Picked up the Galaxy Note II

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Woo-Hoo! Settle down and give us your impressions!

It's great. I've not had a chance to really test the s-pen though since I'm still waiting for my screen protector. I love the large screen and the vivid amoled display

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Many people like it, but for me personally it's ludicrously large to carry around as a phone.

Stupendously small to carry around as a tablet though!

[=X=]

Originally Posted by rjmac

A question - I am considering the purchase of a 7 inch tablet, but realise I will need to carry a phone and a tablet. Is the Galaxy Note good enough to do both jobs so I only need to carry one device?

That's a personal call, and one that I pondered as well. My conclusion is yes, For about four years I've been carrying a phone and a 6"-7" device for reading. During that time I've tried reading on my phone numerous times to have my phone drain all to quickly.

For the Note to replace that combo the criteria came down to screen size and battery life. The note passes with flying colors. The screen is fine for reading, surfing, drawing, note taking, etc... Though reading a graphic novel might not be as nice.

Originally Posted by HarryT

How is the battery life? Colleague of mine at work has the original Note and gets very poor battery life from it.

The battery life is excellent, I've heard many others echo this statement but I've always been a bit skeptical. Then I experienced the great battery life and found out why. The Note II has a whopping 3.1Ahr battery. When I compared it to my OGS it is huge!

To give an example I've used the phone today for about 13hrs under heavy use. I've been making and receiving a lot of calls today and surfing the web for about 120min. total. I'm about at 40%.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Many people like it, but for me personally it's ludicrously large to carry around as a phone. Perhaps for a woman who carries it in her handbag it would be OK, but for mens' pockets - no. Not for me, at any rate.

As a phone it is quite large and did require some adjusting but I have gotten use to it.

I find that I use my phone more as a pda, eReader, tablet, etc... than phone and for this it excels. I recently looked at my old phone as I have been trying to fix it and I just laughed at how small the screen is.

I do wear my phone in my front pocket and it is not any worse than my previous phone.

[rjmac]

Thank you =X= your response has answered my question and has given me the information I was looking for.

[=X=]

I've jotted a couple of thoughts and impressions after using it for a week.


THE BAD
The placement of the pen is on the worst possible spot for left handers. Because the pens location is on the bottom right of the phone. It forces the left handed to move the phone to expose the pen. For right handed the edge would be exposed so no movement is required. In fact even if the placement was on the top right it would still be awkward but not require the user to shift the phone.

The middle button, just not needed it only gets in the way and breaks continuity. The mix of hard buttons and capacitive is awkward. I would have wished they've gone with Google's design recommendations and used the soft keys vs the hard/capacitive.

Don't like touch wiz. I I tried it for a day and just hated it. So I threw on my favorite launcher and we good to go.

THE GOOD.
One of window mobiles greatest weakness was the NEED of a stylus without one using the platform was painful...some argue using one was also painful. However Samsung win here is they have gone from making the pen a necessity to an essential. While the here can forego the use of a pen and still get a great user experience the pen integration does change the dynamics of the phone. Samsung has deep integration with the pen. That have built in gestures to navigate, built in copy, crop, and paste. Samsung has also built a suit of apps that are optimized for the pen. All designed in making the user experience excellent.

Screen size and resolution speak for themselves the screen is crisp.

Device has one handed mode. What it does is makes a few key apps and the keyboard smaller and slanted to any side you wish. It makes accessing the phone with one hand possible.

[kennyc]

Thanks for that!

[rdfry]

I love how the Note II looks hope the Note III is even better I am holding out for that.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by rdfry

I love how the Note II looks hope the Note III is even better I am holding out for that.

The rumour is for an even larger phone with the Note III, 6.3". That's insane I think, 5.5" is already big, but manageable. Going to 6.3", even with a thinner bezel, would be pushing it too far.

[Marseille]

Originally Posted by afv011

The rumour is for an even larger phone with the Note III, 6.3". That's insane I think, 5.5" is already big, but manageable. Going to 6.3", even with a thinner bezel, would be pushing it too far.

You may be right, but the exact same thing was said about the smaller first note. For that matter, I can remember when the HTC HD2 was considered a monsterous frankenstein of a device suitable only for crazed xda'ers while the Note 2 is being hailed as a flagship device and the s4 is expected to hit 5".

I do hope there is a backlash eventually though, not where big devices stop being made, but where really good devices can be small again.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by afv011

The rumour is for an even larger phone with the Note III, 6.3". That's insane I think, 5.5" is already big, but manageable. Going to 6.3", even with a thinner bezel, would be pushing it too far.

[frahse]

afv011

I am thinking between 4.5 to 5.

[=X=]

The form factor for the note is pushing it, it's not a coincidence that the note 2 it thinner than the note 1. If they get rid of the button s and bezel i can see them going bigger but investing the side much more i don't know

[ashan]

Definitely my next phone. I love it just by reading your posts about it. Plus let's not forget: the battery is removable so you can buy 3 if you like and you go without worries. This is what I like about Samsung, any battery has a life span, after so many charging cycles it will be old and need to be replaced. This is one device that once bought you will stick with it for at least 4 years and won't feel it is aged, unlike the 4-4.5 inch screen smarphones.
I have a question: How is it for reading with kindle app and google books? I know it is close to 6 inch mark of ereaders but that is more wide format. My opinion the best combination would be : Note 2 phablet and ultraportable laptop with touchscreen (13-15 inch) No need for any tablet or other device. Tablets have such succes just because the notebooks with touchscreen are a bit expensive (especially the transformers or yoga style ones).

[=X=]

@ashan Battery life has not been an issue I usually go the whole day of heavy usage in one charge... , but you are right having extra batteries will give you much usage.

Hard question considering I really don't like or use the kindle/Google reader. I prefer Moon or Mantano they are far better. However I did fire up both Google books and the kindle book reader for you.(they come pre installed). In short they look good. If I did not already use Moon I would be fine reading on those apps.

If your question is reading on a five inch screen the answers is just fine. The screen res is better on the note than the eInk devices so the font is crisp. Also the contrast is much better which also makes it easier in the eyes. That is my experience from my eInk devices don't folks might have a different experience.

=X=

[afv011]

Originally Posted by ashan

Definitely my next phone. I love it just by reading your posts about it. Plus let's not forget: the battery is removable so you can buy 3 if you like and you go without worries.

Rather than extra batteries, I would consider an external battery pack; only one item to carry, and when you change phone, you can continue to use it.