Samsung note 2nd year. S-Pen features - updated version

13.03.2021 Security

Recently, our laboratory tested the company's flagship smartphone samsung galaxy S3. Not much time has passed, and another flagship of the company, which is already the second in a row, fell into our hands - this is a stylish, self-confident Samsung Galaxy Note 2. This device has received almost the same functions as S3, but it has some differences. In its lineup, Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is undoubtedly the best and can compete with any new product. So, let's move on to a closer look at the incredible Samsung Galaxy Note 2 gadget.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 price

So, let's start with the simplest - the price. Samsung Galaxy Note 2 will cost its customers about 24,000 rubles. What do we get for this tidy sum? This is a stylish flagship device that opens up a huge number of possibilities and is just a great option for a mobile device that allows you to quickly and efficiently perform almost any job.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Package Contents

The device comes with:

The Samsung Galaxy Note 2 device itself
Charger
Headphones with extra cushions (I would like to note that this species I’m not entirely satisfied with the headphones, the feeling that they are designed to pump wax out of my ears)
Quick Guide
Warranty card
Several pamphlets

In other words - a standard set of options.

Specifications Samsung Galaxy Note 2

SoC Exynos 4412, 1.6 GHz, four cores
GPU Mali-400MP
operating room android system 4.1.1 Jelly beans
Touch display Super AMOLED HD, 5.55″, 720×1280, capacitive, multi-touch
Random access memory (RAM) 2 GB, internal memory 16/32/64 GB
Micro SD card slot up to 64 GB
HSPA+ 21 Mbps
Bluetooth 4.0
WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n
GPS/Glonass
NFC, WiFi Direct, MHL
Cameras 8 MP 1.9 MP, LED flash
Working with the S Pen
Li-ion battery 3100 mAh
Dimensions 80.5×151.1×9.4 mm
Weight 180 g

Appearance Samsung Galaxy Note 2

stylish case

Let's look at how the elements of the device are located:

The sound quality of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2

mobile devices

this device

Screen Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Incredible viewing angles
High brightness and more.

Dimensions - 69×118 mm
Diagonal - 5.55 inches
Resolution - 1280×720 pixels
Pixel density - 265 dpi (this is less than on the S3)

Important point

Inside the Samsung Galaxy Note 2

appearance

operating system

You should also spend some time working with the pen. We launch the S Note program and work wonders, even the most inexperienced artist can make his fantasies come true. The application also allows you to take notes, keep certain records. Very convenient to handle. It seems to me that S Note will be useful not only for business people, but also for ordinary users.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 battery life

Camera Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Frontal (1.9 MP) - this module is rarely given a lot of time, the quality is depressing.

Here are some examples:

Click to enlarge

Smartphone Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100 - review

The Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone, having appeared, made me jump off the iPhone. And this, you see, is a serious characteristic. Before the advent of the Galaxy Note, I was interested in Samsung smartphones, but I believed that the corporation still needed to bring these devices to mind - the same Samsung Galaxy S was cute, but had noticeable glitches and inconveniences, and the same applied to the operating system Android 2nd version. But as time went on, Android gradually improved and by version 2.3.6 (Gingerbread) managed to overcome many of its problems, and by that time Samsung released a truly revolutionary model - Samsung Galaxy Note. The revolutionary nature was in the size of the gadget, and the size, as you know, matters very much. Initially, in the era of development cellular communication, phone developers thought about how to reduce them down to complete invisibility. Then, when smartphones appeared, phones began to increase - because on a small screen you can’t see a damn thing, and you can’t really hit the right icon with your finger. an unnecessary purchase of a tablet in the presence of such a device. To be honest, when I saw the Galaxy Note at the exhibition, I thought that this model would not have a large number of buyers. Although I decided for myself that I would definitely buy such a smartphone for myself. But practice has shown that the Galaxy Note has become very, very popular, and other manufacturers immediately rushed to rivet models with a large display, but so far none of them has come close to Note in quality. Even Apple realized that the iPhone screen is too small, so in the fifth model it was increased, however, for some reason, only in height. ("Then they immediately sued Samsung for stealing ideas," said Bublik the cat.)

Samsung Galaxy Note

However, Galaxy Note, for all its merits, turned out to be a little more than we would like - it was not so impossible to hold it in your hands, but a little difficult. Nevertheless, I used it with great pleasure for several months and then, to my surprise, I discovered that during all this time I didn’t even touch my iPad, and it was slightly covered with dust on the shelf. Then Samsung released the third version of its S series - Samsung Galaxy S III, and it turned out to be such a successful smartphone that I immediately switched to it, and I never regretted it. However, here, with all the advantages, the previous minus remained - the screen was slightly small, especially after several months of using the Galaxy Note. Well, plus - after all, the S III has a clearly frail battery. Not deadly sickly, but you have to remember about it all the time so as not to be without a phone at the right time. And now Samsung has released a new version of Galaxy Note under the quite expected name Samsung Galaxy Note II. I didn’t think about this version for a long time - I immediately went to buy it, because if the first Note was an extremely successful smartphone, then they can’t worsen the Note II, I thought. But what is really there, whether they worsened it or improved it - we will now understand in detail. So, Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100.

Samsung Galaxy Note II

Specifications Operating system: Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
Display: 5.55" 720x1280 (WXGA) HD Super AMOLED, 16M colors, Gorilla Glass 2, capacitive touch
CPU: Exynos 4412 Quad Core 1.6GHz
RAM: 2 GB
Flash memory: 16 GB (available in 32 and 64 GB versions)
Memory cards: microSD/HC up to 32 GB
Network: GSM 3G , HSPA-PLUS, EDGE/GPRS (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), HSPA+.
Wireless connection: WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 (Apt-X Codec support) LE
NFC: there is
Camera: 8 megapixels, LED flash, 1080p video resolution
Front-camera: 1.9 MP
Ports: microUSB (MHL), headphone output 3.5 mm
GPS: aGPS, GLONASS
FM receiver: with RDS support, stereo
Battery: Li-Pol 3100 mAh
Dimensions: 80.5 x 151.1 x 9.4mm
The weight: 182.5 g Well, in general, I have not seen a cooler configuration. The most powerful mobile processor (Galaxy S III has a little worse), as much as 2 GB of RAM, all kinds of communication that you can think of (there is a separate version of this smartphone that supports LTE networks), a very capacious battery - 3100 mAh versus 2500 mAh the first Note. Plus - the display. Note II is slightly narrower than the first, but slightly taller. This is good, because the first Note was just too big in width. However, in Note II, while reducing the width, they managed to increase the display - 5.55 "against 5.29" in the first Note! slightly heavier, but quite slightly - by 4.5 grams. Delivery and equipment It comes in this box.

