The Samsung Galaxy Note II (or Galaxy Note 2) is an Android

phablet A phablet (, ) is a mobile device combining or straddling the size formats of smartphones and tablets. The word is a portmanteau of ''phone'' and ''tablet''. Phablets feature large displays that complement screen-intensive activity such as mo ...

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

. Unveiled on August 29, 2012 and released in October 2012, the Galaxy Note II is a successor to the original Galaxy Note, incorporating improved

stylus A stylus (plural styli or styluses) is a writing utensil or a small tool for some other form of marking or shaping, for example, in pottery. It can also be a computer accessory that is used to assist in navigating or providing more precision w ...

functionality, a larger screen, and an updated hardware and casing design based on that of the Galaxy S III. The Note II was released to positive critical reception for its improvements over the original Galaxy Note, and sold over 5 million units within only its first two months of availability. Samsung announced a successor to the Galaxy Note II, the

Galaxy Note 3 The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is an Android phablet smartphone produced by Samsung Electronics as part of the Samsung Galaxy Note series. The Galaxy Note 3 was unveiled on September 4, 2013, with its worldwide release beginning later in the month. S ...

, on September 4, 2013.

History

The Galaxy Note II was unveiled at

IFA Berlin The IFA ( ) or Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (International radio exhibition Berlin, a.k.a. 'Berlin Radio Show') is one of the oldest industrial exhibitions in Germany. Between 1924 and 1939 it was an annual event, but from 1950 it was ...

on August 29, 2012, and released in multiple markets at the beginning of October 2012. Samsung sold more than 3 million units within the first 37 days and it crossed 5 million in two months of its release.

Software versions

In December 2012, Samsung began rolling out an update to Android 4.1.2 "Jelly Bean" for the device. In April 2014, Samsung began rolling out an update to Android 4.4.2 ''KitKat'' for the device. Samsung Nordic has stated several times, including on their official page that both the 3G and 4G versions of the phone will get the

Lollipop A lollipop is a type of sugar candy usually consisting of hard candy mounted on a stick and intended for sucking or licking. Different informal terms are used in different places, including lolly, sucker, sticky-pop, etc. Lollipops are availa ...

update.

Features

Split-screen

The Galaxy Note 2 is able to show two applications at the same time with flexible width on the screen with its split-screen feature. However, support of this feature varies per app.Sprint.com article on the Galaxy Note 2 split-screen feature.
/ref>
(

sic The Latin adverb ''sic'' (; "thus", "just as"; in full: , "thus was it written") inserted after a quoted word or passage indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated exactly as found in the source text, complete with any e ...

Specifications

General

The Galaxy Note II features a 5.5-inch HD Super

AMOLED AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode, ) is a type of OLED display device technology. OLED describes a specific type of thin-film-display technology in which organic compounds form the electroluminescence, electroluminescent materia ...

S-Stripe RGB (3 subpixels/pixel) (non-

PenTile PenTile matrix is a family of patented subpixel matrix schemes used in electronic device displays. PenTile is a trademark of Samsung. PenTile matrices are used in AMOLED and LCD displays. These subpixel layouts are specifically designed to opera ...

) screen with 1280 × 720 resolution, a 1.6 GHz quad-core Cortex-A9 CPU, 2 GB RAM, an 8 MP rear camera and 1.9 MP front camera, and a 3,100 mAh battery. It is slightly thinner than its predecessor at , albeit also being slightly heavier by . Depending on the specific model, the phone features

HSPA+ Evolved High Speed Packet Access, HSPA+, HSPA (Plus) or HSPAP, is a technical standard for wireless broadband telecommunication. It is the second phase of HSPA which has been introduced in 3GPP release 7 and being further improved in later 3GPP ...

21 Mbit/s along with 4G LTE (42.2 Mbit/s DC-HSPA+ for LTE Version). The Galaxy Note II is equipped with

Broadcom Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wirel ...

BCM4334 chipset for the IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz dual-band with maximum rate up to 150 Mbit/s, FM radio tuner and

Bluetooth 4.0 Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limit ...

+ HS support.

Storage

The Galaxy Note II was supposed to be available in 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB storage capacity variants, each expandable by up to an additional 64 GB with a

microSD Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDis ...

card. However, as of 8 January 2013, only the 16 GB and 32 GB versions are available and there has been no release date for or any indication of a 64 GB version of the Note II to be offered.

