Apple teased that it had "a little more to show" us prior to today's San Francisco event, but it's clear now that the phrasing was humble at best. Not only has the much-anticipated, rumored and leaked 7.9-inch iPad mini been officially revealed, but so has a smattering of new and refreshed offerings across its range of gizmos. The standard iPad is seeing its fastest refresh yet (about six months) to a Lighting port and A6X-packing fourth-generation model, and the iMac has ditched its optical drive to go Air-thin in its Ivy Bridge-driven seventh-generation. Mobile power users should be especially be pleased, too, as a 13-inch variant of the MacBook Pro with a 2,560 x 1,600 Retina Display is now a reality. Lest we forgot that the iBooks app and iBooks Author have both been updated -- right on cue with that book-like iPad Mini. Hop past the break for a full listing of all the news and all of our on-scene coverage that came out of today's event.
Samsung's first crack at a smartphone larger than five inches came last year in the form of the Galaxy Note. It was wildly different than most phones we'd seen before: it was massive, for one, and involved the use of a stylus pen, a sorely outdated concept at the time. Who would be willing to buy this thing? Yet, despite its enormous size, this tablet / phone (forgive us: phablet) captured more hearts and wallets than even Sammy had probably expected. The S Pen showed that it was more than just a simple stylus, artists and tech enthusiasts alike loved it and a successful marketing campaign helped push millions of units. The Note was an undeniable hit.
Did Samsung realize at the time that it was sitting on a gold mine? It's hard to know for sure, but its success meant only one thing: an inevitable sequel. The Galaxy Note II, introduced a year after its parent, has some big shoes to fill. We believe it's up to the task, though: it boasts a quad-core Exynos processor, twice the RAM, an even larger display and a whole new bag of S Pen tricks. It sounds compelling, but does the new version truly trump the old? Is it worth another sound investment (pricing varies, but it starts around £530 for a SIM-free version) just a year down the road? We'll satisfy your curiosity after the break.
To gaze upon the newborn Galaxy Note II is to take a crash course in Samsung's preferred design language. Whereas the original bears the same overall look and squarish corners as the Galaxy S II, its successor is -- you guessed it -- just as inspired by nature and "designed for humans" as the Galaxy S III. We wouldn't rule out the possibility of you mixing them up (the size difference is a dead giveaway, but the phones look quite similar otherwise). Indeed, Samsung is now in the habit of changing things up on a yearly basis, which may seem more boring than once every couple months. By adopting an annual design cycle, however, devices like the Note II likely get pushed through the initial stages of development much faster than they would otherwise. We also imagine that the company's new strategy of consistency will have a significant impact on Samsung's brand recognition.
Owners of the original Galaxy Note -- whether it be the global N7000 or one of its many variants -- know all too well how it feels to get the occasional "what is that thing?" from random passersby. So will the peanut gallery continue to snicker when you take this out in public? At 3.16 inches (80.5mm) wide, 5.95 inches (151.1mm) tall and 0.37 inches (9.4mm) deep, the Note II is slightly thinner, narrower and taller than its parent. This, along with the pebble-like shape, definitely offers a more comfortable experience when you're cradling it in your hand, though it's just a tad heavier at 6.35 ounces (180g). Despite being more attractive than the first Note, it's nonetheless an indisputably large device, and will continue to draw stares for that reason. (In other words, you'll want to come up with a standard talk track for those times you're approached by curious strangers.)
While we all want our smartphones to stick around for a long time, the matter of build quality is extremely important here, given the fact that the phone's size makes it more prone to drops. That's why we're happy with the company's decision to use a polycarbonate chassis, similar to the one on the Galaxy S III. After handling the Note II on a regular basis, we're confident that Samsung's crafted a durable, solid device. (As an aside, you can find a few drop tests circulating the web. Spoiler: it holds up extremely well.)
Because the new Note has a larger display and thinner chassis, the buttons on each side have been scaled down a notch. The power key, for instance, now rests in a much more natural position that's easier to find by feel. The only downside? It's also much easier to press the button accidentally.
Since we're discussing button placement, we'll continue with the full Vanna White-style tour: beginning with the front, you'll find an LED notification light (which wasn't on the first Note), an earpiece, sensors and a 1.9-megapixel camera above the display, while the large physical home button found below the screen is flanked by two capacitive keys (menu and back) on either side. The bezel on the top and bottom are smaller than on the OG Note, though the left and right bezels are about the same.
The front is frankly the busiest part of the phone; Samsung professes a policy of minimalism the rest of the way around the Note II. There's a power button on the right, volume rocker on the left, S Pen holder and micro-USB charging port (with MHL capabilities -- more on that later) on the bottom and 3.5mm headphone jack up top. Even the back keeps relatively quiet, sporting the 8-megapixel camera module and LED flash just barely above the singular Samsung logo, as well as a speaker grille that hangs out near the bottom. The battery cover lies completely flat across the back of the phone (with the exception of the slightly raised camera and speaker) and curves inward as it prepares to meet up with the edge.
A design decision we've always appreciated from Samsung is the removable battery, which has been increased to 3,100mAh (up from 2,500mAh on the original Note). Above it you'll see slots for micro-SIM and microSDXC cards as well as contacts for NFC and wireless charging.
Our particular review unit, provided to us by our friends at Negri Electronics, is the white N7100, the global version which lacks the superfast LTE speeds many users crave. Thus, folks looking for the fastest Note II around will need to grab the N7105, which offers the next-gen data in bands 7 (2600MHz) and 20 (800MHz). For those keeping score, you can see if your country utilizes these frequencies here. Speed demons in the US may also be interested in variants of the Note II coming out to AT&T, Verizon,Sprint and US Cellular, though there should be very few cosmetic discrepancies between them and their global counterparts -- much like we saw with the Galaxy S III series.
Both global versions of the Note II are capable of 21.6Mbps HSPA+ (850, 900, 1900 and 2100MHz) along with quadband GSM / EDGE. They also boast dual-band (2.4 and 5GHz) WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n with WiFi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0, DLNA and NFC. If you're a gadget aficionado in need of the full spec list, we've compiled all these specifics below.