Complete set - smartphone, battery, earplugs, USB-microUSB cable, network adapter for charging, brochures.

We look at the phone. Very strongly reminiscent of the Samsung Galaxy S III, only in an enlarged form.

Let's put them side by side. Well, yes, just twins!

Now let's put a Galaxy Note next to it. As you can see, the old one is wider, the new one is higher.

The control buttons for Note II are exactly the same as for other smartphones in this series: an oblong Home button (quite convenient) and two touch buttons - "Return" and "Menu". "Return" is on the right, "Menu" is on the left. By default, these buttons start to glow only when they are used, but in general their backlighting is configured in the system - you can make them always glow.

The back cover of the Note II is almost exactly the same as that of the Galaxy S III (glossy plastic), only the speaker is located at the bottom, not the top.

The S-Pen stylus is pulled out from the lower left corner. It can only fit in one position.

Separate stylus S-Pen.

The bottom end is a stylus slot, a microUSB output, a microphone.

The left side end is a volume rocker.

The top end is a headphone jack and one of the microphones.

The right end - the power button and a special slot for easy opening of the back cover are located on top. By the way, for my taste, this location of the power button is optimal. On the top end, the button is much more difficult to press, and if they even think of placing it on the left, only those who hold the device in their right hand will be able to use such a phone. (Usually they hold it with the left, and they poke their fingers at the screen with the right.)

Open the back cover (it opens without much effort). There is a battery socket, sockets for microSD cards and micro SIM.

By the way, thank you very much for microSIM. The Galaxy Note has a miniSIM landing, and I already killed it once with an adapter - as a result, the entire board was changed. The microSD card is installed without removing the battery, the SIM card can only be changed when the battery is disconnected. compared to Note.

I inserted a SIM card, an SD card and a battery - that's it, you can watch how this model works. Display The display here is no longer the same as that of the Galaxy Note. In the old Note, subpixels were arranged in a PenTile pattern - where each pixel consisted of not three, but two subpixels. This caused some visual problems. In the second Note, each pixel is a normal RGB.

Sub-pixel patterns in Note and Note II

Matrix - Super AMOLED. It is characterized by very bright, contrasting and saturated colors. (By the way, not all users like it, but I like it.) The brightness margin is such that even in good lighting it is enough to set the brightness to 50-60% to get a very comfortable looking image. Super AMOLED has two unpleasant features. The viewing angles of this matrix are decent, the brightness and contrast drop slightly when changing angles, but there is a well-known effect - when changing angles, a pure white color begins to turn slightly blue. However, if you do not know about this effect, then you do not pay any attention to it. But the second effect is noticeable and very unpleasant. It lies in the fact that the Super AMOLED screen in the sun (with bright illumination of a certain spectrum) "blinds" very noticeably. It, of course, any LCD displays in the sun "go blind", but it is with AMOLED (and Super AMOLED) displays that this effect is more noticeable than with other matrices. I laid out Galaxy Note II (well, the rest of the models on AMOLED), and next to it - Nokia 808 PureView and Sony Ericson Xperia - it was very clearly visible that Nokia and Sony in such conditions keep the brightness more or less decent, but almost nothing is visible on the Samsung Galaxy display. I tried to take a photo , with a demonstration of this effect, but it cannot be conveyed in the photo, so you have to take my word for it. Otherwise, the display is cool. Problems only occur in direct sunlight. Device operation Loaded phone display with TouchWiz shell.

Other desktops.

Here a new concept appeared - contextual desktop. For example, when you take out the stylus, the stylus desktop is added.

When you plug in headphones, a desktop appears with a widget for viewing and listening to multimedia.

When the phone is in roaming, a roaming desktop appears, in which a convenient widget of the current time for two cities is installed. Moreover, contextual desktops also have their own set of icons on the dock panel below.

Roaming desktop

The notification area has become more convenient and interactive (by clicking on messages, you can make settings, perform some actions, and so on), additions have also appeared in the settings icons at the very top.

Applications installed on the system.

Widgets installed in the system (of which the hell is here).

Another innovation. With a long press of the "Return" button, such a retractable Multi View panel appears on the screen. (This was not the case with the Galaxy S III.)

This panel can be dragged to any side, using the "Change" button, you can change the set of applications. You can turn off the panel by long pressing the "Return" button again. You can simply launch applications from the panel, or you can drag the icon of the desired application to the main screen - two running applications will be opened on the screen at once. This only works with those applications that are on the Multi View panel.

Settings In the settings of version 4.1 (including options specific to the Samsung Galaxy), a lot of interesting things have been added. I give the entire top level with subsections.

Data usage - statistics on transmitted mobile data with the ability to limit this matter.

AT " Additional settings"- using a smartphone as a hotspot, setting up a VPN, enabling NFC, S Beam, DLNA. Through AllShareCast, the Note 2 screen can be shared with other devices that support this technology. Kies is also supported via Wi-Fi, but I do not know who in his right mind he uses this program - it is much more convenient to upload media files simply from a computer, and store all sorts of contacts and schedules in the Google cloud.

A very useful new option is the blocking mode. I've been waiting for a long time to show up as normal. This is turning off calls, notifications, and so on for a certain time period (for the night). In this case, you can set contacts for which an exception will be made - that is, they will be able to ring out.

Display settings. Interesting modes - smart reversal and smart shutdown. Well, you can turn on the display of the battery percentage (this appeared in the 4th version, thank God). You can also enable / disable contextual desktops here. Also, pay attention to the "Screen mode" section. Many users complain about the overly "acidic" colors of AMOLED displays. So, if you put "Natural" or even "Film" in the mode, there will be no more acidity.

The next top settings.

Power saving - nothing particularly interesting: limiting processor performance, lowering the power level of the display and other background changes in the browser that have little effect. Disabling Wi-Fi in sleep mode, which significantly affects the battery, is done in additional wifi settings.

In the "Battery" section, you can see which applications are the most voracious.

The screen lock can be configured very flexibly.

The lock screen settings are also well configured.

Section "Security".

An interesting section is "Management with one hand". It, of course, is not very relevant for such a "shovel", but it may come in handy for someone.

Backup and reset. In general, it is strange that Google has not yet made a good regular backup and restore mode. In order to quickly restore your applications and settings, you have to use all sorts of third-party applications, and to automate this process, the phone has to be rooted - there is no way without it.

The last section of the upper settings.

Specific accounts have been moved to the top section - it's more convenient to set them up. The "Movements" section - very flexible settings.

S-Pen settings.

Accessories.

Special abilities.

