Opinion Piece Author: Kris Russo, NBC25 Account Executive
Phone
The Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Note II has its phone icon at the bottom of the home screen similar to that of the various Droid models. The Note II has the ability to let its user do more than one thing at a time. You can be in the middle of a phone call and be able to write out a reminder with the stylus or while watching a video there is the ability to shrink down the screen and send an email at the same time. This is a must have feature for anyone with a Type A personality!
The Note II will link Facebook data (contact’s photo and profile info). The phone uses more of a tab system to help keep things organized when making a call. The favorites list has been moved into the phone button under its own tab. The other tabs include the phone pad for dialing and most recent calls tabs and a contacts tab just incase it is needed in a pinch.
The clarity of the phone is good there no problems with people being able to hear. During the duration of calls the back ground noise is almost non-existent. The absence of background noise would even make it appear as if the call was lost but it was not. The only thing that was uncomfortable is the sheer size of the phone a wireless Blutooth speaker of some type is highly recommended.
Design
The Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Note II is powered by a 1.6GHz Quad-Core processor which is extremely fast not to mention the 4G LTE network behind it. It does have 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of onboard memory, but it also has the ability to support up to 64GB of external memory from a MicroSD card. Unlike some other recent devises that include the SD with the phone this phone does not include it.
This phone is easy to type on but depending on what the user is used too, the keyboard is the Samsung keyboard and is set up differently and does take some getting used too. Swype also comes standard on this devise as well as the android stock keyboard which is a nice feature, because other Droid users may not like the layout of the Samsung keyboard.
The power toggle/sleep button is on the upper right hand side of the device. The volume rocker is on the upper left side. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top of the phone and the charging port and speaker/microphone on the bottom.
There is a physical quick launch button to turn the screen on from sleep mode. There are is a virtual menu button to the left of the physical home button and the virtual back button to the right of it. Looking at the phone in sleep mode you would not know that the menu and back button were even there because they can not be seen until the phone is awake from sleep mode.
Display
The screen on the Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Note II is a 5.5-inch, 1280-by-720 HD Super AMOLED display, which is brighter and more battery-friendly than LCD. The amazing display makes everything seem more vivid and bright and has amazing color and clarity. It sure makes a difference when using the phone; it is like going from analog TV to digital HD TV, there just isn’t any comparison!
This is big beautiful device and it comes equipped with it’s on Stylus Pen that is able to be stored on the bottom right hand side of the device.
Camera
The Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Note II camera is an 8 megapixel on the rear of the devise with zero shutter lag and an LED flash and a 1.9 front-facing camera on the front of the phone. It has the ability to record 1080p on the rear camera and 720p recording capabilities on the front camera. Wanting to watch something in HD on the devise is possible too, everything can be seen in 720p when viewing it on the phone.
Battery Life
Most smart-phone users have concluded by now that no matter the phone in use it will have to charge every day.
The Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Note II has a 3100 mAh Li-ion battery which is the best of the best as far as a battery goes. Anyone who has the joy of having the 4G LTE phone knows that the LTE drains the battery faster then the speed of lighting, so keep this in mind. However this phone/battery holds its own against all odds, thanks in part to its efficiency of the Exynos Quad chip that help make the phone extremely power efficient. The combination of the chip, battery, and continuing improvements to the software all contribute to the great battery life of this amazing phone.
Interface
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on the Note II runs seven home screens. It can run over 600,000+ apps/widgets that are available on the Android Play Store. Also, Samsung, gives you access to the Samsung Media Hub for other unique items, such as:
S Beam: This is a great way to transfer files between devises. The great demonstration of this is in the Samsung commercial of the mock running of the Olympic flame in London.
All Share Play: This allows various Music, Videos, and Pictures to be streamed to and from various different devises. This needs some form of local network (Internet/Wifi/Data connection) to work.
Smart Stay: This amazing feature allows the phones front facing camera to detect when someone is looking at the phone so the screen doesn’t dim during usage.
Pop Up Play: This is picture-in-picture feature that allows content to be viewed in a smaller window while it renders and loads in the background while other things can be done (i.e. searching the web, sending texts, checking email, etc) in the foreground with the same amazing speed that is expected.
S Voice: This is the twin version of the Apple product Suri
S Memo: This is a note taking service; the notes can be taken by drawing on the phone, texts, or voice clips.
The phone moves with lighting speed and never slowed and scrolling between pages or evening running a bunch of items at a time. The user interface is wickedly fast and responsive no matter what is thrown at it.
The fact that the Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Note II does not come loaded down with a bunch of junk apps from Verizon that can not be removed unless the phone is rooted is a great thing.
Web
Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Note II runs Jelly Bean OS and that uses Google Chrome and that is a full HTML browser. It is integrated with Flash for web browsing so viewing most sites with flash files is not a problem.
Pinch-zoom pages in as far as needed get a nice screen shot of bookmarked pages, and they can all be viewed in landscape or vertical configurations. There is also a separate setting in the browser for the brightness of the screen; this can be very helpful when needing to make quick adjustments on the fly.
Conclusion
This is an amazing phone and Jelly Bean is stripped down and that is really nice not having all those unwanted apps clogging up the space and slowing down the speed on the phone. No phone is ever perfect but Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Note II is about as close to perfect as a phone can get.
For more information please visit: http://www.verizonwireless.com/droid.shtml
Specs
Processor: 16GB onboard internal storage + 2GB RAM / 1.6 GHz Dual-Core Processor
Screen: 5.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus Display
Camera: 8MP rear with LED flash with 1080p HD recording and 1.9 MP front facing camera with 720p HD recording
Audio: 3.5mm headset jack
Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS
Dimensions: 5.94” x 3.16” x .37”
