Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Note 9

(Pocket-lint) - The Galaxy Note 2 is the successor to the, erm, Galaxy Note, which is anticipated. What wasn't predictable was how we would feel about this new handset. The Note, yous come across, is a bit of an enigma. A massive phone, or really small 3G tablet. It sits in a space that doesn't exist, with an unknown audience.

People who oasis't used a Milky way Note - the original, or this new model - won't go information technology. This is a phone y'all have to live with to truly sympathise. Most people will take one look at the size - it dwarfs the already massive Galaxy Southward III - and rule it out equally beingness impractical. In our view, that's a fault, considering this phone has a lot to offer besides its size. And the size isn't much of an issue, as we discovered.

Our quick take

When yous get the Note 2 out of its box, your get-go reaction will be to its enormous size. Some will find it absurd, simply those who want a large screen with loads of beautiful particular, a much better battery and some cool pen features volition "get" it within 10 minutes of holding it for the kickoff time.

The Note is a device that shouldn't piece of work. A device that the Koreans dreamt up later too little slumber, and too many energy drinks. But somehow, it'due south the near captivating phone we've used for a long time. It manages to invalidate the tablet to some extent, because it's big enough to exist a powerful media device, simply pocket-size plenty to acquit everywhere.

It isn't a phone for anybody, but those who dear gadgets will take to it, and it will change their lives.

Samsung Galaxy Note two

5 stars - Pocket-lint editors selection

For

Fantastic screen
Pen is keen
Loads and loads of ability
Neat bombardment life

Against

Handwriting recognition needs some work
It's expensive

Not too big

We've travelled around a fair flake with the Annotation. Nosotros've been asked a lot virtually the size, and honestly, it's not a problem. Information technology will fit in your jeans pocket, assuming your jeans aren't besides tight, and yous won't actually notice its actress weight.

Strangely, it's not actually any harder to utilise with one hand than a phone such as the Samsung Galaxy S III. As Apple tree points out, there is a ratio that allows for single-handed use, and most mod Android phones ignore it. So while the Notation is difficult to use unmarried-handed, it's non any more difficult than whatsoever other Android phone.

READ: Samsung Galaxy South III review

It'south a bit heavier though, which might bother some, but information technology has a squeamish weight, and a great overall balance.

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In terms of manner, there's a power button on the correct-mitt side, with book controls on the left. The top has the headphone jack, while the bottom holds the USB socket for charging and data transfer.

Under the bombardment cover you'll find the, erm, battery, forth with the micro-SIM bill of fare slot, and the microSD menu. Here you lot can add capacities of up to 64GB - which is quite a lot of storage for a phone.

There is a camera on the dorsum, with an LED flash, and on the front end is some other, video-briefing-type camera.

The pen is mightier than your sausage fingers

The pen on the note is interesting. We have mixed feelings about it, to be honest. The well-nigh exciting idea is to use it for handwriting recognition, but there are a few little bugs that prevent it being entirely applied. We've done a lot of tweeting and text messaging using the arrangement, and while information technology can work brilliantly, at that place are times when it just gets things wrong.

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We noticed that getting the software to detect spaces was hard at times. The problem was that there was a lack of consistency. If it never got spacing right, you could piece of work around information technology, only it did get it right about 50 per cent of the time, meaning you lot'd assume information technology had done its chore, then look over your message and observe it hadn't.

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Majuscule messages were besides a problem. The telephone doesn't seem to use any logic to this, so sometimes words would take a random initial cap. This is obviously because of how we wrote the letters on the screen, just information technology's fairly easy to remove caps through autocorrect, and so we're amazed the Samsung doesn't seem to.

Other than that, the recognition itself is pretty brilliant. Its accuracy is very good, as long equally yous don't write similar an idiot and the screen/pen combination works really well. It's arguably a little too modest for much writing, but information technology works for short notes.

Of course, the pen does other things. Yous tin can use it as a finger, if you wish, significant you don't need to get grease all over your phone screen. Information technology can be used to draw too, as yous'd expect, and at that place are some annotation-taking apps that allow y'all to record your writing as either

Nosotros'll be candid about the camera

The eight-megapixel shooter is a scrap weak in reduced light. So indoor snaps are little more than than boilerplate. Outdoors, in strong lite, and things get a lot better. There is enough detail in the images for most use. They won't disgrace themselves when printed out on sensibly sized paper and they'll be fine for sharing via Facebook and the similar.