Applications AT Samsung smartphones some basic android apps replaced by their own - and this is very good. For example, the telephone section is much more convenient than the basic one. Telephone

Swipe right on a contact to start a phone call. If you swipe to the left, it will start writing SMS to him.

Menu that appears when making a call. Messages In the messages section, a lot of things have also been added. The message list menu.

Message creation menu.

Setting the type of messages.

Create a delayed message. (A valuable opportunity, by the way.)

By the way, as in the Galaxy S III, if you simply bring the phone to your ear when typing SMS, it will immediately start making a voice call to the subscriber. General message settings - SMS, MMS, notifications and so on.

Keyboard The keyboard here is its own, Samsung. Row added to alphabetic layout number keys- Personally, I very much approve of it. Prediction of the entered words works well - including in Russian. But I don’t like switching layouts by space (it doesn’t work well), and the fact that in English and Russian a comma can only be called by long pressing on a period, and besides the comma there are 13 more characters. However, a comma can be placed to the left of the space (to the right of the Sym button) - there is a custom key, on which the last character selected from the list is placed by default.

Browser Browser - standard android. It works well, but I like mobile Google Chrome much more. The large display allows you to surf sites almost fully.

Gallery There is a new view mode - a single stream. Lists all media files without folders. It is very convenient when you need to quickly find something, but you do not remember where this file is located.

Folder browsing mode.

By albums.

Video Videos can also be viewed from the standard gallery, but the dedicated video section is much more convenient. View thumbnails. And they are also animated - with a preview.

Folder selection.

Selection by the list of files.

Playback.

A very convenient application in terms of selecting videos and viewing, just great done. Music Also a good own application from Samsung. Convenient selection and playback. With a poor standard android - do not compare.

Well, and the traditional musical square, which distributes the listened music by style.

Mail I did not notice any innovations here.

Cards On such a display, working with cards is a pleasure. Moreover, maps from Google for Android are much better than for iOS (Google simply does not provide a version for Apple with all the features). Some three-dimensional buildings are worth something.

Navigation Google's navigation is still heavily indebted. With normal navigation programs (Sygic, Navigon) - just do not compare. Well, plus it requires a constant connection to the Internet. As an option, when there is the Internet and there is nothing else, it will do, but there are very few opportunities here, the program is rather inconvenient.

Clock Nice set - alarm clock, world time, timer, stopwatch.

By the way, the alarm settings have increased.

Samsung Apps Various applications from the store from Samsung.

S Suggest Rating of various applications, including those recommended to you personally. When downloading or purchasing, redirects to Google Play.

My files A simple file manager.

Flipboard News feeds integrated with Facebook and Twitter.

S Pen The main difference between the Galaxy Note series and the Galaxy S series is the presence of the S-Pen stylus. Moreover, this S-Pen is a very advanced device, and the Galaxy Note and its software are great to work with it. As soon as you pull out the S-Pen , recommended stylus shortcuts appear in the notification area, and a contextual S-Pen desktop appears on the desktop.

notification area

Context desktop

Create an S Note - you can write, draw and so on.

Note storage and S Note templates.

Working with the S Note template.

When you add, for example, an entry to the calendar, the handwriting recognition mode is turned on.

You can also draw and attach pictures - in the calendar, messages and so on.

Another interesting feature is the so-called quick commands. AT special application put an icon - search, weather, maps, mail, and so on, after which you write the corresponding word.

Show Barcelona on the map

As soon as you tear off the stylus from the screen, the execution of the command immediately starts.

Well, here is Barcelona on the map.

Paper Artist App. You can draw pictures, edit pictures and so on.

Many Samsung applications also respond to the stylus - for example, if you simply bring the stylus to the preview while viewing images in the gallery, without even touching the picture, it will increase. This is called Air View - viewing an enlarged image or the appearance of some tips when bringing the stylus to the screen.

Enlarge photo

Video Zoom

When you call, you can also call S Note, draw something, write it down and save it.

Any sections of text and images can be cut using the stylus, after which a list of applications appears in which this picture can be used - for example, saved as a note or sent by e-mail.

Directly on top of S Planner, you can take handwritten notes and drawings. By the way, an extremely cool opportunity!

Moreover, the drawing parameters and tools are very flexibly configured.

Well, you can also make handwritten notes to the images in the gallery.

I can say that the S-Pen just amazed me with its capabilities. I don’t know how to write or draw with my hands at all, but for many users such functionality is very, very useful. Lock screen The lock screen has become more informative. You can display a lot of things on it, including news (not available for Russia), weather and two types of time for roaming.

Missed messages and calls are also displayed on this screen so that you can immediately go to the corresponding application. Well, the four icons below allow you to go to the desired application, it's a pity that they seem to be impossible to edit.

Camera Now about the camera. On the first Note, the camera worked very well (unlike the Galaxy S III). This one is at least not worse. There are, of course, some mistakes, but in general, in my opinion, it shoots perfectly - of course, for a phone. Here is the camera interface.

Settings.

I just didn't like it when they did the focus here. Previously, after pressing the shutter, the focus was made in the rectangle in the middle of the frame, after which the frame was taken. Now when you hover the camera, focusing is immediately performed, after which the rectangle disappears. True, if you move the camera, the rectangle will appear again and focusing will be done again. I drove the camera in various modes as it should. Basically, everything is very good - the camera is no worse than in the Galaxy Note, and even better. However, judge for yourself. Below are shots taken in a wide variety of conditions - very poor lighting, cloudy weather, sunny weather, evening, street, indoors. In general, the impressions are very good. It rarely misses the white balance (for several days of shooting - three or four times), focusing works well. "Shake" sometimes comes across, but this is not a camera problem - the shutter speed is not too long and at the same time, the hand probably trembled. Yes, the old well-known Samsung effect, when a noticeable pinkish spot is observed in the center of the frame when shooting a light homogeneous surface - is also present here. Here are some frames without any processing - I only reduced them. EXIF is saved for everyone. All photos are clickable. Very poor lighting. Filmed decently, but the "noise" is noticeable.
Illuminated first floor with dark stairs.
Room.
This is where the machine messed up both with the exposure and with the balance.
Overcast weather.

City in cloudy weather.
Quite twilight - lit the lanterns.
Evening clouds.
artificial lighting.
And this is in good weather.

Sunset.
Video shooting interface.
And here's a video taken on camera. The video also shoots very, very decently. Performance Well, in general, it was expected that with such serious characteristics, the smartphone would simply fly. It flies - I didn’t notice any brakes anywhere, everything works smoothly and quickly. I ran tests on Quadrant Pro - it gave out as many as 6583 units. The Galaxy S III has 4059. The old Note had 3680.

