Software, Photographic camera, Conclusion

Messaging

Google has strived to amend the standard text messaging and email clients that ship with licensed Android phones, but manufacturers tend to favor their own messaging clients on their devices. Samsung's take on messaging has mixed results. For starters, there'southward the ChatON service that allows Android, Bada, BlackBerry, and iOS users to send free messages and media to each other. The app performs well enough, only it lacks the standard footprint of iMessage or BBM, or even the cross-platform notoriety of GroupMe.

The SMS client uses the TouchWiz UI. It isn't the prettiest around but users can brand small theme changes. Information technology also excels by having the ability to schedule letters and brainstorm calling someone later on placing the telephone to an ear while a texting thread is open. When held in landscape, the messaging app switches to a two-pane view that shows a list of messages on the left side and one actual conversation on the right.

The Email app has a better color scheme that could do good from some small visual improvements, but it makes the course in other ways. The app too supports a multi window view in mural that makes reading email similar to what users would expect on a tablet. The split-screen view makes responding to emails incredibly fast, and the app benefits from having pinch-to-zoom and multiple accounts that can be loaded separately or in a unified inbox. The e-mail client supports POP3, IMAP, and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.

Apps / App Store

Samsung relies on the S Pen to heave the usability of its software, including the aforementioned S Note application, but there's plenty to capeesh without the S Pen. The Gallery app features three different browsing modes that include standard thumbnails, stacked rows, or a winding carousel.

Media capabilities are further extended with AllShare Play, which broadcasts photos, music, or video from the phone to a larger screen. On-device media management includes music and video player apps, a Media Hub store, and the standard Google Play store and suite of apps.

Along with the standard Google Mobile apps, T-Mobile includes a number of carrier-branded apps on the Galaxy Note 2. These apps add together more tools for business relationship direction, caller ID, streaming TV, visual voicemail, and launching a mobile hotspots Google Play as well supplies more than than 700,000 Android apps if users wish to take more apps, most of which do non accept reward of the Due south Pen.

Samsung has held multiple programmer contests to encourage stylus-friendly apps, just those efforts have so far produced only a few drawing apps. The Galaxy Note II ships with the necessary basics, but a few inventive tertiary-party apps would add together the finishing touches to unlock the S Pen'south full potential.

Browser

Simply every bit it did with the Calendar and Contacts apps, Samsung makes the Internet app more about TouchWiz than Android. The browser profoundly differs from the standard Android browser app, and there doesn't appear to be any perceivable benefit to that alter. It provides tabbed browsing, a tracking-gratis Incognito mode, a button relieve pages for offline reading, a desktop view switch, and settings to control navigation with gestures. Otherwise, if you want something else Chrome for Android and other alternatives are available in Google Play.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy Note Ii has an 8 megapixel camera with LED flash and a 1.9 megapixel front-facing camera, both of which can succinctly be described as fantastic. The front-facing camera records fluid video and impressive self-portraits, making it one of the meliorate front shooters bachelor in a mobile device. The rear camera has auto focus that instantly adjusts to conditions, including depression-light situations, and does a skillful job of applying the right settings to chop-chop capture a photo. The camera software has pre-defined shooting modes for depression-light weather condition and panorama, only it's most intriguing trick is the Best Face up feature. The latter takes multiple group photos then looks at faces to determine when someone is out of focus or looking away, and then creates a better photo by combining the best faces from multiple snapshots into 1.

There are occasions when the Milky way Annotation II's auto-settings detects too much light in a certain expanse, like an open window or the sun shining at a sure angle, and then mistakenly applies the incorrect focus or lighting settings. A bevy of manual adjustments can fix that trouble, and the BSI lens and auto focus software typically manage to produce high-quality photos. The photographic camera software works all-time when using HDR manner to blend highs and lows to find the right light and contrast residuum, but HDR is most effective with completely still subjects and may not ever be necessary.

Samsung did an as impressive task with the video camera settings. The Galaxy Notation II can record 1080p HD videos that are generally free of the jitteriness that plagues so many smartphone cameras. The rear photographic camera quickly refocuses on moving subjects or changes in orientation, and the 1.9 megapixel front-facing photographic camera records stable video that enables fantabulous video calling.

Music

Music lovers should accept no trouble finding means to enjoy music on the Galaxy Note II, which ships with three unlike apps geared towards playing a user's favorite songs. Samsung includes its default music player that includes SoundAlive equalizer furnishings and a Music square characteristic that can nautical chart songs based on four key traits: passionate, exciting, joyful, calm. Google Play Music likewise plays tracks stored on the phone, but it has the added power to stream up to twenty,000 songs stored in the cloud. Samsung'south Music Hub has: a cloud locker for personal streaming; a radio app that provides recommendations, favorites, and personal stations; and an on-demand streaming selection with access to more than 19 million songs. 3 apps may be two more than nearly buyers need for music, but the Galaxy Note 2 benefits by offering choices that speak to the needs of individual users.

Battery

While companies have advanced display engineering science and accelerated the processing power of their phones, they have also accelerated the rate at which those phones deplete their batteries. No on one has mastered the residuum betwixt all areas, but Samsung has done a laudable job of showcasing a powerful processor working in a tandem with a reasonable battery. The massive screen eats up enough of juice, and the 3,100 mAh battery manages to keep up for a solid twenty-four hour period. Despite streaming high-quality songs on Pandora, watching YouTube, browsing the spider web, and remaining on HSPA+ for most of the day, the phone still managed to turn in more than 14 hours of heavy use before powering downwardly.

Final thoughts

The Samsung Galaxy Annotation II's above boilerplate size is both a gift and a hindrance. The fact that a telephone could be then large to be considered a tablet ways that it has added benefits that most handsets lack, but it too has challenges unique to this telephone. The size of the phone makes 1-handed use impractical, which severely limits the pool of potential fans. There's also a adventure that a user may look and experience ridiculous when holding the large phone up to their ear to place a call. As foreign as it may feel initially, buyers who are willing to employ two hands will find a telephone set up to assistance meet many other challenges thrown at them.

In my time with the Galaxy Note, I've institute the phone to be perfectly capable of running my favorite games and apps, and I've loved the tablet-like experience of reading Pulse or Flipboard on a much larger screen. I as well discovered that the Southward Pen is incredibly useful for annotating photos, and marginally beneficial when navigating in media apps. While the original Galaxy Notation may accept had issues with arrangement-broad lag, the Galaxy Notation II is a smooth and dynamic experience from top to bottom. It'south probably besides big as a phone or likewise small every bit a tablet for most, but many will discover it's a comfortable compromise between the ii form factors.

Pros: Excellent photographic camera and unique software capabilities because of Southward Pen and five.5-inch screen.

Cons: Big size may be likewise much for many users to overcome.