Galaxy Note N7000
Galaxy Note II N7100
Dimensions
5.78 x 3.27 x 0.38 inches (146.9 x 83 x 9.7 mm)
5.95 x 3.16 x 0.37 inches (151.1 x 80.5 x 9.4 mm)
Weight
6.28 oz. (178g)
6.35 oz. (180g)
Screen size
5.3 inches
5.5 inches
Screen resolution
1,280 x 800 pixels (285ppi)
1,280 x 720 pixels (267ppi)
Screen type
HD Super AMOLED
HD Super AMOLED
Battery
2,500mAh
3,100mAh
Internal storage
16GB
16 / 32 / 64GB
External storage
microSD (up to 32GB)
microSD (up to 64GB)
Rear camera
8MP
8MP
Front-facing cam
2MP
1.9MP
Video capture
1080p
1080p
NFC
In select variants
Yes
Radios
HSPA+ / UMTS, GSM / EDGE, LTE
HSPA+ / UMTS, GSM / EDGE; LTE (in the N7105)
Bluetooth
version 3.0
version 4.0 LE (with Apt-X support)
SoC
1.4GHz dual-core Exynos 4212
1.6GHz quad-core Exynos 4412
RAM
1GB
2GB
MHL
Yes
Yes, but requires Samsung adapter
Operating system
Android 2.3 (upgraded to 4.0)
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Display
The Note II's display has earned a whole section unto itself because it's, well, a little different. And we're not just talking about the fact that the newer version uses a larger panel with even fewer pixels than the original: there's more to it than meets the eye (the naked eye, at least). First, a little background: when the sequel was announced with a 1,280 x 720 HD Super AMOLED panel, we naturally assumed that it would be sporting a PenTile matrix. After all, that's exactly how this type of display has been laid out in other handsets, so it's easy to break out the 'ol jump-to-conclusions mat. However, the microscope (and Samsung's spokespeople) tell us that this isn't the case at all.
Oddly, though, it isn't the traditional RGB matrix as we've been accustomed to on most non-PenTile phones, either. Instead, it appears to be laid out in a non-striped BGR matrix in which the blue subpixels are perpendicular to green and red, rather than in parallel. This puts the display in a magical place where few Super AMOLEDs have gone before, but it's still a hefty improvement over the first Note. Don't get us wrong: we raved about the OG's 1,280 x 800 display (and rightfully so), but its follow-up looks slightly better despite the lower ppi (267, versus the original's 285). We doubt casual observers will notice the difference, but when closely viewing the two side by side, we found more pixels on the older device. Darks are a little darker on the second-gen model, and colors are just a bit more saturated, too. The viewing angles on the next-gen Note are also great for watching movies, but they're essentially the same as the original. Daylight viewing wasn't a problem with the brightness cranked up above 75 percent.
Software
The Galaxy Note II is the first Samsung device to ship with Jelly Bean (Android 4.1.1, to be exact). All of the OS' new and enhanced features have been worked into TouchWiz UI. This includes Google Now (long-press the menu button to activate it), expandable notifications and predictive keyboard -- heck, even the Jelly Bean easter egg is there. It also includes the laundry list of new services Sammy introduced on the Galaxy S III, such as Smart Stay, S Voice, AllShare Cast and S Beam. (S Beam, by the way, adds the ability to transfer Note II docs to other Note II devices, but since we only have one tester phone, we haven't had the chance to try this out.) Popup video, which allows your selected video to "hover" over other apps, allowing you to multitask, also makes a repeat appearance here, and it's definitely a better experience when you have such a large screen to use it on.
TouchWiz on Jelly Bean isn't unlike the experience you've had on Ice Cream Sandwich -- Samsung, as you'd expect, wants to keep the UX as consistent as possible. One of the biggest areas of change is the notification menu: in addition to the expandable notifications (which can be accessed by taking two fingers and pulling down on the notification), the brightness settings are now accessible underneath the quick toggles, and the status bar now houses the settings button and offers the date and time in a larger font. There are plenty of other new tweaks that make excellent use of the new S Pen capabilities, which we'll explain in more detail shortly.
Blocking mode is Samsung's take on Do Not Disturb. You can disable a number of various notifications, set a specific timeframe for them to be turned off and even set up a whitelist of allowed contacts that can bypass the block and sound a notification when they call you.
While we expect a device like the Note II to appeal mainly to smartphone buffs, Samsung is at least making an attempt to make first-time users feel comfortable. You can opt to change from the standard home screen to what's called "easy mode," which is essentially just a different launcher complete with customized pages and large widgets. Aside from that, there are very few things that differ from your normal TouchWiz experience -- it's a rather half-baked attempt at wooing a new demographic.
Samsung's set of motion controls are much improved from the old Note to the new, with the sequel now matching (and exceeding, in a couple cases) the Galaxy S III's functionality in this department. To recap, you can scroll to the top of a screen by double-tapping the top edge of the phone; tilt to zoom in and out of the screen in the gallery or browser; pan the phone to move icons on the main screen; shake your phone to look for updates; turn over the phone to mute sounds; directly call whatever contact is displayed on the screen; and more. There are a few newcomers to the Samsung fold: quick glance shows you a few basic notifications when you wave your hand over the proximity sensor and there are a few new advanced settings to adjust the level of sensitivity required to trigger motion when panning or tilting your device.
Finally, another slick new feature is Smart Rotation. If you're like us, there's a certain annoyance that comes with using the phone while in bed or on the couch because it switches screen orientation on a frequent basis. While you can typically find toggles that lock this, it's not always the best solution -- watching movies or looking at pictures are a couple of examples. Smart Rotation uses the front-facing camera to determine where your face is, and will prevent the screen from switching to landscape mode if you're still using your phone in a portrait position.
One more thing: as with the Galaxy S III, Note II owners are entitled to 50GB of Dropbox storage.
