We’ve been lucky enough to have spent some quality time with the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 over the past week and although we were impressed with our initial encounter at IFA, the experience runs far deeper.
The look and feel of the device is impeccable and although fears of Samsung’s Nature UX skin on top would slow the device down, it feels lightning fast, no doubt thanks to the comprehensive list of impressive hardware under the hood. Having said that, a direct comparison between it and its quad-core cousin, the Samsung Galaxy S3 doesn’t highlight any significant fluidity advantages in the UI, although heavy duty apps may take a fraction of a second longer to open on the S3.
The Jelly Bean-specific improvements are subtle, with features such as the expandable notifications being one of the few apparent additions. Samsung’s TouchWiz enhancements subdue the Jelly Bean flavour, but of course add new useful features in their own right.
The S Pen and its complementary services have been reworked and as a result, feel tighter, more responsive and better considered over the original Note.
The pop-up S Note which appears when pulling out the S Pen is a particularly nice touch. It feels as if Samsung has tried to improve the S Note services for convenience, without giving them too great a dominance over the user experience, after all, it may be a stylus-driven device, but it still needs to operate as a competent smartphone on its own merits, which based on our experiences, it certainly seems to.
We run the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 through a full workout in our review.
For offline prices and Galaxy Note 2 accessories, visit www.clove.co.uk.
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