At that place are also some squeamish features such as a outburst shooting mode, that fires off lots of shots in rapid succession. These are stored in the phone retentivity, which might lead to some defoliation well-nigh where to observe them later.

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You as well get a lot of control, and there are plenty of modes which allow you lot to take hold of the "all-time photo" from viii shots, which the phone snaps - as with the burst mode - in rapid succession. In addition to all this, in that location are the usual settings to tweak, to get the all-time possible photo. And, to give the Instagram lovers a treat, there are some basic photo filters too.

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The camera app is pretty easy to utilise. The usual touch-to-focus is here, and we didn't take any problems with it failing to focus properly - something that seems to plague cheaper phones. It's also prissy and quick to get a lock. We besides found face up detection worked well, and although we've never made much use of it, it'south good to meet it included.

Motion and gesture command

Things go very cool when you look at what Samsung has added, both in terms of motion detection and gestures. Like many phones, you can plough the Note over to silence it when it'due south ringing. As well, rather brilliantly, if you accept a contact on-screen, then simply lifting the phone to your ear volition phone call that contact. There's a little fizz of vibration to confirm this is happening.

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Our favourite feature though, has to be the gesture to pick upwards the phone. When you do this, by reaching toward the handset, the screen illuminates telling you lot if y'all have missed calls, new text messages and the level of your bombardment. It'southward fab, although information technology uses the camera to pull this pull a fast one on off, so expect it to destroy the bombardment life of your Note.

All of these features tin exist enabled or disabled individually as well, so you can pick and choose the ones that suit your needs. Nosotros constitute most of them to be slightly pointless, and nosotros never once managed to go the screen grab gesture to work.

Powerful and fast

With LTE in the UK being a bit of a mess, the whole situation has the potential to confuse. The Note 2 volition be bachelor on EE in a 4G variety. At that place are also other versions of the telephone that support 4G on 700MHz and 1200MHz for regions where those frequencies are being used. If you want the Annotation ii in a 4G flavour, you lot should seek help from your mobile network.

READ: Galaxy S III vs. Notation 2

Based on the theoretical maximum, the Note 2 tin can download at 100mbps and upload at 50mbps. That'southward some serious speed, and while we doubt most people will see anywhere near that, information technology's a absurd idea that your phone could download faster than your habitation broadband.

The balance of the telephone is super-fast though. A quad-core processor means that there'south almost no lag at whatsoever time. At that place's 2GB of RAM too, which should aid to go along the phone feeling light, powerful and responsive. There are 16 32 and 64GB capacities too, although the one you lot're likely to be buying is the 16GB.

Entertainment goliath

Perhaps the all-time affair virtually the Notation is that screen. At over 5-inches, information technology'due south a formidable size for all things video, and the Note has some pretty cool tricks upwardly its sleeve for this. Merely best of all, its 720p (720 ten 1280) resolution is platonic for lots of media, and you'll get a lot out of video that uses this format, as it'due south brilliantly matched to one of the virtually mutual HD formats. Being an AMOLED console, there'southward no shortage of color here, with brilliant tones bursting out of the screen. Samsung, perhaps aware of the criticism OLED gets for being quite unrealistic, has also provided modes to tone down the color, should you lot want more natural tones.

As usual for Samsung's high-end handsets, there is plenty of video playback support. MKV files - which have MP4 video within them - playback perfectly, and with sound as well, which isn't the case on a lot of other phones.

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If y'all use the stock video player, y'all likewise get the choice to lookout man video in a pop-up window. This means you lot can browse the web, transport text messages or do whatsoever other phone task, while watching your video in a pocket-size window. It'south a dainty feature, that makes use of the Notation's impressive processing power.

So, of course, you lot've got Netflix, YouTube and countless other video players that will give you lot access to stacks of content, all on that big, bright, beautiful screen. Video is a real treat on the Annotation, so if you're looking for a media device with a bigger screen than a phone, this is quite likely to exist the device of your dreams.