S Pen
The crown jewel of any Note device is its accompanying stylus (we know, we're not supposed to call it that), also known as the S Pen, and Samsung continues to improve on it with each new version. Indeed, the original Note, Note 10.1 and Note II all have somewhat unique pens, but they all have the same overarching design and can work interchangeably. That's handy information for anyone who loses their Wacom appendage, though there's one drawback: not all S Pens are shaped the same, so they don't all fit interchangeably in each other's cradles. The original Note pen fits loosely inside the Note II's cradle, and we wouldn't count on it staying in for very long before popping out.
Ergonomics are a huge consideration when Samsung designs its pens and indeed, each iteration seems to have a better in-hand feel. The Note II's S Pen is slightly fatter on the button side, which -- when pressing your thumb against it -- contributes to more of a true pencil feel. Also adding to the nostalgia of using an old-fashioned number two is the larger rubber tip, slightly bigger diameter (8mm) and increased length of the pen itself. It also doesn't hurt that you can tell the phone if you're right or left-handed (sorry, ambidextrous users, you have to choose).
We suppose it shouldn't come as a revelation that the second Note's S Pen and Wacom digitizer have more in common with the Note 10.1 than the original Note. First, the device recognizes when you've removed the pen from its holster and, smartly assuming you'll imminently be using it, takes you to a special page with several pen-optimized apps. (It also lets you set an alarm that activates if your S Pen and Note get too far away from each other.) Also, much like the tablet, the Note II is capable of recognizing up to 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, a four-fold increase over the OG Note's 256. As a result, we noticed an improvement in accuracy and precision when using the pen for writing, sketching and other activities. What's more, the screen does a much better job of calculating how much pressure you're applying.
This only scratches the surface of what the S Pen is capable of. The Note II not only ushers in enhancements to existing features; it also brings a suite of new features that make the phone even more tantalizing than last year's model. Even the button itself is refreshed: you can now hold down the button while drawing gestures on the screen to access features like the Quick Command tool (we'll cover this later) and a few other navigational abilities. Additionally, you can now copy specific parts of the screen with Easy Clip, which is activated by holding down the button and drawing around the area you want to clip. Once it's clipped, you can choose to save or discard what you've selected. You can also select text by holding the button, tapping the screen and dragging the pen across. And we're just getting started -- the button is capable of plenty more, and we'll discuss its many new talents later in the review.
Before we dive into the first feature, it's important to note that the Wacom digitizer included in the phone is capable of sensing the S Pen as it hovers over the screen, in the same fashion that we've seen in Bamboo Pads for the last few years. As you hold the pen above the panel you'll notice a floating cursor on the screen. This opens up a lot of interesting possibilities, one of them being Air View. Using this feature, the Note II takes advantage of the hover functionality in several ways. For instance, you can hold the pen over emails in your inbox (in the general email app for now, at least) and a pop-up box displays the first few lines. Do the same in your calendar and those pesky appointments pop out at you in more detail as you scan through. Hold your pen over an unknown icon and its function will appear, the same way as when your mouse is held over something on your computer). Our favorite use of Air View is the ability to see GIF-like previews of movies just by holding the S Pen over a thumbnail. (Cool feature worth a mention: all of the video thumbnails in the player show these same types of previews without the pen, which makes the whole screen look alive, but the S Pen makes the pop-up screen larger.)
Next up on the list of hover-friendly additions, you can now use your S Pen to scroll up and down on a page or list. In other words, it's now just a matter of holding the pen directly above the top or bottom of the scrollable screen. Sure, it seems gimmicky and unnecessary, but we discovered that we used this feature more often than we thought we would. The scrolling action is a little slow, so it's doubtful you'd want to use this on a lengthy website, but it's handy when you just need to go down the screen a little bit at a time -- say, in a settings menu or Twitter feed.
Another neat feature that takes advantage of the newfound hovering capability is the ability to toggle between brush, pencil and eraser simply by holding the pen above the screen and clicking the button. This makes for a quick and seamless experience when you're constantly making mistakes (or changing your mind) as you draw.
When you're in S Note, you can also hold the pen above the screen and long-press its button to activate another new feature called Idea Sketch. A blank notepad appears, you write down the name of a particular category (or just browse through the list) and a whole bunch of possible illustrations show up for you to choose from. Once you choose one that suits your fancy, it appears in S Note where you can adjust the size and outline style -- and then you can either find inspiration from it, or just color between the lines like it's a coloring book.
Earlier we mentioned that Popup Video is available on the Note II, but that isn't the only thing that pops up -- you can do the same thing with Popup Note, which is activated by holding the S Pen button and double-tapping on the screen. This is basically a miniature version of the S Note app, which takes up less than half of the screen real estate. This means you can take notes and watch videos simultaneously. (Popup Browser is also available.) This is the best example of true multitasking that we've ever seen on a smartphone, and there were no lags, coughs, stutters or any sign whatsoever that the quad-core Exynos processor was buckling under the load. If this is only the beginning of what these phablets are capable of with the right engine under the hood, color us impressed.
We're not done quite yet, multitasking fans. Samsung advertises another feature called Multi-Window that parallels -- nay, exceeds -- the aforementioned Popup Note in awesomeness. We recently saw an implementation of this in the Galaxy Note 10.1, and it's back, here in the Note II as Multi-Window. The implementation is a little different this time around, with a long press on the back button brining up a side bar of apps to choose from. On its tablet incarnation, this consisted of a choice of six. This time we have much more to choose from, including YouTube, ChatOn, GMail, Maps, Internet and, well, you get the idea. This list is also customizable so you can cut the ones you don't want, and bring your faves to the top. In practice, it works well. We had videos running while we checked our email, and happily scoured Google maps whilst we kept some restaurant reviews open in the other pane. Likewise, it's nice to see that you can use this in both orientations, with the phone's buttons being applied to the window that is currently in focus (sounds obvious, but anything's possible). We'd be interested to see how this might scale down onto something with a little less display going on, but the Note II's ample square-inchage certainly makes this a feature worth using. If you've ever used a dual-monitor setup for your desktop, you'll understand the massive productivity boost such a feature could bring to your smartphone -- especially given the amount of screen space the Note II offers.
