The title says it all, and it’s all everyone said when I showed them this behemoth of a phone. It’s also what I thought when I pulled it out of the box. But after a couple days, I was in love! Let’s get started.
This thing is a beauty. The screen is amazing! Vibrant colors smooth interface with Jelly Bean 4.1 – just amazing. At first I didn’t think I would like the stylus pen (S-Pen) that came with the phone. That thinking lasted about 4 hours. Soon I was using the pen for everything! Especially the game Draw Something – it almost felt like cheating.
I also fell in love with the photo editing abilities of this phone. There’s really just so much you can do with that S-Pen. It was great for taking notes during some meetings as well!
So how about the camera? I was really pleased here – I take a lot of photos and it didn’t disappoint me. Just like the Galaxy S III, it has some great filters you can apply right there in camera app. Pictures were clear even in low light.
Now with a 5.5” screen I expected the battery life to go quick – and I use my phone a lot – work email, personal email, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, games, YouTube, you get the idea right? I’m always near a charger, but with the Note II, I didn’t feel like I needed to be. This thing has a huge battery and it works the way you need it to – it lasts. I got home after the first full day of using this bad boy and still had 24% battery left. So just to see what would happen – I didn’t charge it overnight – woke up the next morning – 8% battery left! You don’t have to worry about the battery.
Oh and about that 5.5” size – if you’re worried about it – there are settings in the phone that make it easier to use one-handed. You can move the keypads to either side to make the buttons reachable! Great thinking Samsung!
As for it as a phone – it works. It was on AT&T and their network doesn’t give me any problems. Calls are clean, crisp and I didn’t drop them. A friend even told me I sounded better than on my Verizon phone. The HPSA+ speeds here in Hampton Roads are solid. Sometimes I got better than my LTE 4G.
There are a lot of great things about this phone – but let’s talk about something I didn’t like. While I may have loved using the S-Pen – I HATED that it didn’t work on the ‘Back’ button at the bottom. I kept trying to use the pen to go back and would realize I have to actually touch it to back out. Kind of frustrating, but after a while I learned to deal with it.
I love phones – I have a lot of them. I get to play with a lot more. But each time I check out something and go back and pick up my own phone, I’m not disappointed. After setting down the Note II and picking mine up – I had that moment when I was sad. I really liked using the Note II and if I was ready to buy a phone right now, I’d have a hard time not buying it.
Are you going to get one? Do you already have one? Let me know! Leave me a comment below or tweet me! @Doctor_Droid
