The Galaxy Note II Global tour finally did happen in Cape Town, South Africa and we were there to witness it. Samsung hosted the event at Cape Town Conventional Centre in a well attended event with media and mobile carriers representatives from all over Africa. The whole town starting from the Airport was almost fully branded Samsung Galaxy Note II. In the evening of 18th October was when the event happened. The event highlight was the world acclaimed best smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Note II, and was the first to take the stage. The Galaxy Note II was announced globally at IFA on August 29, and has from since then attracted a lot of love from media, critics and consumers alike.
Galaxy Note II screen
Donning the largest screen on a smartphone at 5.5 inch, the Galaxy S III is not really big as one would expect with the increase in screen size from the predecessor Galaxy Note. The bezel thinness, the curve on the sides and the fact that it’s longer makes it still easy on the hand. You wont be able to fully use the screen with one hand but on some important applications you will, now for two handed use you will find it the best device to do so, considering it has multi-touch quite enhanced. Samsung did make some software ammendments for this device and optimized some apps like the calculator and others for single handed use, where you can tap an option to move the keypad either right or left depending on, of course preferences. The 16:9 SuperAMOLED screen makes for a very good experience reading and doing productivity.
Samsung Galaxy Note II took the shape of the very popular Samsung flagship device, the Galaxy S III including the feel and colours, well atleast for the Marble White and Titanium Gray that the Galaxy Note launched with.
Processor and RAM
Galaxy Note 2 comes running the 1.6GHz Exynos Quad Core processor from Samsung, which makes it one of the most powerful devices, and it’s got the apps for that performance ability. Not just media consumptions as many smartphones and tablets have been come to be known for. Bundled in is a 2GB RAM that makes things even more fluid and consistent. That’s more like very many PCs in the mid to low end, in a smartphone. This makes the spartphone qualify for the proposition that is mobile computing. It can do quite a lot of things with a very great amount of efficiency.
S Pen
This is actually one of the best reasons one would want to buy the Galaxy Note II. Samsung research department has been on a coffee diet thinking and implementing. The upgrade that is the S Pen from what we saw in the Galaxy Note I is quite commendable. You get to do the very simple things a different way. First, the S Pen on this one is a bit wider and longer, allowing for longer use without feeling the thinness. Beyond that it’s got a feature that notifies you if you pass a certain distance without the S Pen in the slot, so you wont be losing it as would be the worry for many.
S Pen also comes with S Pen enhanced apps and functionality right from the box. Did I mention that this device runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean? Samsung added functionality on top of Android’s best, these make you able to preview an excerpt of an email when you mouse-over pass the S Pen over the screen, you can also tell where it’s pointed. This functionality, named AirView enables one to preview folder contents, videos and images in a gallery. Above that, you can also preview sections of an already playing video and pick a point you want to watch it from. Other features and applications I will list below here.
Preinstalled Samsung Apps
Samsung Galaxy Note pulls in all the applications the Galaxy S III brought to the show. These are; S Beam that allows for fast sharing of most types of files via NFC, image size capability is quite huge here. Samsung All share, Allshare Cast(Wi-Fi Display for mirroring and extension, Allshare Play and Control all for external consumption and manipulation of media and applications. Smart stay was also added for those moments you want long screen-on time. Pop up video for those moments you want to watch a video and work on some other app, like take notes on what the video is about, on the same device. Pop up Note is specific for the Galaxy Note II and allows one to launch the S Note application from within any application in the smartphone. Once you pull out the S Pen the Pop up note goes on. Other apps are Buddy Photo Share, Burst Shot and Best Photo that are added as an extension to the camera and photo experience. Quite newly added is the Best photo that takes care of the situations when you didnt really pick the right moment when taking a shot. The software is able to assist you pick a face, and it will list several faces of the same person captured as you took the photo, just like the video frames. And you can select which one looks best, once you select it gets replaced.
Samsung added S Pen specific apps like S Note, S Planner, Email with handwriting integration, S Pen keeper, Quick command, Easy Clip, photo Note, Paper Artist, Air View and Pop up Note.
Battery and performance
The 3100mAh Li-iOn battery does all and more. Galaxy Note II is a large screen device with very enhanced graphics and this is bound to demand more where battery is concerned, but Samsung managed to fit in a 3100mAh battery that makes that a topic for the next phone.