Battery life That was very interesting to find out! The battery life of the old Note was, in general, decent for such a display. The battery here has a very decent capacity, and, in practice, tests have shown that it noticeably affects the battery life. I conducted several tests in a comfortable display brightness mode - this is about 60% . At the same time, the phone was already rooted and the Juice Defender program was installed, but this should not have affected the results, because when all sorts of wireless networks turned off - Juice Defender, in fact, there was nothing to turn off, and when they were turned on, they were also not turned off by this program, because they were constantly involved when the display was on. So, what did I get according to all kinds of full-scale (not theoretical) tests. Reading mode All wireless networks are disabled, normal comfortable display brightness (60%), pages are automatically scrolled in Cool Reader. Exactly 11 o'clock! Video viewing Wireless networks are disabled, the usual comfortable display brightness, in the MX Player Pro program, a TV-resolution serial with hardware decoding is spinning in a cycle. 10 hours 30 minutes. Internet Wi-Fi is on, comfortable brightness, a site is loaded in the browser that reloads once a minute. Also about 10 hours 30 minutes. Navigation The Navigon program is on, GPS is working, normal brightness. 9 hours 30 minutes. It's very cool, I remember well how the HTC HD2 with navigation lasted no more than two hours. In general, in my opinion, the battery life is very decent. The display has become larger, and the operating time has not decreased, but also clearly increased. In the usual mode of operation - phone, read, Internet, video, music, and so on - the phone lives up to the evening quite calmly. A couple of times he lived with me for two days - however, at the end of the second day he was completely out of breath. From his adapter, from almost complete discharge to 100%, the phone charges in a couple of hours. From the computer's USB adapter - one and a half to two times longer. Price In Europe, this model costs about 530 € (for this price I bought it in "Mediamarkt"). In Russia, the average price for Note II is still at the level of 25-30 thousand rubles (611-734 €). By the way, the prices for the first Note haven't dropped much yet. Impressions from use and conclusions I have only had this smartphone for a few days. At the moment, I can say that I really liked it. I switched from Galaxy Note to Galaxy S III, but now I will definitely switch from Galaxy S III to Galaxy Note II - this is exactly what I need. It is clearly more comfortable in the hand than the Galaxy Note, the size is not annoying, and such a display allows you to completely abandon the tablet, especially since I still use a laptop for large tasks. This Note model is, in my opinion, very successful. Samsung didn’t just change something there slightly in order to force users to upgrade only because “it’s necessary”, but really brought their flagship to the optimal level of both the size and capabilities of the device, and its filling.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 - the device was very popular in 2012-2013. It was actively advertised wherever possible. In the review, we will tell you all its chips and conclude what the Note 2 is - a tablet, a phone, or something new at that time. We will trace the changes since the first version and briefly give recommendations on the purchase of this device.

In addition to the smartphone itself, the kit includes the following items:

standard set of instructions.
White Charger, very similar to charging for the Galaxy Note 1.
White cable.
Ear pads for headphones.
The headset itself is exactly the same as in the Samsung Galaxy Note 1.

Appearance

The device has become slightly longer than its predecessor. The screen has increased both by increasing this very length, and by reducing the width of technical gaps. The thickness of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has not changed in any way.

Let's go through the elements of the case. The headphone jack has moved to the left at the top. On the other end, the power button has become a little shorter and also moved closer to the bottom of the case. This makes it more comfortable to press with one hand, especially if the length is increased.

There were no changes at the bottom end. On the volume control side, again, the keys have become slightly shorter, which are located lower than before.

The back cover has a corrugated metal texture. Of course, it's just the usual glossy plastic, which collects all sorts of fingerprints pretty well.

A film on the display is also required without fail, because the device is very scratched. Especially if you unsuccessfully put it with some object. These are the features of the first generation Gorilla Glass.

Display

The screen of the Samsung Note 2 is 5.5 inches (1280 × 720 pixels), slightly elongated. Matrices S3 and Note 2 are very similar to each other. Color renditions almost completely correspond to each other. Maybe a little more correct on the Galaxy Note 2. Otherwise, the owner will not notice the difference if he does not look closely.

True, if you take a closer look, you can note the improvement in the quality of the display in Note 2. The Galaxy S3 has red and blue inclusions inside the borders of the letters, but there is nothing like that on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. "Multi-touch" for 10 one-time touches.

In the display settings, new "chips" appeared:

Enable context pages. These are additional desktops that are created during a specific action. If you go into the settings, you can see four options: S-Pen; headphone page; stand page and roaming page. A small icon appears at the bottom of the screen, indicating the context page. This can be turned off. The set of programs at the bottom of the display also changes.
"Intelligent rotation" allows you to lie on the pillow, hold the phone in front of your face and it will not change its orientation. That is, if you simply turn it in front of your face to a horizontal position, then the device will turn the screen over, but if you lie down yourself, then no. The function is “tied” to the front camera and works quite well.
Change display modes. Dynamic (most powerful), standard, natural and film mode (slight yellowing) are available.

Specifications

Specifications of Samsung Galaxy Note 2:

Samsung Exynos 4412 quad-core processor.
Video chip - Mali-400 MP.
RAM - 2 GB.
Built-in memory - 16, 32 or 64 GB, which can be expanded using a built-in memory card up to 64 GB.

Modern simple games on such devices will be played, but at minimum settings, but you will have to forget about high-performance ones.

The phablet has Android version 4.1.1 installed, but later it was updated to 4.4.2. The company inserted its additional gadgets into it, which were not even on the S3. What is interesting and useful in them?

Home screen mode. In fact, it differs in that the widgets become simpler and the display becomes without any additional graphic frills and frills. It seems like it simplifies the work of new users, however, in fact, this setting is not really needed.
Blocking mode. This is some version of the "black list" with a timer. That is, you can either partially or completely disable incoming calls, notifications, and even an indicator if necessary.
There is S-Kloud - a synchronization system where SMS messages and logs are stored. They promise that even the backup will be there completely. This is already a very good move towards ease of use, towards safety and comfort for the end user.
With the help of the S-Pen, as in the pilot model, a lot can be adjusted here.

Multitasking is already present on this smartphone, although this feature has been widely used not so long ago. It starts by long pressing the "Back" button. In the curtain that appears, we see all the programs that currently support multitasking. You can run full two tasks. For example, the browser and S-Note. It is possible to change windows. This will also be true for the horizontal screen orientation.

Battery and autonomy

The smartphone has a 3100 mAh battery, which allows you not to part with it all day, and even in the evening the phablet will not sit down. The operating time is very dependent on the mobile operator, on the frequency of switching between bands. It is, of course, possible to "put" him in a day if you sit in more or less difficult games, use the Internet, etc.

But with average standard loads, the gadget will quietly serve you all day.

The Note 2 has a power saving feature. When the pen is detached, the device detects it. Inside there is a sensor that monitors this. The savings are not very big, especially if the gadget is very stressed, but still.

S Pen

Speaking of Samsung Note 2, first of all, its signature S-Pen is meant. The second version of the pen has become a little wider and a little longer than the original, and it has also acquired the shape of a cylinder squeezed from both ends for ease of use:

Firstly, the new pen will never slip anywhere now.
And secondly, the position in the hand has become very comfortable. In the earlier model, I always wanted to change the position of the fingers.

The changes also affected the pen tip. Previously, it was made of ordinary fluoroplastic, which does not scratch the glass, but does not give any feeling of writing on paper with a pen.

The new one is also made of plastic, but there is a feeling as if you are writing with an old felt-tip pen or pencil on paper. The result is a completely different feeling and a different level of comfort. It just needs to be tried once.

The new pen is already a full-fledged working tool, and not just an interesting feature of a smartphone.

The button on the stylus switches the last tools in the cycle. Including there useful feature for tracking the S-Pen, if suddenly the owner accidentally left it, then the smartphone is quite disgusting and persistently reminds of this.

S note

This branded application for the Note series has acquired a number of innovations:

Now the notes are synchronized with the "cloud" and the user will not lose them even if the information on the phone is completely erased.
Additional templates have been added. In fact, this is a pre-installed set of backgrounds and some fields that allow you to quickly organize a record. For example, in a travel note, we can immediately write where we are going, with whom, add photos.
In the drawing mode, it became possible to select an additional color from the spectrum for each tool. There is a pipette to pick up a color from the picture lying on the working field. You can also customize the brush and save it as a default set. You can immediately switch between saved sets. If necessary, this can be easily removed.
There is a function to improve performance: shape recognition (the device tracks what we draw and offers the closest shape in appearance), formula recognition (you can immediately put it in the browser so that it suggests the features of the solution), text recognition (although the Russian language machine does not understand).
There is a regular text module where you can "beat" the text from the keyboard. We can add a photo, record and add a video, drag what you need from the "clipboard" or add a map. There is also a color collection of pictures and "drawing ideas" - you can write what you want to insert as a picture.
The ability to record what we do on the screen. Just press the record button and save. When playing, the smartphone shows the creation of this note almost step by step. This animation can be removed, but the note itself will remain.

Camera

The phablet has two cameras:

The main one is 8 MP.
Front 1.9 MP without autofocus.

On the one hand, the camera module remains old, that is, the same as the Galaxy S3. On the other hand, the image processing algorithm was changed. It has become more efficient and produces a more accurate and interesting picture. There are no global changes, but in the details the difference is noticeable.

The interface was almost completely preserved, only by changing some functions:

Continuous shooting has moved to a long press of the shutter button. The same 20 frames, but now you do not need to switch specifically to the mode. This feature can be disabled in the settings.
The menu column "Best Photos" remained, but now "Best Shots" have also appeared. Why is this needed? You take a group photo, and someone in it yawns, then blinks. You shoot a series of shots and on each shot you choose the correct head position for each person. As a result, the “output” is a picture where no one blinks, everyone looks at the camera and smiles.
HDR is now both normal and intense. Intensive option draws even more dynamic range, however strongly "burns out" colors. Therefore, they must be used very carefully. For sunset photos, it is better to use the usual option.
There was a faint light. In fact, this is an extended shutter speed.

With video in Galaxy Note 2, everything is also not very simple. Now you can set both the normal recording mode and slow motion. We can choose to slow down by two, four or eight times. And it is also possible, on the contrary, to speed up the movement by two, four and eight times.

Results

The Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is a confident, noticeable, good evolution of its predecessor. Ergonomics was improved, additional "chips" were introduced, some problems were removed, the pen was brought to mind.

The only thing I would like is a louder external speaker, and the presence of an iron camera button did not hurt, since users do not always get to the small program circle “Descent”.

Otherwise, Samsung did really good device which does not lose its relevance even now.

Video

Smartphone Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100 - review

The Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone, having appeared, made me jump off the iPhone. And this, you see, is a serious characteristic. Before the advent of the Galaxy Note, I was interested in Samsung smartphones, but I believed that the corporation still needed to bring these devices to mind - the same Samsung Galaxy S was cute, but had noticeable glitches and inconveniences, and the same applied to the operating system Android 2nd version. But as time went on, Android gradually improved and by version 2.3.6 (Gingerbread) managed to overcome many of its problems, and by that time Samsung had released a truly revolutionary model - Samsung Galaxy Note. The revolutionary nature was in the size of the gadget, and the size, as you know, matters very much. Initially, in the era of the development of cellular communications, phone developers thought about how to reduce them to complete invisibility. Then, when smartphones appeared, phones began to increase - because on a small screen you can’t see a damn thing, and you can’t really hit the right icon with your finger. an unnecessary purchase of a tablet in the presence of such a device. To be honest, when I saw the Galaxy Note at the exhibition, I thought that this model would not have a large number of buyers. Although I decided for myself that I would definitely buy such a smartphone for myself. But practice has shown that the Galaxy Note has become very, very popular, and other manufacturers immediately rushed to rivet models with a large display, but so far none of them has come close to Note in quality. Even Apple realized that the iPhone screen is too small, so in the fifth model it was increased, however, for some reason, only in height. ("Then they immediately sued Samsung for stealing ideas," said Bublik the cat.)

Samsung Galaxy Note

Samsung Galaxy Note II

Complete set - smartphone, battery, earplugs, USB-microUSB cable, AC adapter for charging, brochures.

We look at the phone. Very strongly reminiscent of the Samsung Galaxy S III, only in an enlarged form.

Let's put them side by side. Well, yes, just twins!

Now let's put a Galaxy Note next to it. As you can see, the old one is wider, the new one is higher.

The back cover of the Note II is almost exactly the same as that of the Galaxy S III (glossy plastic), only the speaker is located at the bottom, not the top.

The S-Pen stylus is pulled out from the lower left corner. It can only fit in one position.

Separate stylus S-Pen.

The bottom end is a stylus slot, a microUSB output, a microphone.

The left side end is a volume rocker.

The top end is a headphone jack and one of the microphones.

Open the back cover (it opens without much effort). There is a battery socket, slots for microSD and microSIM cards.

I inserted a SIM card, an SD card and a battery - that's it, you can watch how this model works.

Display The display here is no longer the same as that of the Galaxy Note. In the old Note, subpixels were arranged in a PenTile pattern - where each pixel consisted of not three, but two subpixels. This caused some visual problems. In the second Note, each pixel is a normal RGB.

Sub-pixel patterns in Note and Note II

Other desktops.

Here a new concept appeared - contextual desktop. For example, when you take out the stylus, the stylus desktop is added.

When you plug in headphones, a desktop appears with a widget for viewing and listening to multimedia.

Roaming desktop

Applications installed on the system.

Widgets installed in the system (of which the hell is here).

Another innovation. With a long press of the "Return" button, such a retractable Multi View panel appears on the screen. (This was not the case with the Galaxy S III.)

Settings In the settings of version 4.1 (including options specific to the Samsung Galaxy), a lot of interesting things have been added. I give the entire top level with subsections.

Data usage - statistics on transmitted mobile data with the ability to limit this matter.

In the "Advanced settings" - use a smartphone as an access point, configure VPN, enable NFC, S Beam, DLNA. Through AllShareCast, the Note 2 screen can be shared with other devices that support this technology. Kies is also supported via Wi-Fi, but I don’t know who in their right mind uses this program - it’s much more convenient to upload media files simply from a computer, and all sorts of contacts and schedules store in google cloud.

The next top settings.

Power saving - nothing particularly interesting: limiting processor performance, lowering the power level of the display and other background changes in the browser that have little effect. Disabling Wi-Fi in sleep mode, which noticeably affects the battery, is done in the advanced Wi-Fi settings.

In the "Battery" section, you can see which applications are the most voracious.

The screen lock can be configured very flexibly.

The lock screen settings are also well configured.

Section "Security".

An interesting section is "Management with one hand". It, of course, is not very relevant for such a "shovel", but it may come in handy for someone.

The last section of the upper settings.

Specific accounts have been moved to the top section - it's more convenient to set them up. The "Movements" section - very flexible settings.

S-Pen settings.

Accessories.

Special abilities.

Applications In Samsung smartphones, some basic Android applications have been replaced with their own - and this is very good. For example, the phone section is much more convenient than the basic one. Telephone

Swipe right on a contact to start a phone call. If you swipe to the left, it will start writing SMS to him.

Menu that appears when making a call.

Messages In the messages section, a lot of things have also been added. The message list menu.

Message creation menu.

Setting the type of messages.

Create a delayed message. (A valuable opportunity, by the way.)

Keyboard The keyboard here is its own, Samsung. A number of number keys have been added to the alphabetic layout - I personally approve of this very much. Prediction of the entered words works well - including in Russian. But I don’t like switching layouts by space (it doesn’t work well), and the fact that in English and Russian a comma can only be called by long pressing on a period, and besides the comma there are 13 more characters. However, a comma can be placed to the left of the space (to the right of the Sym button) - there is a custom key, on which the last character selected from the list is placed by default.

Browser Browser - standard android. It works well, but I like mobile Google Chrome much more. The large display allows you to surf sites almost fully.

Folder browsing mode.

By albums.

Video Videos can also be viewed from the standard gallery, but the dedicated video section is much more convenient. View thumbnails. And they are also animated - with a preview.

Folder selection.

Selection by the list of files.

Playback.

Well, and the traditional musical square, which distributes the listened music by style.

Mail I did not notice any innovations here.

Clock Nice set - alarm clock, world time, timer, stopwatch.

By the way, the alarm settings have increased.

Samsung Apps Various applications from the store from Samsung.

S Suggest Rating of various applications, including those recommended to you personally. When downloading or purchasing, redirects to Google Play.

My files A simple file manager.

Flipboard News feeds integrated with Facebook and Twitter.

notification area

Context desktop

Create an S Note - you can write, draw and so on.

Note storage and S Note templates.

Working with the S Note template.

When you add, for example, an entry to the calendar, the handwriting recognition mode is turned on.

You can also draw and attach pictures - in the calendar, messages and so on.

Another interesting feature is the so-called quick commands. In a special application, put an icon - search, weather, maps, mail, and so on, and then write the corresponding word.

Show Barcelona on the map

As soon as you tear off the stylus from the screen, the execution of the command immediately starts.

Well, here is Barcelona on the map.

Paper Artist App. You can draw pictures, edit pictures and so on.

Enlarge photo

Video Zoom

When you call, you can also call S Note, draw something, write it down and save it.

Any sections of text and images can be cut using the stylus, after which a list of applications appears in which this picture can be used - for example, saved as a note or sent by e-mail.

Directly on top of S Planner, you can take handwritten notes and drawings. By the way, an extremely cool opportunity!

Moreover, the drawing parameters and tools are very flexibly configured.

Well, you can also make handwritten notes to the images in the gallery.

Settings.

Battery life That was very interesting to find out! The battery life of the old Note was, in general, decent for such a display. The battery here has a very decent capacity, and, in practice, tests have shown that it noticeably affects the battery life. I conducted several tests in a comfortable display brightness mode - this is about 60% . At the same time, the phone was already rooted and the Juice Defender program was installed, but this should not have affected the results, because when all wireless networks were turned off - Juice Defender, in fact, there was nothing to turn off, and when they were turned on, they were also not turned off by this program , because they were constantly involved when the display was on. So, what did I get for all sorts of full-scale (not theoretical) tests. Reading mode All wireless networks are disabled, normal comfortable display brightness (60%), pages are automatically scrolled in Cool Reader. Exactly 11 o'clock! Video viewing Wireless networks are disabled, the usual comfortable display brightness, in the MX Player Pro program, a TV-resolution serial with hardware decoding is spinning in a cycle. 10 hours 30 minutes. Internet Wi-Fi is on, comfortable brightness, a site is loaded in the browser that reloads once a minute. Also about 10 hours 30 minutes. Navigation The Navigon program is on, GPS is working, normal brightness. 9 hours 30 minutes. It's very cool, I remember well how the HTC HD2 with navigation lasted no more than two hours. In general, in my opinion, the battery life is very decent. The display has become larger, and the operating time has not decreased, but also clearly increased. In the usual mode of operation - phone, read, Internet, video, music, and so on - the phone lives up to the evening quite calmly. A couple of times he lived with me for two days - however, at the end of the second day he was completely out of breath. From his adapter, from almost complete discharge to 100%, the phone charges in a couple of hours. From the computer's USB adapter - one and a half to two times longer. Price In Europe, this model costs about 530 € (for this price I bought it in "Mediamarkt"). In Russia, the average price for Note II is still at the level of 25-30 thousand rubles (611-734 €). By the way, the prices for the first Note haven't dropped much yet. Impressions from use and conclusions I have only had this smartphone for a few days. At the moment, I can say that I really liked it. I switched from Galaxy Note to Galaxy S III, but now I will definitely switch from Galaxy S III to Galaxy Note II - this is exactly what I need. It is clearly more comfortable in the hand than the Galaxy Note, the size is not annoying, and such a display allows you to completely abandon the tablet, especially since I still use a laptop for large tasks. This Note model is, in my opinion, very successful. Samsung didn’t just change something there slightly in order to force users to upgrade only because “it’s necessary”, but really brought their flagship to the optimal level of both the size and capabilities of the device, and its filling.

Samsung could not have imagined that the first Galaxy Note (N7000) (review) would be so successful. At that time, the phone offered the most top-end features, so it was not surprising that geeks and technology-obsessed users liked it. The size of the device was well received by the male audience, but the popularity of the pioneer among the beautiful half of humanity is less explainable. Most often, girls refer to the fact that the device does not need to be looked for in a purse (it is large and you can easily feel it there), and working with a large screen is after all convenient, especially if the nails are long. Meanwhile, the company itself initially positioned the smartphone as an ideal tool for implementing creative ideas, creating colorful notes, slides and the like, linking the success of a major novelty with this.

Time has passed, and the time has come to introduce an update to the popular device. Thus, the Galaxy Note 2 (N7100) was born - even more creative, even more powerful.

Technical samsung specifications Galaxy Note 2 (N7100):

Network: GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900MHz), WCDMA/HSPA+ 21Mbps (850/900/1900/2100MHz)
Platform (at the time of announcement): Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), TouchWiz Nature UX
Display: Capacitive, 5.5", 1280 x 720 pixels, HD Super AMOLED
Camera: 8 MP, autofocus, flash, video recording [email protected], BIS, Zero Shutter Lag
Front camera: 1.9 MP, video recording [email protected], BIS, Zero Shutter Lag
Processor: Quad-core, 1.6 GHz, Exynos 4 Quad
RAM: 2 GB
ROM: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB
Memory card: microSD (up to 64 GB)
A-GPS and GLONASS
WiFi (802.11a/b/g/n), WiFi HT40
Bluetooth4.0LE
3.5mm audio jack
Accelerometer, light sensor, distance sensor, digital compass, gyroscope, pressure sensor
Battery: Li-ion, 3100 mAh
Talk time: up to 35 hours in 2G networks, up to 16 hours in 3G networks
Standby time: up to 980 hours in 2G networks, up to 890 hours in 3G networks
Dimensions: 151.1 x 80.5 x 9.4 mm
Weight: 180 g
Form factor: monoblock with touchscreen
Type: smartphone
Announce date: August 29, 2012
Release date: Q4 2012

Video review

Design and construction

The phone is not far from its predecessor in size, but it still feels very large. It is unrealistic to use it with one hand, of course, if you do not have giant hands. It is impossible for an average person to reach the upper border of the screen, and it can be problematic to get from one corner to another with one finger from the bottom. The considerable weight of the device (180 g) also affects - when used with one hand, it is highly likely to fall, especially since the material of the case here has already set the teeth on edge plastic gloss. Only protective covers with a matte or embossed surface will save you from this. Another thing is when the use involves the use of both hands or a pen. This is where everything falls into place. However, such an exploitation scenario is not always possible. For example, if you are on a crowded bus or subway, and your hands are full of grocery bags. Without acrobatic skills, it’s clearly impossible to get a smartphone out of your pocket with one hand and answer the call without dropping it under your feet or somewhere else.

As for the appearance of the device, it should be noted that it has become more attractive to the female half of humanity. Yet the original Galaxy Note looked more masculine. The new generation of Samsung phones is rather unisex, united by natural motifs and design. There are two color solutions to choose from (there will be more of them over time): dark with the effect of turned stone (dark blue, blue or gray) and light - white, without any frills. So was the Galaxy S 3 (review), so was the Galaxy Note 10.1 (review), so was the Galaxy Note 2. In gray, the device looks much more interesting, but we got a white device for the test. It is worth noting that fingerprints are not very visible on it, but they remain the only way and at a certain angle are visible in all their glory.

Undoubtedly, a large 5.5” screen is one of the most important, noticeable advantages of the model. It occupies almost the entire front panel, leaving a little space for the LED, speaker, sensors, 1.9-megapixel front camera, one physical button (responsible for calling the voice assistant, returning to the main screen and displaying running applications) and two touch buttons (returning back and call additional functions). On the sides of the phone are the volume keys and the power button. They are placed on opposite ends, but in comfortable positions for normal human hands, so it is convenient to use them. The upper end of the smartphone is equipped with a 3.5 mm headphone jack, the lower end is equipped with a microUSB port. Also, microphones are located on both ends, which makes recording video with stereo sound more convenient, since in this position it is not so easy to block them. Bottom-back is a slot for a digital S Pen - the main feature of the Galaxy Note 2. It is inserted and removed without much difficulty, there is no magnetic closer. On the rear panel, you can also see a speaker hole, an 8-megapixel camera with a flash.

The lid itself is removable, it opens very easily, but keeps tightly. Under it is a heavy and capacious 3100 mAh battery (and this is with a thickness of 9.4 mm!), As well as a slot for microSD and micro-SIM.

The screen resolution remains the same as in the past Note. More precisely, it even became a little smaller, due to small changes in screen proportions (1280 x 720 pixels instead of 1280 x 800 pixels). At the same time, screen technology has taken a step forward, and now there is no PenTile. However, there are strange color effects. For example, white text on dark background halos of red and green colors are noticeable along the upper and lower borders of the letters. If you do not pay attention to it, you may not notice. However, having noticed this effect, it is possible that you will not be able to comfortably use this device in the future. The rest of the screen is very nice, fast and responsive.

In general, the phone leaves a good impression. The assembly did not cause any complaints at first and inspired confidence, except that small creaks and crunches when squeezing and squeezing the device could be noted, however, after several sticking in and out of the slot, a very strong creak appeared when pressing on the pen inserted there. Well, if this is a feature of our test sample. If not, then you can put an unsuccessful assembly for the assembly.

Software - basic

Smartphone works under Android control 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box, so this is one of the few devices that work on new version operating system from Google. Accordingly, all the improvements of this system are present here in full: this is an improved voice search, and offline recognition of voice input, and a personal Google Now assistant, and Project Butter, designed to improve the smoothness and speed of the interface. You can find out about all the Android Jelly Bean improvements by watching our Galaxy Nexus firmware review video, and rest assured, everything is the same in Galaxy Note 2. With one main difference. This is TouchWiz.