S Pen

The smartphone's pressure-sensitive S Pen is slightly thicker than in the original Galaxy Note, and a feature marketed as ''

Air View The Samsung Galaxy S4 is an Android smartphone produced by Samsung Electronics as the fourth smartphone of the Samsung Galaxy S series and was first shown publicly on March 14, 2013, at Samsung Mobile Unpacked in New York City. It is the succes ...

'' allows a user to preview content by hovering the pen over the content, similar to the

hoverbox A hoverbox (also called a hovercard) is a popup window that is neither a tooltip nor a traditional popup, but is a popup that appears when the mouse is placed over an icon on the screen for a short period of time, without clicking. The hoverbo ...

feature of a mouse in some desktop computers, such as thumbnails in the gallery and a preview tooltip on the video player's time seek bar, and zooming in the Internet browser (Samsung '' S Browser'')Video
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 – Air View
by FoneArena (October 10th, 2012)Video
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 – Air View
(November 19th, 2012) and for scrolling. Another feature marketed as ''Quick Command'' reveals a list of available commands at the swipe of the S Pen.Video: Galaxy Note 2 S Pen Gestures
– October 31st, 2012 Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100 review: Writing home – Page 3: Display, S Pen
– GSM Arena The S Pen's 1,024 levels of pen-pressure sensitivity give it significantly more accuracy and precision than the original Note's 256.

Camera

Both front and rear camera use the same hardware as used in the

Galaxy S3 The Samsung Galaxy S III (or Galaxy S3) is an Android smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Launched in 2012, it had sold more than 80 million units overall, making it the most sold phone in the S series. I ...

, with eight megapixels (3264×2448) rear facing camera and 1.9 Megapixels on the front facing camera.Camera review of the Galaxy Note 2 by GSMArena
/ref> The video resolution of the rear camera is 1080p at 30 frames per second while the front camera films 720p at 30 frames per second. The Galaxy Note 2 is able to capture 6 megapixel (3264×1836) images during 1080p@30fps video recording, which is the highest 16:9 aspect ratio resolution supported by the 4:3 image sensor, matching the aspect ratio of the video. While the camera interface resembles that of the Galaxy S3,

slow motion Slow motion (commonly abbreviated as slo-mo or slow-mo) is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger in the early 20th century. This can be accomplished through the use o ...

mode (720×480 at 120 frames per second) has been added. The slow motion videos lack audio. The

burst shot Burst mode, also called continuous shooting mode, sports mode, continuous mode, or burst shot, is a shooting mode in still cameras where several photos are captured in quick succession by either pressing the shutter button or holding it down. ...

mode is able to capture up to twenty full-resolution photos per row at around six frames per second.Video
Samsung Galaxy Note II burst mode photography at over 6 fps for 20 frames
published 2012-09-11

Variants

The Galaxy Note II is available in Titanium Grey, Marble White, Martian Pink, Amber Brown and Ruby Wine case colors. Some features were removed, which vary as customized by carrier, include FM/TV tuner, charging pins, and Multiple-SIM card support. To prevent

grey market A grey market or dark market (sometimes confused with the similar term " parallel market") is the trade of a commodity through distribution channels that are not authorized by the original manufacturer or trade mark proprietor. Grey market pr ...

reselling, models of the Galaxy Note II, and other models (Galaxy S4, Galaxy S4 mini, Galaxy Note III and Galaxy S III) manufactured after July 2013 implement a

regional lockout A regional lockout (or region coding) is a class of digital rights management preventing the use of a certain product or service, such as multimedia or a hardware device, outside a certain region or territory. A regional lockout may be enforced ...

system in certain regions; requiring that the first

SIM card file:SIM-Karte von Telefónica O2 Europe - Standard und Micro.jpg, A typical SIM card (mini-SIM with micro-SIM cutout) file:Sim card.png, A smart card taken from a Global System for Mobile Communications, GSM mobile phone file:Simkarte NFC SecureE ...

used on a European and North American model be from a carrier in that region. Samsung stated that the lock would be removed once a valid SIM card is used.

Communication processor

The baseband chipset of GT-N7100 is Intel Wireless PMB9811X Gold Baseband processor. The baseband chipset of SGH-T889, SHV-E250K, and SHV-E250S is

Qualcomm Gobi Qualcomm Gobi is a family of embedded mobile broadband modem products by Qualcomm. Gobi technology 2 was designed to allow for any product with the embedded solution to connect to the internet anywhere a wireless carrier provides data coverage. On ...

MDM9215. SHV-E250L has

MDM9615M for the

EVDO Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO, EVDO, etc.) is a telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access. EV-DO is an evolution of the CDMA2000 (IS-2000) standard which s ...

revision B connectivity.