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Picture and sound quality are both vivid though. We really liked the Note equally an entertainment device. Music sounds swell, and the music player Samsung includes is pretty good. You become admission to Samsung'due south Hub besides, which allows you to store music online, only you will need an account with Sammy to use this - and that won't be for everyone.

Jelly Bean

After much dilly-dallying almost getting Jelly Bean on the SGS Iii - it STILL hasn't arrived, officially - we were very pleased to run into the Note 2 ship with Google'south flagship OS already installed.

Jelly Bean is crucial, because information technology brings some of the most heady features yet to Android. Google Now, for example, is fantastic, and the "cards" which the organisation uses to keep you updated on weather, traffic and public transport is utterly brilliant.

Phonation control is as well much improved, and Google'southward system works also or meliorate than Siri in most of the tests we've tried. It's not got a sense of humour though, so don't try making jokes or request random questions to befuddle it.

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You also get the new notifications area. This is a huge improvement, with much larger previews. We've constitute that this has increased how much time we spend in the notifications tray, considering information technology has suddenly get incredibly useful, both for toggles for the likes of Wi-Fi and GPS, only also for getting to the menus and seeing long previews of our e-mail.

On tiptop of Android, there's Samsung's TouchWiz interface. We aren't crazy about it, visually speaking, simply in the Notation it adds a lot of pretty crucial features. For example, the handwriting recognition, and apps that use the pen in general all make use of the Samsung modifications. And then if y'all hate TouchWiz, this isn't the phone for yous, equally yous're stuck with it if y'all want to apply the phone'southward features to the fullest.

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Normally, we complain about the stock keyboard on phones too. Only here, we plant ourselves quite liking the system. For 1, the extra screen infinite allows for a defended row of numbers in a higher place the top row of letters. Yous'd be surprised how much of a difference this makes to using the device. But also, the Samsung keyboard allows y'all to switch easily to handwriting recognition, which is another decent characteristic.

Samsung also includes its "blocking mode", which is like Apple's "do non disturb" part. Y'all can block calls, text letters and so on for set times with this feature. At that place's also the option to allow through calls from sure people - say, your kid'southward nursery, or your other-half.

Call and text

The only problem with making phone calls on the Note is that it can sometimes be hard to locate the earpiece properly. This means yous will sometimes not hear people on the other end all that well. Motility the phone effectually, and you'll eventually hit the sweet spot, but with no distinguishing "experience", information technology's harder than you might retrieve.

Once you lot're sorted, the audio quality of calls is bright. And while the Note is massive, and you look ridiculous using it, it'southward a really comfortable phone to utilise and fifty-fifty though information technology's both big, and heavy, we never struggled.

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Text messaging on the Note is terrific. Y'all can manus-write letters if you lot desire, although information technology's a chip arduous. But the extra screen size means that the keys, and the gaps between the keys, are larger than on a normal telephone. This means typing is easier, and we discovered that nosotros were able to type much more accurately.

Battery

A big telephone needs a big battery. The screen lonely volition drink power in the Note 2, so if you're using it for, say, satellite navigation, where the screen is on constantly, then it'south going to run out of juice very quickly indeed. We tested this, and reckon you'll lose power at more than than 10 per cent per hour for navigation - and likely video also.

Things look upward when you apply the phone more "unremarkably". One time yous're out of the constant apply phase that affects everyone when they first purchase a handset, then you lot start to use information technology less and overall get more impressive bombardment life. The Note can easily final the mean solar day under normal use, and if you were conservative with it, you'd become one-and-a-one-half to two days' utilize. Switch off a few things like push notifications and you'll accept no worries.

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The bombardment itself is a 3100mAh cell, so at that place'due south a lot of juice in hither. To give you an idea, nigh phone sit virtually 2000mAh these days - older, or smaller phones from 1600mAh up - and tablets rest effectually 6000mAh or more than (the iPad three is virtually 12,000mAh). The life you see though, can be curtailed past some of Samsung's own functionality, like motion detection and some of the gesture-based coolness.

To recap

We're in honey. This telephone may seem wildly casuistic, but those fabulous Koreans have somehow managed to create a device that offers so much more than than a smaller telephone and well-nigh makes tablets pointless. This telephone won't be for everyone, but for united states of america it's i of the best Android devices money can buy.

Writing by Ian Morris.