Overnight at IFA, Samsung announced the successor to its unexpectedly popular Galaxy Note. It’s basically what we expected – a (slightly) larger 720p screen, faster processor, Jelly Bean, and some cool new pen-related tricks.
Specifically, the Note 2 has a 5.5-inch, 1280 x 720 screen (as opposed to the 5.3-inch, 1280 x 800 screen on the original Note), and a 1.6 GHz quad-core Exynos chipset, which is faster even than the Galaxy S III, which clocks in at a paltry 1.4 GHz.
Engadget went hands-on with the new device, and remarkably, they said that it feels ‘solid’ and declared it ‘impeccably well-built’, especially considering the criticisms of the build quality of Samsung hardware recently.
The differentiating factor of the Note 2 is of course, the S-Pen, and it sounds like Samsung really stepped up their game here. The stylus has been made longer, and the tip has been rubberised to make it feel more like a real pen. Extra levels of pressure sensitivity have been added to give the S-Pen 1,024 levels of sensitivity, rather than the 256 levels on the original Note, adding so much extra to games of Draw Something on the Note 2.
As if by magic, the Note 2 can detect the position of the S-Pen, allowing the phone to detect where the stylus is hovering over the screen, which Samsung has put to use as a way to easily preview media content. What is really cool though is that the phone can detect if you wander away, leaving the stylus behind and alert you so that you don’t lose it.
Like Samsung’s other recent devices, notes and video applications can be run in pop-ups on top of other applications. I’m not convinced of the utility of this feature on a phone, but the Note 2 is pretty big, so it could work.
Samsung have not announced pricing yet, but apparently the Note 2 will be available in Europe, Asia and the Middle East by October.
Phonearena states that it will be having usb 2.0, while sgs3 has 3.0 🙁
rest of the specs doesn’t matter like screen res and ff cam.
The best thing about the Note 2?
The fact that it will alert you if you leave the S-Pen behind. How awesome and useful is that!?
Probably the most easily lost item ever. 😉
64gig internal memory is what I was liking the most, after a year of using the first Note, don’t think I’ve ever left the s-pen behind. The fact it docks inside the device works really well, as opposed to ones that don’t… which I have misplaced several of for previous devices.
The IFA Presentation was brilliant, Samsung truly has a great line-up in store. The Note 2 revolutionizes the smartphone with features such a popup note, air-view and photo notes. My favorite feature is certainly the pop-up note when the S- Pen is released whilst you are on a call. All too often, as alluded to in the presentation, business users need to jot down important notes, with the Note 2 this annoying yet rather insignificant task is SOLVED making the users life fluid and concise. I am intrigued to see the seamless use of hover and air-view on the Note… Read more »
why did some specs come down? (front camera, screen resolution?) doesnt make much sense to me. also when should we expect to hear pricing from carriers? and aus release date?
the front camera should supports 720p video recording, so it is still better than the original n7000
Specs came down? Only from the rumours with regards to the camera at least. Screen resolution is now a more standard 720p res. I’m sure it will still look nice.