Quick Command is another new feature that takes advantage of the S Pen's gesture prowess. It's activated by pressing the button while dragging the pen up from the bottom. A familiar-looking handwriting box shows up, prompting you to write a command symbol followed by a keyword. For instance, write "@ Susie" to send an email to Susie; "? [search term]" performs a web search; "# Joseph" tells the phone to call Joseph, and so on. On the surface, this doesn't seem particularly useful when S Voice or Google voice search can do the same stuff, but here's the kicker: it's fully customizable, and you can add in whatever commands you want -- and these commands can open up applications or perform a set of automated tasks (think SmartActions or Tasker). You could program it to turn WiFi, GPS and Blocking Mode on just by drawing a "C," if that's what floats your boat.
S Voice makes a return appearance, despite the existence of similar functionality in Jelly Bean. Not a surprise. What did take us aback is that it now includes S Pen handwriting recognition. This is definitely an interesting addition; from our perspective, it doesn't make much sense to write down a phrase that we could easily speak in less time -- not to mention the fact that Quick Command already addresses this capability, albeit in a separate app. This seems like a feature that Samsung threw in just because it could. Yet it's there if you want it, and we suppose there are a few folks that are gushing at the idea.
As you've no doubt come to understand, the Note II is fully loaded. The S Pen experience between the first- and second-generation devices is a night-and-day difference: the original Note seems like just a working concept in comparison. This is by far the best pen / stylus / whatchamacallit we've used on a smartphone. If you were a fan of the Note, you'll be pleasantly surprised with its successor.
Finally, Samsung has released version 2.2 of its S Pen SDK, which gives third-party developers the ability to beef up their apps with support for hovering, new brushes, special effects and context awareness. There's no guarantee your favorite app will magically have cool new S Pen features, but the option is there for devs to put in a little extra spice if they're interested.
Camera
Given what we already know of the Note II's similarities to the Galaxy S III, would it be much of a shocker to see the two sporting nearly identical cameras? Thanks to a little help from Supercurio, we did some digging and discovered that the two phones use the exact same rear camera modules (known in the code as the s5c73m3). Yes, both utilize maximum resolutions of eight megapixels (3,264 x 2,448 resolution), f/2.6 aperture and 3.7mm focal length in stills, while allowing for 1080p video capture. The front-facing cameras are the same as well: they max out at 1.9MP and are capable of 720p video recording. (Warning: they default to 1.3MP, which is 1,280 x 960. The 1.9MP setting offers 1,392 x 1,392 pixel resolution.)
But while the two devices may be hardware bosom buddies, there are likely to be a few minor differences in firmware -- especially since the Note II has additional features not yet offered in the GS III. So before we dive into the performance, let's discuss what the device has to offer. First, it has a new "best face" mode, which is Samsung's version of Scalado Rewind: it takes five group photos and lets you choose the best faces. This is handy if Bob blinks in the first picture and Julie's making a weird face in the second -- just take the best of each person and put them together in one magical finished product. There's also a new "low light" mode, which as the name implies, is meant to deliver an improved performance in that arena.
Aside from these newcomers, you'll find the same litany of settings present in the GS III, such as HDR (with strong and normal settings, a choice you're not given on the GS III), panorama, share shot, plenty of scene modes, burst shot, macro focus, white balance, ISO, metering and exposure adjustment.
We've always been impressed with Samsung's camera performance because the company seems more interested in quality than megapixel count. While both Notes perform admirably, the next-gen version gave us slightly better results than the original. The new Note produced more natural colors -- its senior cranked out shots that were typically oversaturated and oftentimes washed out in the daylight. You'll see a smidge more detail in the sequel, as well. The Note II was also the winner in managing dynamic range, bringing out the best contrast and producing natural colors in the shadows. As for how our protagonist performs against the Galaxy S III, it appears to be more or less a wash; as expected, the images were incredibly similar and any differences resulting from firmware processing were minor.
The LED flash on the second Note is considerably better than the original, providing more light and color saturation. (When compared to the GS III, however, it's tough to see any difference between the two.) The Note II also does a great job of capturing low-light images, as the new low-light mode fares well at grabbing errant photons. Comparing it with the Note and GS III, however, ends up in a draw: after taking several types of low-light shots, each one had its own moment of glory in at least a few contests.
As mentioned, the Note II is capable of capturing 1080p video in MPEG-4 format. A quick perusal of the specs shows that it uses AVC profile 4.0, has a bitrate of 17 Mbps (the GS III is 17 Mbps, while the HTC One X is 10 Mbps and the ASUS Padfone is 20 Mbps) and offers a frame rate of 30fps. You're given the option of taking high-res (3,264 x 2,176) stills as you record your movies, but if you wait until playback to grab that precious shot, the pixel count will match that of the vid it was taken from.
In terms of features, the Note II introduces fast-motion (up to 8x) and slow-motion (down to one-eighth) recording modes for videos. You may not want to get too serious with these features, but it's a fun opportunity to be creative (example: fast motion vids are best accompanied by the Benny Hill theme song).
Overall, the video performance was pretty good: yours truly felt comfortable taking home movies with the family and leaving the fancy camcorder aside. It did well at capturing detailed motion without getting choppy, and picked up our voices loud and clear. We heard some gusts on a rather windy day, but it was able to filter most of the additional noise out. The only issue we had was with panning back and forth, where the imagery was choppy, almost to the point of inducing nausea. Frankly, we're chalking most of it up to trying to keep such a large device stable.
Performance and battery life
By stating that the Note II has a shiny 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos 4412 running the show with 2GB RAM and a Mali-400MP GPU to help things along, the performance section almost writes itself. We've always been fond of Exynos, but it's especially wonderful to see it pushed to new frontiers -- in this case, four cores on a smartphone. As per our usual practice, let's first see how it holds up in our benchmark tests.
Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100
Samsung Galaxy Note N7000
Samsung Galaxy S III (I9300)
Quadrant
6,819
4,411
5,189
Vellamo
2,482
1,243
1,751
AnTuTu
13,539
6,301
11,960
SunSpider 0.9.1 (ms)
1,023
1,761
1,460
GLBenchmark Egypt Offscreen (fps)
114
69
99
CF-Bench
15,267
6,911
13,110
SunSpider: lower scores are better. Galaxy Note N7000 tests were conducted on Ice Cream Sandwich.
