Phablet Review: Samsung Galaxy Note 2 - Is it Too BIG to Manage?

The Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has been out now in the market for quite some time. It has followed the enigmatic Smartphone craze that it's original predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy Note, has created. Why is it such an enigmatic market? The reason being that upon first glance at it, one would immediately say that its size is gargantuan to be a regular smartphone but a tad smaller than a 7"tablet. It is due to this that people have coined the term Phablet. But with the success of the Samsung Galaxy Note, having sold 10Million units in less than a year of it's launch people are now raving and wanting for something much more which Samsung has answered with this latest version of the Galaxy Note line.

Talking about form factor, one would can really see what I mean when we discuss about size difference. The Samsung Galaxy Note 2 sports a 5.5" screen size as opposed to the original 5.3" screen size of the Samsung Galaxy Note. They made a notable change though as to how this screen size has been layed out, they made it longer rather than going square. This works well on the fact that they maintain the nature shape of the pebble which is what their Samsung Galaxy S3 line is following plus it makes it easier to hold with one hand(well at least for those that have above average sized hands). This design form also allows for another improvement of what was popular for the Samsung Galaxy Note - The S Pen. The new elongated shape of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 allows the S Pen to be much longer and a lot easier to handle, which was my initial issue with my Samsung Galaxy Note(I was able to get used to it though somehow). Generally the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is pretty much a big improvement to the Samsung Galaxy Note and as you read further below you'll see even more reason as to why people are starting to radiate towards it - aside from the fact of it being massive of course :)

Design - Who could possibly ignore the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Just like it's older brother, when you see someone using it you'd be caught off guard and sometimes if you are a curious gadget lover like me would wonder if I just saw a Tablet or a Smartphone. But with it's size you'd be pleasantly surprised to notice that once you lift the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, It wouldn't be any different from the Samsung Galaxy S3. Buttons are kept to a bare minimum - Volume Rocker, power/sleep button on the sides, 3.5mm headphone jack on top, microUSB port and a dock for the S-Pen Stylus. If you've got small hands you'd be able to manage texting by using both your hands or simply activate the one handed typing feature which can be oriented for both left and right handed users. 

Performance - 1.6Ghz Quad Core processor supported by a 2GB RAM is more than enough to make any hardcore gadget and tech enthusiast drool. For those that aren't techy that way the best way to think about it is that if it were a car this would be a race car in terms of speed and anything else that you are holding right now that you use as a phone will pale in comparison at least in terms of speed and performance on the benchmark tests. But if you think of the user experience you basically wont see or experience any lag - just fast and responsive navigation and of course full multi-tasking capabilities such as pop up play for videos while you text and browse away. On the network side it has 4G LTE capabilities making it a multimedia and office power house when needed. Software side, it ships out with the latest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and with all its upgraded features, both hardware and software ensure a very healthy relationship making the users a happy camper.  

Screen - 5.5" screen real estate and full utilization of it makes it quite pleasurable to use for impromptu coffee presentations, note taking, e-book reading, and full website browsing. With a full 1280x720pixel resolution Super Amoled Display, what you see is going to be crisp and packed with so much detail. HD videos will most likely be more utilized on the go with the Samsung Galaxy Note 2.

Stylus(S Pen) -  This is what makes it stand out amongst its competition. The Samsung Galaxy Note 2 may be in many aspects like its Flagship Samsung Galaxy S3 brother but the S Pen allows its users the type of technology that drawing and writing on a touch pad brings. It like its older predecessor the Samsung Galaxy Note allows you to doodle and draw with a series of pens and colours while bringing in a new flavor by showing how it can translate handwriting to text messaging fast enough to show that it isn't just a toy. It also allows for the note page to pop up as soon as you remove the S Pen from the dock and you can now add captions and annotations to documents and pictures and website pages.

The Handwriting recognition is an amazing development as it can quickly recognize most doodles and even offers a selection of similar words if it isn't sure about what you have written. There are also several handy drawing tools too which it took from the older Samsung Galaxy Note Premium such as Shape Match which auto corrects the shape you drew, record how you sketched a drawing and search for items you have written. 

Air view is the latest feature of the S Pen which allows you to preview emails, appointments, gallery pictures and videos by just hovering the S Pen over the item with out having to open them. 

Multi Window - Just like what everyone saw with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 allows you to have two windows open on the screen at once. This allows users for example to view emails while watching a video or keeping a webpage open as you draw a picture or take down notes. The screen allows this to be completely viable and because of its hardware, you will notice no difficulty in doing this. 

Camera - Packed with an 8MP camera and equipped with the same accoutrements like autofocus and LED flash, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2's camera is still markedly better than its older predecessor the Samsung Galaxy Note. It also is equipped with BSI(Back Side Illumination) providing improved picture quality in low light conditions. This plus a ton of other features like tilt to zoom, best photos, Best group pose, burst shot and face detection make the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 a Camera Phone powerhouse. Overall quality of the pictures especially in ample lighting conditions are quite excellent. Recording of 1080p HD videos is pretty good and the 2MP front camera for video calls are at par with its other Flagship counterpart the Samsung Galaxy S3. 

Battery - This is what usually makes or breaks buyers from purchasing a product. With all the features that the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 offers at the table it is also packed with a pretty massive battery to match. The Samsung Galaxy Note 2 comes with a 3100mAh battery keeping the Samsung Galaxy Note charged for over a full day with heavy usage such as gaming, navigation, and web-browsing. More than that if you are an average user, and some have even reported that they have gone 4 days without having to plug to an outlet. 

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 offers a pretty amazing range of improvements from the old Samsung Galaxy Note(Still can't believe and saying this one is old considering it was just last year and is still pretty good). Its bigger, bader and beefed up both feature-wise and software-wise. You can say that if you were considering to buy a tablet and a smartphone, this would be your natural choice to get for the price of one. A virtually a Go to Device for pretty much anything you would need from a smartphone and a tablet. If you think size is going to be an issue, I'd strongly recommend to try it on for size at your favorite retail outlets and I can assure you that you'd be walking out with one if not wishing that you could. 

Want to see more of the specs to help you with your purchasing choice check out the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 here: Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Till Next Time...

-Metz-