Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Design and build If you've seen the Samsung Galaxy S3, then the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 holds few surprises. Start with the Galaxy S3's round corners, high-gloss surfaces, scant bezels and bubbled-out screen, then blow it up a size and add a stylus slot. Samsung unabashedly carries on its plastic tradition in the face of rivals that have much more premium-looking, and possibly heartier, build materials. Though attractive, the Note 2 wins no awards for construction, and the highly reflective surfaces sometimes bounce back light in distracting ways. This is a large phone, a handful to be sure, but the weight feels proportional to the phone's dimensions, and any lighter could mean a smaller battery, which is one trade-off we wouldn't want. Like the Galaxy S3, the Note 2 manages to look relatively sleek and slim, despite its girth. Side by side, the Note 2 isn't a whole lot larger than the original Samsung Galaxy Note, and is much more palm-able than a 7-inch tablet. Still, we won't blame anyone for feeling anxiety over the Note 2's in-hand feel or portability. As with all phones, your ultimate judgement of what feels right depends on your hands. Over the course of testing, the Note 2 moved through a range of hands and pockets. Mine are fairly small, and I wanted to see what people had to say about its size and comfort. Most of the women I spoke with had no trouble fitting the Note 2 into a bag or purse, but questioned the phone's usability and their ability to reach the corners of the screen one-handed. Of the men who tried out the phone, responses were 50/50. Some felt fine slipping the Note 2 into a front pants pocket, others didn't. Some enjoyed holding the larger phone once they got used to its size; others found it too expansive, even with their bigger hands. I was able to slide the Note 2 into my back jeans cell phone parts pocket and go about my day. It stuck out and looked terrible, but it didn't impede my walking around, and most of the time, I didn't really notice it. I even sat on the phone a few times; it wasn't especially uncomfortable, and the phone didn't break. I also became quickly accustomed to the phone's size. After a day or two staring at its screen, the Galaxy S3's looked small in comparison. The iPhone 5's 4-inch screen looked shockingly tiny, which just proves that device size is all relative. If you don't have one already, you'll want to invest in a Bluetooth headset for answering calls. The Note 2 looks comically large on the ear. Beyond the phone's physical properties, you'll find helpful hardware buttons and ports. There's a front-facing camera above the screen, along with a light and proximity sensor. There's a physical hardware Home button below the display, sandwiched between touch-sensitive buttons for Menu and Back. The power button is on the right spine, the volume rocker is on the left and the Micro-USB port is on the bottom. The top houses the 3.5mm headset jack. On the back, you'll find the camera lens and LED flash. At the bottom of the back panel is the stylus slot with the S Pen. Behind the back cover rests the microSD card slot, which can hold up to 64GB in external memory. Screen and OS The Note 2's 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED screen (1280x720-pixel resolution) is bigger than the original Note's 5.3-inch display. That translates into a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio rather than the 16:10 aspect ratio of the first Note. This helps it fit right in with more standard graphics and video playback. The Note 2's vast HD AMOLED screen is as lovely as ever, with deep blacks and vibrant colours. However, the resolution isn't as tight as on the Samsung Galaxy S3, which puts more pixels on a comparatively smaller screen. The naked eye would be hard-pressed to detect the looser resolution while watching videos and reading text, but when you hold the phones side by side, the fine details don't look as sharp on the Note 2. This is especially noticeable when compared with an even smaller HD screen, like the iPhone 5's 4-inch Retina Display. The S Pen stylus is an integral part of the complete Note 2 experience, but to control the phone, fingers are all you really need. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean runs the Note 2, with Samsung's TouchWiz interface on top. I've said it before: TouchWiz mostly adds terrific functionality that extends Google's Android vision, but it's getting a little outdated and lacks the elegance or edginess of its competitors' overlays. There's a great deal of customisation, from lock screen shortcuts to a wide variety of motion controls — some of which I love and others that I completely ignore. You'll be able to access system settings from the notifications menu, which, by the way, offer Jelly Bean's deeper interactions. Seven home screens are fully customisable, and Samsung even gives you the option of booting up "easy" mode, which drops in widgets of most-used apps, settings and contacts on the home screen. It's all editable, of course. You can also enable Page Buddy, a context-relevant home screen that temporarily pops up when you do things like remove the stylus, plug in headphones and dock the phone. Pull out the stylus, for instance, and you'll see a page with shortcuts to S Note files and templates. Samsung's default virtual keyboard lets you touch type or trace words. I love that numbers get their own row and I appreciate predictive text. Unfortunately, there's no spell-checker, and mistakes require manual correction. This oversight bothers me on all Samsung phones, but with the Note 2 being so focused on writing, the lack of a default spell-checker is really inexcusable. I'm also put out that there's no one-touch way to insert commas and question marks. On the plus side, each navigation button also doubles up on functionality. Hold down Menu to get the revised Google Search App, with the newly designed Google Voice Actions and Google Now. A long press on the Home button pulls up your list of most recent apps; a double-press activates Samsung's own take on a voice assistant, S Voice, which I still don't think is very good. Pressing the Back button on this global version pops up the menu for split-screen multitasking (more on this below). S Pen stylus If you never unholster the phone's signature stylus, you can still enjoy full use of the Note 2 and all its Android-given glory. However, if you do wield the S Pen, drawing and productivity tools await. The S Pen is redesigned from the original Note's. Like the Galaxy Note 10.1's, the Note 2's stylus has four distinct surfaces and squared-off sides. Its button is ridged, so you can click by feel. Compared with the Note's round, thin, twig of a wand, this stylus is more comfortable, less likely to roll away, and less prone to accidental button presses. Of course, I mistakenly pressed it anyway, which led to its own set of issues while using the device. Samsung licenses Wacom's technology to bring mobile phone flex cable its S Pen 1024 levels of pen-pressure sensitivity, which means that you can press lightly or hard for different results. Like the Note tablet, the Note 2 smartphone merges pen-and-paper sensibilities with a healthy dose of cursor-and-mouse functionality. Take air view, a cursor/mouse combo that reveals tool tips and drop-down menus when you hover, and also pops up thumbnail previews for photo and video. You can also scroll up and down, and from side to side. Manipulating the S Pen also zooms in and out, takes a screen shot, and opens a new, blank memo on any screen. You can also highlight text and lasso objects to capture them. Writing with S Pen The S Pen is a natural, comfortable extension of your own hand, and using it gives your fingers a break. Dig a little, and you'll find quick commands and gestures of all sorts. Gestures can be faster and more efficient; other times not. You can also create some of your own.