We were expecting to see out-of-this-world results, but even then, we ended up pleasantly surprised: some of the Note II's scores shattered anything we've seen before, especially in tests that stress the capabilities of the CPU and GPU. Four of the benchmarks produced results that easily bested anything else currently available on the market, with the other two being among the highest we've recorded.
As for real-world use, we briefly touched on the silky smooth multitasking we enjoyed with Popup Video and Popup Note, and we're happy to report that this wasn't the only area where the processor excelled. Gaming was a joy, with the HD display and capable GPU teaming up together to produce solid and realistic play. With internet browsing, we weren't surprised to see that the Note II is faster and more efficient, since Jelly Bean offers enhancements in that area. Our site opened up quickly and didn't sputter as we navigated, used pinch-to-zoom and did various activities on the browser.
The Note II has incredible battery life, but with a 3,100mAh pack and a more efficient OS than the original Note (which initially launched with Gingerbread before upgrading to ICS), this is exactly what we were expecting to see. In our standard rundown test, which consists of looping a video at 50 percent brightness, WiFi turned on (but disconnected from any networks) and regular push notifications for social media and email, we were able to snag 10 hours and 45 minutes of life out of it -- up just around an hour from the last Note. Granted, we may see a slight decline in the life of an LTE-enabled Note II, but this is still a highly respectable result. We were able to get almost two full days of normal usage from the device, so this should come as even more of a temptation for hungry power users everywhere.
For those asking, the Note II does in fact actually make calls, and it's above average in clarity. We didn't have any concerns with dropped calls, nor did our friends on the other end experience any static or other declines in quality. The loudspeaker earns its name, as it's on the top end of the sound spectrum -- it's plenty loud, regardless of whether you use the earpiece or speakerphone. This resulted in a great audio experience for us when listening to music or watching movies as well.
Samsung's music player offers a full listing of various EQ settings, as well as a few other methods of enhancing your tunes (3D, reverb, bass boost, concert mode and plenty of others). Also, when plugging in a pair of headphones, the phone recognizes that you're ready to get serious about multimedia and shows you a specialized home page with various options that would most likely appeal to you. Overall, we were satisfied with how our music sounded -- we could pick out all of the highs and lows without any shrill or overbearing areas. You shouldn't have any problem loading up most audio formats, including MP3 / WAV / eAAC+ / AC3 / FLAC. (For movies, you'll have success with MPEG-4, DivX / XVID, WMV, H.264 / 263, MKV, FLV and AVI.)
GPS on the Note II, which also includes support for GLONASS, was consistently accurate to within 15 meters; it swiftly locked our position and managed our navigation soundly. Bluetooth 4.0 low-energy support has been added (the device managed to receive file transfers at an average speed of 120 KB/s) as well as the same MHL capabilities as the Galaxy S III -- this unfortunately means that you won't be able to use a standard MHL cable, and instead you'll need to shell out some extra money for a special Samsung-made MHL-to-HDMI converter for HD video output and home theatre-quality audio. USB file transfers were pretty fast, pulling down 16.44 MB/s received and 20 MB/s sent. We weren't able to test the LTE version, but HSPA+ yielded faster average data downlink speeds than what we've seen on the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
Wrap-up
To answer the question we posed at the beginning of this review, this thing is the real deal, and it's decisively better than the device that began the whole phablet craze. With SIM-free versions starting in the ballpark of £530, it's a bit on the pricey side, but for good reason: it offers best-in-market performance, an S Pen experience that blows its predecessor out of the water, a solid OS in Jelly Bean and plenty of other features that will make this a tempting offer to even the most petite-handed individual. To do so in a package that's actually thinner and narrower than the first Note is a tremendous accomplishment, and one that'll be hard to match. Get ready to have your cake and eat it too.
James Trew contributed to this review.
Special thanks to Negri Electronics for providing us with a review unit!
source-engadget
Posted by
Unknown18:12
Hardware
Clearly, the company is confident that it's knocked it out of the park again when it comes to the design of the latest iPhone, and we have to agree.
Apple introduced the iPhone 5 to the world by elevating it from a hidden pylon, rising from the floor and literally sitting on a pedestal for the world to admire while precisely focused lights made the thing gleam like a jewel. Clearly, the company is confident that it's knocked it out of the park again, and we have to agree. But, that new design isn't perfect -- not quite a grand slam, if you'll allow us to continue the metaphor.
The iPhone 5 is a clear evolution of the stark, industrial design introduced two years ago with the iPhone 4. That collection of square edges and raw materials was a huge contrast to everything else the company was producing and, frankly, everything else on the market. It was like an artifact from another dimension where ergonomics lost out to purity of vision, and Apple saw no reason to compromise that purity for the 4S nor, as it turns out, for the 5.
Visually, much has stayed the same, but the biggest change is impossible to see. Pick up the iPhone 5 and you're immediately struck by the reduction in weight. At 112 grams it's 20 percent lighter than the 4S, a figure that doesn't seem like it would make much of an impact. It does -- so much so that it's the lightness, not the bigger display or the thinness, that nearly everybody praises when first getting a chance to hold the iPhone 5 in their own hands.
Meanwhile, the changes in dimensions are surprisingly difficult to detect. That's largely thanks to the iPhone 5 being exactly as wide as the 4 and 4S that came before. This continuity of proportions on the x axis brings familiarity, while a slight increase on the y axis adds functionality. The iPhone 5 measures 4.87 x 2.31 x 0.3 inches (124 x 59 x 7.6mm), making it about a third of an inch (nearly 1cm) taller than before. Since all the extra room happens outside of your grip you hardly notice it, and this also shifts the phone's center of mass away from the center of your hand, which we think helps augment the perception of lightness.
Visually much has stayed the same, but the biggest change is impossible to see.
