on your side to view the screen so it doesn't rotate to landscape mode. It works and it's amazingly useful.

The speed of the device is highly noticeable over the original Note, understandably. It flies through any amount of screen swiping. Even with a custom launcher and hundreds of installed apps I stuck on there, it has no obvious lag at all.

Battery life is outstanding. Bearing in mind I haven't done too many recharge cycles, the battery is easily lasting all day with the screen on so much of the time and all those apps I mentioned! No issues for me there.

The camera is on a par with the S3, haven't had the pleasure of a nice day outside to test it fully. Low light shots are a slight improvement over previous incarnations.

Sound from the speaker is - at last - very very good. It's loud and has more bass and less distortion. Really am pleased this has been improved.

So for me, Samsung have done a great job with this 2nd generation. Build quality, battery life, raw power, feature rich and fully loaded. Difficult to fault and even more difficult to put down!

More Videos!

It's been a busy day. I uploaded a bunch of videos that some of you may find useful. I just made a list of everything I was curious about that I hadn't seen elsewhere before I bought the phone, so those are the videos I made. If you like to see anything, just send me a message.

Galaxy Note 2 Split Screen Demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOze9-Hak54
How To Install Flash Player on Galaxy Note 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybRxoaDm-kU
Galaxy Note 2 Unboxing Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKu3bOcF8JM
Galaxy Note 2 Unboxing Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTjN2l33TPY
GTA III on the Galaxy Note 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8FVSrhDwK8
Earbud Review for Galaxy Note 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By-uvhHK_jk
How to Play Bejeweled Blitz on Galaxy Note 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PszGEjf_12Y
Galaxy Note 2 Battery swap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-8K3ipl8fI
Galaxy Note 2 Speaker Loudness Test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGrMd7WAdwo
Galaxy Note 2 Shutdown and Startup Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quUSq4kh4cw
Galaxy Note 2 Slow Motion Video Capture 1/8 Speed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OeZGsUeXxc
Galaxy Note 2 Slow Motion 1/8 1/4 1/2 Camera Test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=642zr2hz7eE
I'm working on a full in-depth review trying to include things that other reviewers have missed.
Galaxy Note 2 Wifi LTE Speed Test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSCr_4N7gpk
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Playing 3 Videos At Once
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpMc310coO8
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 DMB (TV) Antenna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRUGpekzf_w

Added a few more at the bottom.

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Check out my huge collection of 64GB Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Videos (Demos, Accessory Reviews)

OK, so here's 8 more videos I made about the Galaxy Note 2. For people asking about the sound quality, you will definitely find some good info on the first video.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Sound Quality Review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhDwA75loYY
How to trigger S-Pen Keeper on Samsung Galaxy Note 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct7AqNY0zpQ
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 128GB (64GB Marble White + 64 GB MicroSDXC)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6weNJuNtqXU
How to install Flash Player on Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (Follow Up)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHN3MAq7fwU
Galaxy Note 2 Accurate Data Speed Testing and Inaccurate Speedtest Results
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nn4YN-Pg18
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 VoLTE (voice over LTE) Demonstration Test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g01mKpDV8J8
LTE Speed Test in Korea (LG, SK, KT)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM9Fd5CEJQg
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Call Quality Test (Speaker Mode)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ6g1dqAjdQ

Edit: Just discovered that you can hover with AirView on Web pages, and it acts like hover with a mouse. This feature seriously rocks. I don't think I can ever go back to a regular smartphone again. I made a video to show this:
S-Pen AirView Hover For Web Browsing (Amazing Must See Unmentioned Feature on Samsung Galaxy Note 2)
http://youtu.be/vB7ydrYmOmc

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Check out my huge collection of 64GB Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Videos (Demos, Accessory Reviews)

Galaxy Note 2 Unboxing and review

Greetings XDA members, Just got my Galaxy Note 2 a few days ago, it was launched on 1st October here in the UK. Just though I would share a quick unboxing and review with you that I put up on my You Tube channel. I'm not a tech reviewer, just an Android fan. I thought It might be good to get the perspective of an ordinary user. Since I'm just a new member I can't post a link yet but you can find it here -

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gocg6SbEv58

Hope that's right. If not my channel is rowanjparker and you can find it that way as well. I'm a musician so I threw in some 'non conventional' review techniques you may think but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Please leave a comment if you like it.

All the best to you all

Cheers Rowan

A Korean review (note II got released on South Korea today). Of course I didn't understand a word but I noticed a new feature @1:53, the Note II has the same split screen feature as in the Note 10.1. Pure win. :highfive: