Is the Note 2 any good? I'm getting worried.....

[menmyjeep]

Is the Galaxy Note 2 any good? I'm getting worried because I want to get this phone badly but the lack of praise this device is getting from the lucky ones to have already received it is worrying me. I was expecting to see many very positive posts about this phone by now and they are just not happening. It's been extremely quiet in that regards.

Anyone? If you have this phone can you give your 2 cents worth? Good, bad or otherwise would be appreciated in helping me make a decision on whether to get this phone or not.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ahmed Alzayani]

For me it's the best smartphone out there for now , As an original Galaxy Note owner it worth the upgrade , but it's not a leap it's a one step up, everything in the Note 2 is a better experience , The only thing i miss from my original Note is the black color (which give the device a sleeker look ).

Compare to the original Note ... You get

• Faster CPU+GPU
• Double the Ram
• Improved display with no pentile
• Improved S pen and improved wacom sensor
• Much faster and sleeker software
• Improved battery life
• Improve glass (Corning Gorilla Glass 2)
• Improved camera
• Improved audio quality
• NFC support

 

[mdr76]

It's not getting much praise because we're too busy loving the phone to talk. I love my Note 2 it is, without a doubt, the best phone I've ever owned.

 

[wyndslash]

i'm very excited to get mine and i've never been this excited about a phone before! or any sort of device, actually...

 

[Devention]

It's not getting much praise because we're too busy loving the phone to talk. I love my Note 2, it's without a doubt, the best phone I've ever owned.

Agreed. You'll wonder how you ever made do with a smaller screen. There is no buyers remorse to worry about. Just smugness ;D

 

[Teophne]

Being a gamer at heart and owning an iPhone I often read TouchArcade forums. Wrote a post there that I was making a switch and one of the replies said this:

I've got 2 android tablets to see if it was worth making the switch on my phone based on software alone. I actually use my phone more for entertainment than I do for calls or texting. I know any phone can perform those functions well enough, so my deciding factor was the software available.

2 months into this and I have to say, although Android does have an easier time with emulators, they are dead last on everything else. Games are slower to come out, if at all due to the high rate of piracy. Its dead simple to pirate on Android, open up a browser on the phone, search gamename.apk and bam, you'll find it on countless sites. Tap the download button and it will install right on the phone, no need for rooting (jailbreaking), its just that easy. I can see why some devs just avoid the platform entirely.

Not counting games, the utilities to be found for productivity are also slim when it comes to quality, unless you're searching for tools that compliment a tech based industry like IT. There are plenty of apps suited for issuing remote terminal commands.

I enjoy my android devices, they were cheap and I take them with me when I don't want to risk losing my iPad because the trip involves leaving my bag somewhere for hours unattended. Would I recommend it to anyone? If they can't pony up for an idevice, then yes, most definitely. To me, the iOS ecosystem is just much more developed, its always first to the punch, and gets software and plenty of exclusives. Android on the other hand is like a cable TV channel that only plays reruns and has a few original shows of its own, kinda like TBS, its not Primetime TV.

Even though I had read a lot about differences in iOS and Android this was the first that really got me into thinking. I'm still getting the Note2 but this post here is something to think about.

Any comments?

 

[wyndslash]

Android meets my needs, ios doesn't.that's enough to make me stay with android

 

[casarosa]

Brilliant phone what more can I say people have already said it.

 

[animal47]

The main thing i am looking forward to is the reported decent battery life for once. I have spent the last 2 years with a desire hd and am used to 2.5 hrs of video playback and around 2 hrs of web browsing before needing to reach for the charger so the reported 12 hrs of video and 9 hrs of web are a massive deal to me and i doubt it will be long before the market is flooded with huge battery upgrades like with the original note.

 

[bonerp]

Coming from note 1 this is a significant improvement in terms of performance.
Very happy.

 

[FCUM]

Ive just upgraded from a DHD and even with all the good reviews its even better than I expected it to be.

I just cant get over how responsive and snappy it is.
Apps that I couldnt use on my DHD because they were slow or laggy are just so smooth to use. Its like a whole new world of apps are now available to me.

Best phone I have ever used. Cant imagine how it could be any better.

 

[Craigie]

Being a gamer at heart and owning an iPhone I often read TouchArcade forums. Wrote a post there that I was making a switch and one of the replies said this:



Even though I had read a lot about differences in iOS and Android this was the first that really got me into thinking. I'm still getting the Note2 but this post here is something to think about.

Any comments?

To be honest that's a very one dimensional view and very exaggerated too. The fact you yourself are in a similar place but making the switch says it all because once you've touched a bigger screen how is any normal person meant to 'game' on an iPhone? The screen is minuscule at 3.5 inches and even the new one is only 4.0inches and you get the impression that's simply to fit another line of apps on your home screen rather than making it better for gaming etc.

For a male my hands are a bit smaller than average and I had a Samsung galaxy s and struggled to game on it (4.0 inch screen) and upgraded to galaxy s2 (4.3inch) which is loads better but still not perfect. I've had so many Samsungs that if the iPhone 5 was the same sort of proportions as say a galaxy s3 I may have made the switch there but apple are ridiculous in that they refuse to release a range of products.

Even the mid range android phones all have a minimum of 4.3inch screens or so, and the top end ones are around 4.6-4.8 which I think is the optimum kind of size but then you have two notes over 5.3 inches and a couple of rival copycats coming out, but knowing apple they will be stubborn and most likely stick with a 4inch screen for a 5S, a 6 and maybe even a 6S.

My thought on these things is always where will android be in a year or two? New devices push each other to be better and androids market share continues to grow and now really cheap android phones are not half bad where a year ago they were awful so more people will be able to use better apps and games which means more and more devs with be making games/apps for Android. IPads are great but on the move the iPhone is not where gaming will be at in the future

 

[rsmin]

Check out phonedog on you tube. He is doing one of his 30 trials of it now and you can tell he really loves the phone. I have the galaxy nexus and love it, but I am not up for an upgrade right now or I would seriously consider the note 2.

 

[ORD84]

To anyone that has the phone, how long are you guys getting on battery life? I'm a moderate heavy user(reading, music, games, and texting) so I'm very interested to hear how long the battery lasts while the screen is basically constantly on...

 

[NZtechfreak]

To anyone that has the phone, how long are you guys getting on battery life? I'm a moderate heavy user(reading, music, games, and texting) so I'm very interested to hear how long the battery lasts while the screen is basically constantly on...

Well, this is the screen-on time I got on my first full charge with 18 hours on battery (at home, connected to WiFi for all but one hour where I was on 3G with max screen brightness while out and about):

Basically don't worry about battery life.

 

[dave1812]

screenshot shows 8; not 18.

 

[marlbororman]

Im loving mine too, moved to this from a galaxy s1, its superb. 64% battery with 14 hours 3 mins. if i can work out how to do a screen capture i`ll post it. It just dont ever slow down. video playback and clarity of picture is far superior to anything ive ever seen. i work for a company of 300 drivers, and all that have played with it are upgrading to it. Not even gonna charge tonight, i know i can get through another 10 hour shift without !!! very happy, and was worth waiting a month to upgrade. i was on the phone to get it monday as it was released lol

 

[Sandroidfan]

screenshot shows 8; not 18.

That's just screen-on time. I guess he meant it was on battery 18 hours including 8 hours of screen on.

 

[NZtechfreak]

screenshot shows 8; not 18.

Read a bit more carefully, I said the screenshot shows my screen-on time with 18hrs on battery in total. If it isn't obvious that is an incredible result.

 

[Craigie]

Was that all on max brightness NZ or just when you were out?

Its great that the battery life is so good and I'm still amazed that Samsung is still the only top end manufacturer offering this sort of thing with expandable memory and replaceable battery, I can't be the only one who has that as a major deciding factor.

 

[NZtechfreak]

Was that all on max brightness NZ or just when you were out?

Its great that the battery life is so good and I'm still amazed that Samsung is still the only top end manufacturer offering this sort of thing with expandable memory and replaceable battery, I can't be the only one who has that as a major deciding factor.

Manual brightness when indoors, max brightness needed outdoors only (from memory around an hour of those 8 hours). Epic result.

 

[keyan333]

Was that all on max brightness NZ or just when you were out?

Its great that the battery life is so good and I'm still amazed that Samsung is still the only top end manufacturer offering this sort of thing with expandable memory and replaceable battery, I can't be the only one who has that as a major deciding factor.

Same over here. I really like the fact it has a removeable battery and a Microsd cards slot. Majo deciding factors for me. It's not even hard to make a phone with both. All phones should have it....

Getting my note 2 this month

 

[reburner]

I'm 3 days into ownership now after having Iphones since they first came out.
I'm loving it. In particular:
the screen real estate and quality;
the pop out video player;
being able to have more than one window open;
the amount of memory (I have a 16gb phone with a 64gb card);
and the amount of customisation you can do.

The only down side is I keep losing it to the children who are playing with S Note using the pen the whole time.

 

[wyndslash]

Soo envious of people getting their GN2! I might get it for Christmas, but that's still so far away, lol

 

[ren857]

Being a gamer at heart and owning an iPhone I often read TouchArcade forums. Wrote a post there that I was making a switch and one of the replies said this:



Even though I had read a lot about differences in iOS and Android this was the first that really got me into thinking. I'm still getting the Note2 but this post here is something to think about.

Any comments?

I am so sick and tired of iOS users buying cheap Android tablets claiming to "test out the software." The bottom line is: you get what you pay for. That user bought a sub-$200 tablet (with the exception of the Nexus 7) and tried to use it for gaming. It's not gonna work. Cheap android tablets usually have the bottom of the barrel hardware - slow and clunky. Gaming is abysmal on those types of tablets.

The user should have ponied up the money to buy a high-end android tablet - those are the tablets that are comparable to the iPad. But they didn't want to do that. That would make too much sense.