The new height makes room for that 4-inch, 1,136 x 640 display -- the most progressive change by a long shot. Steve Jobs famously said that the 3.5-inch screen size is the "sweet spot" and, frankly, it was about time Apple added a little more sugar. The new height results in a phone with more usable space and better presentation for HD content (the iPhone is finally 16:9). Yet, it's still easy to use with one hand. Each corner is comfortably reachable by thumbs of nearly all sizes.
That reachability is also helped by the decrease in thickness: 7.6mm, down from 9.3mm on the iPhone 4S. It isn't the world's thinnest smartphone that Apple claimed it was (the original Droid RAZR is thinner, among others), but this is still an impressively svelte device.
An all-new aluminum construction extends around the back, which is either anodized black or left raw depending on whether you opt for the darker or lighter of the two offerings. The white phone is bright and clean-looking; the black, dark and menacing. We'll let you draw conclusions about personality based on color preference, but we will say that the black surface seems to suck up fingerprints that are difficult to clean. Even so, we're glad the all-glass back has been retired, though traces of it remain: two slivers of the stuff punctuate the top and bottom of the back sides. These glossy bands break up the matte uniformity, but help boost antenna performance.
That said, the antennas still comprise the rim of the device, thinner now and the gap between them filled with a material whose color matches the body -- yet more evidence of the design team's attention to detail. These are the same sort of dynamically reconfiguring antennas used on the 4S and, as with that phone, we weren't able to death grip our way into any sort of signal issues.
The face of the device is still fashioned out of glass (no surprise there) and while Apple wouldn't confirm whether that front is indeed the sort of primate-proof silica produced by Corning, we'd hazard a guess that it is. With the metal back now sitting flush to the chamfered edge of the device, the slightly elevated glass surface gives the profile view of the phone a bit of unfortunate asymmetry -- it's now thicker on top than on the bottom.
But that elevated glass does mean your finger doesn't hit any rough edges or unfortunate surfaces when tracing the edges of the panel. The front-facing FaceTime HD camera now sits centered, directly above the earpiece. The Home button, meanwhile, has moved a fraction of a millimeter down and its resistance feels slightly different than that on the 4S, a touch more progressive with a more definitive detent. Hopefully the internal mechanism will prove more durable over time.
The position and design of the other buttons is likewise largely unchanged from the 4S, with the discrete, circular volume up and down buttons on the left just below the (slightly thinner) toggle switch. The headphone jack now moves to the bottom, a change that will cause some to modify their well-established pocket-retrieval mannerisms. But, as users of the iPod touch will tell you, having that jack on the bottom feels quite natural, and we agree. This is a good move.
The phone's speakers are also positioned on the bottom, playing out through a series of 26 holes that flank another major change in the iPhone 5: the Lightning connector.
Lightning
Goodbye, venerable Dock connector. Hello, Lightning. For nearly 10 years the 30-pin Dock connector has been ubiquitous, sprouting out of accessories small and large, but ever since iPods started getting thinner we all knew its days were numbered. The giant, clunky connector is a painful legacy of an earlier time that needs to be removed from the ecosystem and, with the iPhone 5, Apple decided it was time to rip off the Band-Aid. Indeed the Dock connector must go and we won't miss it, but Lightning doesn't always feel like a confident step forward.
First, the good: the Lightning connector is infinitely easier to connect. It slots in nicely and does so regardless of orientation, plugging in right-side-up or upside-down. We were able to drive it home without looking the first time, and every time thereafter. (If only the same could be said for the USB connector on the other side.) It's also small, seems infinitely more durable than its flimsy-feeling elder and even stronger than micro-USB alternatives.
Superficially, it hits all the right marks, but Lightning comes up short in a number of important areas.
Superficially, it's hitting all the right marks, but Lightning comes up short in a number of important areas. It is, of course, incompatible with the roughly 350 million billion iPhone and iPod accessories currently on the market -- a problem mostly rectified by a $30 adapter. But, that's not a perfect solution, as even that won't support iPod Out, the specification used in some cars (most notably BMW and Mini) to enable in-dash control of an iPod or iPhone.
That's an admittedly low number of users left with no way forward, as the adapter will provide the power and analog audio that the vast majority of docks and accessories (and cars) in the world need, but it's still disappointing to see those automotive users, owners of some of the most expensive iPod docks on the planet, left out in the cold.
More problematic is the speed of this new connector. Lightning's name comes as a cheeky play on theThunderbolt connector, yet Lightning is, at least for now, wholly independent from that standard. In fact, the implementation that comes with the iPhone 5 is based on USB 2.0, meaning that theoretical maximum data transfer rates are no faster than what came before. In practice, though, we were surprised to actually find a tangible difference between the two phones.
To test this we lined up an iPhone 4S next to an iPhone 5 and ran both through a number of syncs with large files. Pulling 5.5GB of data from iTunes to the iPhone 4S took five minutes and six seconds on average. Syncing those same files to the iPhone 5 took three minutes and 57 seconds on average. So, nearly 20 percent faster, but we're not sure how much of this is due to the new connector and how much can be attributed to faster internals in the phone itself.
We confirmed with Apple that the iPhone 5 itself only supports USB 2.0, so a faster interconnect on the other end wouldn't help anything (and it's unclear whether the internal storage could consume data more quickly if it were there), but there's nothing stopping the company from expanding the Lightning standard to work with Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 in the future. For now, at least, the new connector remains confusingly at odds with Apple's own next-generation and similarly named data interconnect. That's no problem if you're using one of the many and myriad wireless ways to pull content directly onto the device (hello, iCloud), but if you're still pushing your media over a cable from your main iTunes library, it's still going to take awhile.
Internals
The heart of the iPhone 5 is the new A6 processor, a chip that Apple wasn't too keen to describe other than it being "twice as fast" as the last-gen A5 and "22 percent smaller." Thankfully, we have ways -- namely, Geekbench, which identifies this as a dual-core 1.05GHz processor paired with 1GB of RAM.
Why not tell this up front? It's clear the folks in Cupertino are sick of people trying to draw conclusions based on core count and gigahertz goals, so they're just sitting this one out. Apple isn't alone, with Intel emphasizing names like Core i5 and Core i7 over raw clock speeds, and Qualcomm and NVIDIA using iterative designations like S4 and Tegra 3 for their respective processors. Still, none have gone so far as to stop publishing key specifications altogether.
We've long-since departed from a time when clock speed or core count could be directly correlated with performance.
Maybe they should. We've long since departed from a time when clock speed or core count could be directly correlated with performance across CPU architectures and, with Apple constructing its own, custom SoC for the A6, that's doubly true. Why, the dual-core A5 chip in the iPhone 4S shows as 800MHz, so looking purely at numbers this new phone should only be 25 percent faster, not twice as fast. We'll put that to the test a little later.
For storage you have a choice of 16, 32 or 64GB models priced (on contract) at $199, $299 and $399. Unsurprisingly, storage is not expandable, but hey, dig that iCloud.
Apple has also greatly improved the iPhone's wireless connectivity options, with the addition of LTE being the biggest talking point. Across the regional variants that will be sold around the world, 700MHz AWS bands for LTE for AT&T in the US are supported, plus Rogers, Bell and Telus in Canada and various carriers in Europe and Asia using bands 1, 3 and 5. Meanwhile, a CDMA version handles Verizon and Sprint LTE in the US plus KDDI in Japan using Bands 1, 3, 5, 13 and 25.
That's a lot of spectrum to cover -- and we haven't even broached the GSM/EDGE, UMTS/HSPA+, DC-HSDPA support in the GSM model, nor the CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B support in the other. What remains to be seen is just what will be open and what will be locked by the various carriers and whether international LTE compatibility truly means international LTE usability. That, in the short term, seems unlikely -- at the very least until the new nano-SIM standard becomes a little more available.
The choice of CDMA vs. GSM will likely come down to which carrier you're on, and which carrier you'dlike to be on. In the US, it's naturally AT&T offering the GSM model, Sprint and Verizon with CDMA. Beyond the availability of bands, an important distinction is the ability to do simultaneous voice and data. None of the iPhone 5 models can handle Voice over LTE, so when doing voice calling the phone falls back to either GSM or CDMA, and CDMA doesn't support simultaneous voice and data. So, if you absolutely need to talk and surf at the same time, you're stuck on AT&T in the US.
On top of all that is an expanded selection of WiFi connectivity options. The iPhone 5 adds 802.11a support to complete the set of a/b/g/n compatibility. That connectivity is now dual-band as well, so you can step up out of the crowded 2.4GHz into the clear air at 5GHz. Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and GLONASS support all return. Looking to get directions up the Road of Bones? You're covered here.
Display
The iPhone 4S already has one of the best displays on the market with regard to pixel density, brightness and contrast, and the iPhone 5 brings that up another notch.
The iPhone 5 uses a new 4-inch display that provides a half-inch of additional diagonal extent compared to those iPhones that have come before. Massive difference? Absolutely not, but it does give the phone enough surface area to stay competitive without sizing it beyond the thumb reach of your average consumer. In fact, its four corners seem just as attainable as before, helped by Apple shifting the display down just a few millimeters to get it closer to the center of your hand.
But we've talked enough about how it works in the hand. How does it look? Fantastic, frankly. The iPhone 4S already has one of the best displays on the market with regard to things like pixel density, brightness and contrast, and the iPhone 5 brings that up another notch -- and not just because it has an additional 176 rows of pixels. Putting both under the microscope, indeed, shows the same basic subpixel structure.
If there was one complaint about the 4S display it's that it suffered from a somewhat greenish hue. The 5 fixes that -- if anything, extending just a smidgen to the warm side, but displaying imagery that's much more chromatically neutral than before. The phone also moves up to full sRGB coverage, meaning it can accurately represent every color provided by that spectrum, a claim to fame few smartphones can match.
Apple also promises fewer layers sandwiched between the subpixels and the surface of the glass, the idea being greater contrast when you're outside. Sure enough, the iPhone 5 is a great device for using out in direct sunlight, though to be fair it's a minor improvement over the 4S, which likewise doesn't fear the sun.
Thinner. Lighter. Faster. Simpler. The moment the iPhone 5 was unveiled we knew that it was checking off all the right boxes, folding in all the improvements and refinements people have been demanding over the past year -- yet plenty of folks still went to their respective social networks to type out their bitter disappointment. iPhone upgrade ennui seemed to be sweeping the nation, a sentiment that appeared to quickly dissipate when it came time for people to vote with their wallets.
The iPhone 5 is here -- or will be soon, anyway -- and it's every bit the device that people were asking for when the iPhone 4S came out. Its new design has less mass yet leaves room for a larger display and LTE wireless, all while increasing battery life. In nearly every respect, this is an upgrade over the 4S that came before, though it arrives almost a year later than many had hoped. Is it too late to keep pace with the
Cameras
The iSight camera here is basically unchanged from the 4S. The overall mechanism has been pared down a bit to fit within the tight confines of the iPhone 5, and the protective bit of glass on the outside has been replaced with a 6mm disc of crystal sapphire for durability, which we rather regrettably did not have a chance to put through a torture test.
So, that means we have an 8-megapixel, backside-illuminated sensor shooting through a five-element, f/2.4 lens. And, with the bigger screen, we now have a larger shutter release button, which is slightly easier to tap by big thumbs.
Whether or not you actually want a higher-quality front-facing camera depends on just how much time you spend putting your face on before getting your FaceTime on.
Image quality is still among the best out there for a cameraphone, unimproved but quite impressive in varying conditions. What has improved, though, is the speed. Tap that big ol' thumb as quick as you can and the iPhone 5 will keep up, whereas the iPhone 4S eventually fell behind. It's at least on par with the Galaxy Nexus, which also has a ridiculously quick shooter.
So, while the camera on the back is minimally improved, the one on the front is a big step forward. Replacing the VGA FaceTime camera is a 1.2-megapixel FaceTime HD unit capable of capturing 720p video. Resolution is obviously massively increased, but so too is overall image quality, with far more accurate color reproduction. Of course, whether or not you actually want a higher-quality front-facing camera depends on just how much time you spend putting your face on before getting your FaceTime on.