The new version, of course, is prettier than what it was before, because Nature UX here greatly ennobles the shell, and in terms of customizing everything and everything, it can give odds to many other advanced launchers. However, its gluttony to system resources now and then makes itself felt even with such a powerful hardware stuffing. There are lags when flipping through desktops, reloading widgets when exiting applications, slowdowns. Piece of iron, you have four cores of 1.6 GHz and 2 GB random access memory, are not you ashamed?

Generally speaking about software, it is worth dividing the description of the possibilities into two parts - with and without a pen. Because use cases and functionality differ considerably.

First, let's go over the general functionality of the smartphone. A lot of interesting things appeared in the settings menu.

It is worth noting the ability to select the main screen mode. Two options are offered - the main one, this is a familiar look, and a simple mode, in which there are 5 desktops instead of 7, and instead of typical widgets, huge icons of favorite applications and settings are located on the screen. This is done for the convenience of novice users, who may find the usual view too complicated.

The blocking mode allows you to configure which notifications and from whom the phone will display, as well as those that will not show. This can be useful if you need to be in peace and quiet and want no one and nothing to disturb you. Quite a useful innovation for a certain group of people.

The sound settings set the type of vibration, there is a manual adjustment. This appeared back in the Galaxy S 3 and smoothly migrated to the Galaxy Note 2.

Display settings offer another interesting innovation - contextual pages. When they are active on the main screen, an additional eighth desktop is created, tied to a specific accessory. That is, if you plug in the headphones, the multimedia screen will start, if you pull out the stylus, the creative page will open. Similarly for the stand-dock and for entering the roaming mode. Screen mode allows you to choose one or another option for displaying colors on the screen, so that excessive oversaturation of AMOLED screens can be leveled by turning on Natural mode. Also here, in addition to the Intelligent Standby already known from other models (the screen is active while looking at it), there is an Intelligent rotation mode, in which the screen auto-rotation is turned off depending on the position of your face and the orientation of the phone. The function works, but front-camera does not always find a face, so there are misses. I didn't manage to understand how the Smart Wait works, no matter how I looked at the screen - to no avail.

Nothing new has appeared in the energy saving parameters, everything is the same as before - you can limit the processor performance, display brightness, disable vibration feedback.

You can also customize the lock screen, set its type, shortcuts, ripple effect, and so on.

In the security settings, there is an option to search for a lost phone using the SamsungDive service, various modes device protection.

In addition, there are settings for managing the smartphone with one hand. When activated, the standard keyboard becomes smaller and movable so that it can be used with both right and left hands. The calculator, unlock pattern and call dialing keys take a similar look. Of course, creating a huge smartphone, and then coming up with ways to use it with one hand, is a little strange, but we should probably give Samsung credit for such efforts. In some cases, such control options can come in handy, although, for example, typing text from a reduced keyboard is quite inconvenient.

The language and sound settings offer you to select certain text input options, language. You can also activate offline recognition of voice input.

It is impossible not to note the appearance of the Cloud item in the settings, which was not carefully translated into Russian in the official firmware. Why couldn't you name cloud storage, or just Cloud - a mystery. This item is responsible for linking the smartphone to the Dropbox cloud service and account Samsung, you can immediately specify which data to upload from the phone and which not, and whether to show in the gallery what is in your cloud storage.

The Motion options allow you to set different smartphone reactions to a particular movement by him or your hands. As for me, this is little pampering in life, especially with such a huge smartphone. Only a few items from this list may be useful.

Software - S Pen

Special mention deserves the ability to customize and use the digital S Pen, which the company refuses to call a stylus, as it is more than just a wand for poking at the screen. It's hard to argue with that, so let's look at what this pen can do.

In the settings, the dominant hand (right or left) is selected, the note pop-up window is enabled or disabled. There is also a power saving mode and pen tracking. By the way, when you turn on the latter, you can see a huge jamb of smartphone localization - the warning is not corny translated. The Hover function is responsible for scrolling through lists, displaying thumbnails and brief information when hovering the pen over an interface element. For example, you can go to the gallery and hover your pen over an album with pictures to see a preview of the images contained there, you can view the frames of the video without winding it, but simply by clicking at the right moment. With this, you can also scroll through lists in menus and third-party applications, on websites, and so on. A very handy and useful item. In addition, various commands are called with the help of various pen drawings. This is also configured in this settings item.

Speaking about the capabilities of the pen, one cannot fail to note the function of cutting out a fragment of an image from anywhere on the screen for subsequent insertion into a note or text. This is done by pressing a special button on the pen and circling a particular area. The pen also marks specific events in the S Planner calendar, sketches text or formulas in S Note, which will be automatically converted to typewritten counterparts. If you double-tap the screen with the pen during a call, a note window will appear in which you can write down the number or some other useful information. If earlier you loved to sign photos on the back as a keepsake, now this is done electronically using the same S Pen. Also, nothing prevents you from installing applications adapted for using the pen, sharpened for drawing or photo processing and fully expressing your creative abilities.

Software - Applications

Speaking of applications. In Note 2, in addition to standard programs from Google, there are several branded ones that roam from one Samsung phone in another. This is the already mentioned S Planner, voice assistant S Voice, S Suggest and Samsung Apps stores, Yota Play video portal client, ChatON proprietary messenger, Game Hub game portal, video player with video preview functions, image minimization in a small window (works without problems even with Full HD) and support for all modern formats , music player, AllShare Play service for sharing your media content. The Gallery has the ability to view images in 3D.

Of the pre-installed third-party applications, there is an electronic and audio book store, Movie Poster and Weather from Yandex, the Paper Artist drawing program and several toys: Clouds & Sheep with a nice soundtrack and fun gameplay; Conflict Robots (an online toy like Quake 3 Arena, but with robots in the lead role - you have to run, collect stuff and destroy other players); everyone's favorite Cut The Rope, but in a demo version and with the ability to purchase via SMS; Super Dynamite Fishing is about a brave fisherman with dynamite to catch fish.

The rest of the applications are standard for the Android platform. The browser can work in a pop-up window. This is useful, for example, when viewing the feed on Twitter. You don't have to minimize the program to view the link in your browser - it will just open in a small window. By the way, the multi-window mode, which allows you to work with several allowed applications at the same time, has already appeared in new firmware for this smartphone, however, it was not possible to install it on the test device by any of the possible ways. Apparently, this is a feature of a particular sample. The new firmware will also add various new features, such as the ability to record screencasts (video recordings of what is happening on the screen). For now, it's only available on S Note in a somewhat stripped-down form.