Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Tablet 2018

(Pocket-lint) - The Milky way Note 2 is the successor to the, erm, Galaxy Note, which is anticipated. What wasn't predictable was how we would feel about this new handset. The Note, you see, is a scrap of an enigma. A massive phone, or really small-scale 3G tablet. It sits in a space that doesn't exist, with an unknown audience.

People who oasis't used a Galaxy Annotation - the original, or this new model - won't get it. This is a phone you have to live with to truly empathise. Nigh people will take one look at the size - it dwarfs the already massive Milky way S 3 - and rule information technology out every bit being impractical. In our view, that's a mistake, considering this phone has a lot to offering likewise its size. And the size isn't much of an consequence, every bit we discovered.

Our quick have

When y'all get the Annotation 2 out of its box, your beginning reaction will exist to its enormous size. Some volition find information technology absurd, but those who want a large screen with loads of beautiful detail, a much improve battery and some cool pen features volition "go" information technology within 10 minutes of holding information technology for the first time.

The Note is a device that shouldn't work. A device that the Koreans dreamt upward after too picayune slumber, and too many free energy drinks. But somehow, it's the most captivating telephone we've used for a long time. Information technology manages to invalidate the tablet to some extent, because it's big enough to exist a powerful media device, just small plenty to comport everywhere.

It isn't a telephone for anybody, simply those who love gadgets will take to it, and information technology will change their lives.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2

5 stars - Pocket-lint editors pick

For

Fantastic screen
Pen is peachy
Loads and loads of power
Great bombardment life

Against

Handwriting recognition needs some work
Information technology's expensive

Non too big

We've travelled around a fair fleck with the Note. We've been asked a lot almost the size, and honestly, it's non a problem. It will fit in your jeans pocket, assuming your jeans aren't too tight, and you won't really notice its actress weight.

Strangely, it's not really any harder to utilise with i hand than a telephone such equally the Samsung Galaxy S 3. As Apple points out, at that place is a ratio that allows for unmarried-handed use, and most modern Android phones ignore information technology. So while the Note is hard to utilise single-handed, it'south not any more difficult than whatsoever other Android phone.

READ: Samsung Galaxy Southward Iii review

It's a bit heavier though, which might bother some, only it has a prissy weight, and a nifty overall remainder.

Pocket-lint

In terms of fashion, there's a power button on the right-hand side, with volume controls on the left. The top has the headphone jack, while the lesser holds the USB socket for charging and information transfer.

Under the battery embrace yous'll find the, erm, battery, forth with the micro-SIM card slot, and the microSD carte du jour. Hither you tin can add together capacities of upwards to 64GB - which is quite a lot of storage for a phone.

There is a photographic camera on the back, with an LED wink, and on the forepart is some other, video-conference-type camera.

The pen is mightier than your sausage fingers

The pen on the notation is interesting. Nosotros accept mixed feelings near it, to be honest. The about exciting idea is to employ information technology for handwriting recognition, but there are a few little bugs that prevent it being entirely applied. We've washed a lot of tweeting and text messaging using the organization, and while it tin work brilliantly, at that place are times when information technology merely gets things wrong.

Apple iPhone xiii deals: Detect out where you can observe the all-time deals on the latest smartphones By Conor Allison · 16 June 2022

Find a low price on the Apple iPhone 13, iPhone thirteen mini, iPhone 13 Pro or iPhone 13 Pro Max.

We noticed that getting the software to notice spaces was difficult at times. The trouble was that there was a lack of consistency. If it never got spacing right, y'all could work around it, but it did get it correct about 50 per cent of the time, pregnant you'd assume it had done its job, and then expect over your message and detect it hadn't.

Pocket-lint

Capital letter letters were as well a problem. The phone doesn't seem to employ whatsoever logic to this, and so sometimes words would have a random initial cap. This is obviously because of how we wrote the letters on the screen, but information technology's fairly easy to remove caps through autocorrect, so we're amazed the Samsung doesn't seem to.

Other than that, the recognition itself is pretty brilliant. Its accurateness is very expert, as long every bit you don't write similar an idiot and the screen/pen combination works actually well. Information technology'south arguably a piddling too small for much writing, merely it works for short notes.

Of class, the pen does other things. Y'all tin utilize it as a finger, if you lot wish, pregnant you don't need to get grease all over your phone screen. Information technology can be used to draw too, as you'd look, and there are some notation-taking apps that allow yous to record your writing as either

We'll exist candid about the camera

The 8-megapixel shooter is a bit weak in reduced light. So indoor snaps are piffling more than boilerplate. Outdoors, in strong light, and things go a lot improve. There is enough detail in the images for almost utilize. They won't disgrace themselves when printed out on sensibly sized paper and they'll be fine for sharing via Facebook and the like.

In that location are also some dainty features such as a outburst shooting way, that fires off lots of shots in rapid succession. These are stored in the phone memory, which might lead to some confusion about where to find them later.

Pocket-lint

Y'all besides go a lot of command, and there are enough of modes which allow yous to catch the "best photo" from 8 shots, which the phone snaps - every bit with the burst mode - in rapid succession. In addition to all this, there are the usual settings to tweak, to go the all-time possible photo. And, to requite the Instagram lovers a treat, in that location are some basic photo filters too.

Pocket-lint

The camera app is pretty easy to use. The usual touch-to-focus is here, and we didn't have any problems with it failing to focus properly - something that seems to plague cheaper phones. It'due south also nice and quick to get a lock. We also found face detection worked well, and although we've never made much use of information technology, information technology'southward good to run across it included.

Motion and gesture control

Things get very absurd when you look at what Samsung has added, both in terms of motility detection and gestures. Like many phones, you lot can turn the Note over to silence information technology when information technology'due south ringing. Also, rather brilliantly, if you have a contact on-screen, then but lifting the telephone to your ear will call that contact. There'southward a little fizz of vibration to confirm this is happening.

Pocket-lint

Our favourite characteristic though, has to be the gesture to pick upward the telephone. When you do this, by reaching toward the handset, the screen illuminates telling y'all if yous have missed calls, new text letters and the level of your battery. It's fab, although it uses the camera to pull this trick off, so expect it to destroy the battery life of your Note.

All of these features can exist enabled or disabled individually as well, then y'all tin can pick and choose the ones that adjust your needs. We plant most of them to be slightly pointless, and we never one time managed to get the screen grab gesture to work.

Powerful and fast

With LTE in the UK being a bit of a mess, the whole situation has the potential to confuse. The Annotation ii will be available on EE in a 4G multifariousness. There are also other versions of the telephone that back up 4G on 700MHz and 1200MHz for regions where those frequencies are existence used. If you lot want the Note ii in a 4G flavour, you should seek help from your mobile network.

READ: Galaxy S 3 vs. Annotation 2

Based on the theoretical maximum, the Annotation 2 tin can download at 100mbps and upload at 50mbps. That'south some serious speed, and while we incertitude nigh people will run across anywhere nigh that, it'south a cool thought that your phone could download faster than your home broadband.

The balance of the phone is super-fast though. A quad-core processor ways that there's near no lag at any time. There's 2GB of RAM too, which should assist to keep the phone feeling light, powerful and responsive. There are 16 32 and 64GB capacities too, although the 1 you're likely to be ownership is the 16GB.

Entertainment goliath

Perchance the best thing nearly the Note is that screen. At over v-inches, it'south a formidable size for all things video, and the Note has some pretty cool tricks upwards its sleeve for this. Merely best of all, its 720p (720 10 1280) resolution is platonic for lots of media, and yous'll get a lot out of video that uses this format, as information technology's brilliantly matched to one of the most common HD formats. Being an AMOLED panel, there's no shortage of colour here, with bright tones bursting out of the screen. Samsung, perhaps aware of the criticism OLED gets for existence quite unrealistic, has also provided modes to tone down the colour, should you want more natural tones.

As usual for Samsung's high-end handsets, at that place is plenty of video playback support. MKV files - which have MP4 video within them - playback perfectly, and with audio too, which isn't the case on a lot of other phones.

Pocket-lint

If you use the stock video player, you also get the option to watch video in a pop-up window. This ways you lot tin can browse the spider web, send text letters or exercise any other phone task, while watching your video in a pocket-sized window. It's a nice feature, that makes use of the Notation'southward impressive processing power.

And then, of form, you've got Netflix, YouTube and countless other video players that will requite you access to stacks of content, all on that large, bright, beautiful screen. Video is a real treat on the Note, and so if you're looking for a media device with a bigger screen than a phone, this is quite likely to be the device of your dreams.

Pocket-lint

Pic and sound quality are both vivid though. We really liked the Note as an amusement device. Music sounds keen, and the music player Samsung includes is pretty good. Y'all go access to Samsung'due south Hub likewise, which allows you to store music online, but you volition need an account with Sammy to use this - and that won't exist for anybody.

Jelly Bean

After much dilly-dallying about getting Jelly Bean on the SGS III - it STILL hasn't arrived, officially - we were very pleased to encounter the Note 2 transport with Google'southward flagship OS already installed.

Jelly Bean is crucial, because it brings some of the about exciting features yet to Android. Google Now, for example, is fantastic, and the "cards" which the organisation uses to keep you updated on weather condition, traffic and public transport is utterly bright.

Voice control is besides much improved, and Google'south organisation works as well or better than Siri in almost of the tests we've tried. It's not got a sense of humor though, so don't try making jokes or request random questions to befuddle it.

Pocket-lint

You also get the new notifications area. This is a huge improvement, with much larger previews. We've found that this has increased how much time we spend in the notifications tray, considering it has of a sudden become incredibly useful, both for toggles for the likes of Wi-Fi and GPS, but also for getting to the menus and seeing long previews of our email.

On top of Android, there'due south Samsung's TouchWiz interface. Nosotros aren't crazy nearly it, visually speaking, but in the Note information technology adds a lot of pretty crucial features. For case, the handwriting recognition, and apps that utilise the pen in full general all make use of the Samsung modifications. So if y'all hate TouchWiz, this isn't the phone for y'all, equally you're stuck with it if yous want to use the phone'south features to the fullest.

Pocket-lint

Usually, we complain about the stock keyboard on phones too. But here, nosotros found ourselves quite liking the system. For one, the actress screen space allows for a dedicated row of numbers above the meridian row of letters. You'd be surprised how much of a difference this makes to using the device. But also, the Samsung keyboard allows y'all to switch easily to handwriting recognition, which is some other decent feature.

Samsung also includes its "blocking mode", which is like Apple'southward "practise not disturb" role. You can block calls, text letters and then on for prepare times with this characteristic. There's also the pick to allow through calls from sure people - say, your child's nursery, or your other-one-half.

Phone call and text

The just problem with making telephone calls on the Note is that it can sometimes be hard to locate the earpiece properly. This means you volition sometimes not hear people on the other end all that well. Move the phone effectually, and you'll eventually hit the sugariness spot, simply with no distinguishing "feel", information technology'due south harder than yous might think.

Once you're sorted, the audio quality of calls is bright. And while the Note is massive, and you look ridiculous using information technology, it's a really comfortable phone to use and fifty-fifty though it'due south both big, and heavy, we never struggled.

Pocket-lint

Text messaging on the Note is terrific. Yous can hand-write messages if you want, although information technology'south a scrap arduous. Just the actress screen size means that the keys, and the gaps betwixt the keys, are larger than on a normal phone. This ways typing is easier, and nosotros discovered that we were able to type much more accurately.

Battery

A big telephone needs a big battery. The screen alone will beverage power in the Annotation 2, so if you're using it for, say, satellite navigation, where the screen is on constantly, and then it's going to run out of juice very quickly indeed. Nosotros tested this, and reckon you'll lose power at more ten per cent per hr for navigation - and probable video too.

Things look up when you utilise the phone more than "commonly". Once you're out of the constant apply phase that affects everyone when they first buy a handset, and so you get-go to apply it less and overall get more impressive battery life. The Note tin can easily last the day under normal use, and if yous were bourgeois with it, yous'd get 1-and-a-half to two days' use. Switch off a few things like push notifications and you lot'll have no worries.

Pocket-lint

The battery itself is a 3100mAh cell, so in that location'south a lot of juice in here. To requite you an thought, most phone sit about 2000mAh these days - older, or smaller phones from 1600mAh up - and tablets rest around 6000mAh or more (the iPad 3 is nearly 12,000mAh). The life you see though, can be curtailed by some of Samsung'southward own functionality, like movement detection and some of the gesture-based coolness.

To recap

We're in love. This phone may seem wildly casuistic, merely those fabled Koreans accept somehow managed to create a device that offers and so much more than than a smaller phone and almost makes tablets pointless. This phone won't exist for anybody, just for usa it'south one of the all-time Android devices money can buy.

Writing by Ian Morris.