New with iOS 6 is Panorama mode, where you can tap one button and just sweep the phone around to create a massive image. Resulting files are something like 11,000 x 2,500, with the exact resolution varying based on how smoothly you panned from left to right. If you wander up or down the display will warn you to keep in line, and you'll want to, as every time you stray you're effectively cropping the resulting image.
The file is captured in one seamless motion and the final product is almost always free of the sort of glitches and visual aberrations typically found in these self-stitching panoramas. That said, it isn't totally error-free. We took one panorama inside the New Museum in New York City, a room full of thin black lines against a white background. It's about as tough a test as Panorama mode will ever see and indeed you can make out some slight glitches in those lines, but in normal cityscapes and country scenes we struggled to find signs of artifacting. The results are almost always very impressive.
Video capture remains the same on the rear-facing camera -- 1080p30 maximum and offering bright contrast and colors plus the same digital image stabilization that we saw before, which results in reasonably smooth shots even when you, yourself, aren't so smooth.
Performance and battery life
Two times faster? Twice the graphics performance? Better battery life? Actually, yes. The iPhone 5 over-delivers on all those promises.
Two times faster? Twice the graphics performance? Better battery life? Actually, yes. The iPhone 5 over-delivers on all those promises. Running the Geekbench test suite on the iPhone 4S gave us an average score of 634. The iPhone 5 netted an average of 1,628. That's more than twice as fast and, while you won't necessarily see such huge increases in day-to-day usage, apps do load noticeably quicker, HDR images are processed in half the time and tasks like video rendering in iMovie are equally expedient.
SunSpider scores average at 924ms, which is more than twice as fast as the 2,200ms the iPhone 4S manages and still quite a bit quicker than the 1,400ms scored by the Galaxy S III and the 1,700ms managed by the HTC One X. More important than numbers, web pages load very quickly, snapping into view as fast as your data plan can shovel the bits into Safari and, once there, smoothly reacting to your gestures.
Naturally, we'd be telling just half the story if we only talked performance. There's an important question that's left: what kind of battery life can you expect? Power is nothing without longevity and, shockingly, the iPhone 5 copes amazingly well. In a day of heavy usage with LTE, GPS and WiFi all enabled, we managed 14 hours and 18 minutes before the phone succumbed to the elements.
On our standard battery rundown test, in which we loop a video with LTE and WiFi enabled and social accounts pinging at regular intervals, the iPhone 5 managed a hugely impressive 11 hours and 15 minutes. That's just 10 minutes shy of the Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx.
When it comes to wireless performance, the iPhone 5 didn't disappoint either. We tested a CDMA variant on Verizon's network, going between 3G and 4G connectivity as we traveled about this great nation. Overall, the iPhone 5 did an excellent job at finding and keeping signals, and call quality is quite good. Callers came through loud and clear and said we sounded great as well -- though most of the time we sadly couldn't tell them what we were calling them on. Data transmission speeds were at or above comparable Android LTE devices held nearby, usually in the 10-20 Mbps range both up and down.
Software
The iPhone ships with Apple's latest mobile operating system, and for our full take on that we'll direct you toward our full iOS 6 review. But, let's discuss a few things that are particularly applicable to smartphones. It's the new Maps app that will have the biggest impact on most users, and in general we found Maps beautiful and fast, a smooth and very aesthetically pleasing way to get from place to place.
But, it isn't nearly as comprehensive as Google's offerings on Android. The biggest drawback is the unfortunate lack of public transportation directions. If you haven't quite mastered New York City's subway system, you won't get any help from your iPhone 5. Curiously, the app offers to give you public transportation directions, but should you choose that option it pops you straight into the App Store with a search for "Routing Apps." Right now, there are zero results.
It also lacks the detailed layering that you can apply in Google Maps and Google Navigation, showing you whatever you want to see. Maps will list some important POIs -- mostly gas stations and convenience shops -- but if you want to see all Mexican restaurants on your route you'll have to dig deeper. Finally, while Maps does show traffic, we never saw it give a warning about traffic along a route currently being navigated. That's important information for road trippers.
Passbook is similarly incomplete. This is Apple dipping its toes into the virtual wallet space, providing the ability for companies to write custom apps that will slot in here and provide access to things like movie tickets and value cards. But, as few major players have pledged to deploy their services here, this serves as a framework for something that will be cool rather than something that actually is right now. We're expecting good things.
The new Shared Photo Streams feature, however, is a welcome addition. Here you can select a few pictures from your roll, or indeed a new picture you just snapped, and share it with one or more friends -- or post it in the public for all to see. New photos added to the stream popped up within about 30 seconds and, while it isn't quite as seamless and fun as Google+ Events, it's a nice way to share photos with friends.
In general, iOS 6 has seen some nice nips and tucks where it needed it. iCloud integration is tighter, Safari is better and the overall experience is more polished. But, it isn't a major step forward in any regard. Suffice to say, conservative iPhone users won't have to worry about anyone moving their cheese, but if you didn't like iOS before, you still won't today.
Wrap-up
Still, the iPhone 5 absolutely shines. Pick your benchmark and you'll find Apple's thin new weapon sitting at or near the top. Will it convince you to give up your Android or Windows Phone ways and join the iOS side? Maybe, maybe not. Will it wow you? Hold it in your hand -- you might be surprised. For the iOS faithful this is a no-brainer upgrade. This is without a doubt the best iPhone yet. This is a hallmark of design. This is the one you've been waiting for.The iPhone 5 is a significant improvement over the iPhone 4S in nearly every regard, and in those areas that didn't see an upgrade over its predecessor -- camera, storage capacity -- one could make a strong case that the iPhone 4S was already ahead of the curve. Every area, that is, except for the OS. If anything, it's the operating system here that's beginning to feel a bit dated and beginning to show its age.
source-engadget ,Zach Honig and Edgar Alvarez contributed to this review.rapidly iterating Android offerings, or is it so good it was worth waiting for?
Posts
