Samsung Galaxy Note II: A tough competitor to iPhone 5

New Delhi, Nov 18: Samsung's latest second generation “phablet” offers users a larger screen in a more pocketable form-factor than its trail-blazing predecessor. However, it is still a big phone. The Galaxy Note 2 brings a slightly larger 5.5-inch display but doesn't adding much size. Once you get used to the size, it is comfortable to hold given the curved chrome edges. The new Samsung Galaxy Note II promises loads of unique features which makes it the ultimate smartphone for on-the-go creativity.Despite increasing the screen size to 5.5 inches, the phone's dimensions are 80.5mm x 151.1mm x 9.4mm (3.14in x 5.94in x 0.37in). The phone has a large 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED screen with a thin bezel. The screen has an HD 1,280 x 720 resolution that showcases colors and text cleanly. Simply put, photos, videos, and text all look great on the Galaxy Note II. The corners of the device curve smoothly, and a hard silver-colored rim accents the edges of a glossy plastic finish.The Note 2 runs on the latest version of Android called 4.1 (Jelly Bean), while the Galaxy S3 runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Hence, you'll get some new features like Google Now, Android's incredible voice-controlled assistant/search engine. A mighty fast 1.6GHz Quad-Core processor and HSPA Plus or 4G LTE connectivity ensures that you can easily do multitasking, lightning-fast screen transitions and fast web browsing, along with minimal lag time in app opening. The Galaxy Note II comes with an 8 megapixel rear-facing and 1.9 megapixel front-facing cameras with HD video recording. The camera features Buddy Photo Share, Burst Shot and Best Photo, which were introduced on the Galaxy S III. It also has a unique camera function called Best Faces which allows users to choose the most preferred face or pose of each person from group portrait photos.On the storage front, it comes with 2GB of RAM and is available in three configurations - 16GB, 32GB and 64GB internal storage. Samsung has made easy to do everyday tasks with S Pen, which was first seen on the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet. The most noticeable is that the stylus now has hovering capabilities made possible by the Wacom digitizer technology behind the pen/screen interaction. Thus, you can use the S Pen over an email, S Note, S Planner, image galleries, or videos to preview the content without having to open it. Thus, you can quickly search and view more information with screen transitions, which in turn saves you the precious time. The device's new gesture pad feature called Quick Command lets you use to the S Pen to take shortcuts. Similarly, it also enables you to instantly crop the screen or its contents in any shape required—ready to save, share or paste—and you can also edit Web or digital images instantly with colouring, shading, or your own personal handwriting. The S Pen works just like a finger for swiping, tapping, along with with extra tricks and gestures to make it easy to navigate.Galaxy Note 2 is powered by a mammoth 3,100 mAh Li-ion battery.Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is priced starting at Rs 39,990 for the 16GB version.The device also features Smart Stay, which was first introduced on the Galaxy S III, which uses the camera in the Galaxy Note II to prevent the device from going into standby mode when it detects a user in front of the device. In addition, the phablet also offers AllShare Play, which allows users to share content with a large group in real-time by connecting Galaxy Note II to Samsung HD TVs, phones, mobile tablets, laptops, and other consumer electronic devices on the same network. The device enables you to do multitasking with so much ease. A feature called Popup Note enables you to open S Note instantly as a pop-up window anywhere on the screen. Hence, you can watch a cricket match while reading a good article about the player in another window. Other specs include a Micro USB port, microSD card slot, headphone jack, a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, DLNA for AllShare Play, NFC, and GPS.Finally, the call quality is also reported to be good with the earpiece loud enough in most situations.