Gadgetory

so the same thing kind of always happens when a new phone is announced the media gets the device ahead of time maybe a couple days a couple weeks if we're lucky and we get to use it while we're preparing our review then the date and time of the press embargo arrives the embargo lifts everybody posts their review at once and it is a giant big frenzy of activity there's commenters going nuts and defenders and attackers and it's just a huge explosion for about a day and then everything disappeared I'm sure there's follow-up coverage and stuff as people find bugs people have other stuff to say about the devices they wear a man over the course of a day or so but really nobody ever goes back and revisits these devices after that initial blast of a review to see how they feel after a couple weeks so let's do something about it let's take a look at one of this year's surprising success stories the phone tablet hybrid Samsung's Galaxy Note 2 I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is episode 9 of after the buzz now the Galaxy Note 2 isn't an old device in fact it just launched the other day on Verizon Wireless America's largest network but it was announced back at Aoife in August and it was released in September that's a long time in tech years especially with the holiday season coming up so how has the Galaxy Note 2 held up not surprisingly since it's still a relatively new product this Hardware still turns heads everywhere at the barbershop the other day my haircut was delayed for about five minutes while I answered questions about my Sprint Galaxy Note 2 with no other competition in the phablet space the big beefy casing of the note 2 stands out in a big way if you're one of those folks who likes to get noticed look no further people will ask you about this device in public a lot one of the things that might not age as well on the physical side is the devices design now this is all taste dependent but look at the device next to some smart phones that have landed since the note 2 debuted as we've said before Samsung basically just blew up the design of the galaxy s3 and squared off it's more bulbous teardrop elements the result is a plain looking device that relies almost entirely on its size and S Pen Stylus to stand out from the crowd but the build quality is good and it's withstood quite a few drops and knocks with very little scratching speaking of that s-pen we loved it in our original review and we still enjoy it today but unless you're buying the device specifically to take advantage of pen input you'll probably find yourself using it less often as the days go by when you do have a couple hands-free to take it out and use the device to its full potential though the s-pen continues to highlight the note 2's advanced capabilities of course an S Pen is nothing without a display to write on and we still like the Note twos panel display enthusiasts though will want to take note that the 1080p revolution is upon us the 5.5 inch screen on the note 2 delivers 720p resolution but its pixel density isn't top-notch at 267 PPI and it's overblown color saturation compares unfavorably with newer technologies like the Droid NASL cd3 display it's still a beautiful screen and at the greater distance from the eye you're going to be using it at its perfectly wonderful but if you've used a 1080p display the differences will be apparent if you haven't you probably won't mind at all on the flip side of that resolution equation is endurance the 3100 milliamp hour pack inside the galaxy note 2 is already a mega sized battery and its performance blows away that of the batteries powering higher resolution devices the fact that it's removable allowing swapping with a fresh battery away from home is also a huge bonus wrapping up the hardware side of things the speaker continues to impress us with its bassy loud tones and the camera is quite nice more on that in software in a second the only Hardware feature that consistently got under my skin was the power standby button which is a little easier to press than I would like but let's face it when you're picking nits that small you know you've got a great hardware story to tell overall but you can't talk galaxy note without talking software how is Samsung's TouchWiz nature UX holding up over time in short very well indeed the TouchWiz UI layer adds the usual wait time to Android updates and our sprint unit here is still on jellybean 4.1.1 in exchange though you get the full suite of software improvements that Samsung is bundled into TouchWiz like notification shade utility toggles Samsung specific widgets and all the s-pen specific enhancements like hovering and quick memo more importantly there's also support for Samsung's innovative multi-screen allowing two apps to run at the same time on the display as well as pop-up browser and pop-up play for more lightweight multitasking even multi screens side dock is handy in itself as an additional app dog these are really the headlining software features of the galaxy note 2 because they let the device live up to its full potential they bring in the tablet functionality that makes it a phablet not just a comically oversized smartphone once you learn to use them they are incredibly useful features and you miss them when leaving the device behind for another the Samsung modifications to the camera suite continue to impress and they work in concert with some excellent hardware to produce some truly solid images that hold their own just fine against competing devices both indoor and outdoor in fact Samsung's Galaxy s3 and galaxy note 2 camera they're identical hardware and nearly identical software are near the top of the pile in my opinion for a consumer smartphone objects all this customization generally results in a fair amount of lag on most devices and it is possible to slow the Galaxy Note 2 down at spots but you really have to try if you have some third-party apps like HD widgets loaded you can induce stutter on the widget menu and chrome will occasionally bog down though that's probably more due to Chrome than anything else I include this only in this period of completeness though TouchWiz has been a lag-free oasis even since Ice Cream Sandwich on high-end Samsung hardware and that continues with jellybean on the galaxy note 2 in our full review we gave the Galaxy Note 2 a 9 out of 10 now that's one of the highest scores we've ever given a device and the note 2 continues to earn that praise from its multitasking to its s-pen add-ons to its battery life to its voice quality to its data speeds to its processing horsepower this thing is still a beast a powerhouse a hybrid product that aspires to be both a very good smartphone and a very good tablet and unlike many other hybrid products the Galaxy Note 2 continues to succeed at playing both roles for the right buyer we continue to fully recommend it everyone thank you for watching after the buzz episode 9 for the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 we hope you enjoyed it hope you found it useful if so please leave us a thumbs up here on YouTube if you have something to say to us please leave a comment on the post at pocketnow.com follow us on twitter so you don't miss all the new updates PocketNow tweets is the official account my account is at captain 2 phones that's captain the number 2 phones if you're interested in following me and be sure and visit us at pocketnow.com from much more coverage on the Galaxy Note 2 and all Android Windows Phone and iOS devices in the days weeks and months ahead in the meantime thank you for watching and we'll see on the next one and it launched in September that's a long time in tech years a few notifications a few but thank you for the retweet whoever you were sorry buddy last time