Network connectivity

Most of the variants support

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such as ...

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Insti ...

EDGE Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

in the 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, and 1.9 GHz bands; and

UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the Inte ...

21 in 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1.9 GHz, and 2.1 GHz.

= AWS phones

= SGH-T889 and SGH-T889V are devices that support AWS-1 for HSPA networks capable of transferring data over

Advanced Wireless Services Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) is a wireless telecommunications spectrum band used for mobile voice and data services, video, and messaging. AWS is used in the United States, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, ...

band in

HSPA HSPA may refer to: * High Speed Packet Access, a mobile broadband technology * Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Education * High School Proficiency Assessment * Humphrey School of Public Affairs The Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Aff ...

mode on carriers such as

T-Mobile US T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas and Bellevue, Washington, U.S. Its largest shareholder is a multinational telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG, which , holds 48.4 perc ...

, and in Canada,

Wind Mobile Freedom Mobile Inc. is a Canadian wireless telecommunications provider owned by Shaw Communications. It has 6% market share of Canada, mostly in urban areas of Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. Freedom Mobile is the fourth-largest wirele ...

Mobilicity Data and Audio-Visual Enterprises Wireless, d/b/a Mobilicity, was a Canadian mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) owned by Rogers Communications. Its name was a portmanteau of the words "mobility" and "simplicity". Mobilicity was one of several ...

, and

Vidéotron Vidéotron is a Canadian integrated telecommunications company active in cable television, interactive multimedia development, video on demand, cable telephony, wireless communication and Internet access services. Owned by Quebecor, it primarily s ...

= CDMA/EV-DO phones

= SCH-R950, SHV-E250L, SCH-i605, SPH-L900, and SCH-N719 are to connect to

cdmaOne Interim Standard 95 (IS-95) was the first ever CDMA-based digital cellular technology. It was developed by Qualcomm and later adopted as a standard by the Telecommunications Industry Association in TIA/EIA/IS-95 release published in 1995. The ...

, CDMA 1xRTT, and

EV-DO Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO, EVDO, etc.) is a telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access. EV-DO is an evolution of the CDMA2000 (IS-2000) standard which su ...

rev 0/A/B. All models are additionally GSM capable with the exception of the SCH-R950. SPH-L900 can only use WCDMA/GSM services while roaming internationally due to it having an embedded SIM.

= TD-SCDMA phone

= GT-N7108 is to support

TD-SCDMA The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the Inte ...

networks in the 1.9 GHz and 2.0 GHz bands, and connect to the

1.9 GHz band.

= Dual-cell HSPA phone

= SGH-T889 is known to support dual-cell HSPA+ up to 42.2 Mbit/s.

= LTE phones

= * GT-N7105 is a LTE phone of the Philippine version, that can connect to LTE band 3, 7, 8, and 20 and has 42.2 Mbit/s DC-HSPA+. * SCH-i605 can connect to the LTE band 13,

Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divi ...

operates. * SCH-R950, SGH-i317 SGH-T889 SPH-L900, SC-02E (SGH-N025), and SHV-E250 ,L,Scan connect to the LTE bands of each locked carrier as well as the LTE bands of the other network operators as a roaming service. *GT-N7108D is a version similar to GT-N7108 but with LTE-TDD support. Also the

Qualcomm Snapdragon Snapdragon is a suite of system on a chip (SoC) semiconductor products for mobile devices designed and marketed by Qualcomm Technologies Inc. The Snapdragon's central processing unit (CPU) uses the ARM architecture. A single SoC may include mu ...

SoC was used in this version.

FM radio, digital TV tuner

Only some Galaxy Note II variants have a built-in FM radio tuner. For example, some US and Canadian variants (SGH-i317, SGH-i317M) and the LTE International version (N7105) lack the FM radio tuner support. SC-02E for Japan market has 1seg digital-TV tuner and antenna. Korean variants have the T-DMB tuner as well as the T-DMB antenna that can be concealed in the phone body.

Dimension and weight

Korean variants with the T-DMB tuner and the T-DMB antenna are heavier than other variants. SC-02E for NTT DoCoMo with 1seg TV tuner is heavier and thicker.

Wireless charging

Depending on the model, some Galaxy Note II (GT-N7100) units have the two optional charging pins on the back side of the device, just right of the battery holder, that can be used for wireless charging with the dedicated wireless charging back cover variant. Galaxy Note II displays the notification message built in the firmware when it is charged wirelessly. SCH-L900 does not have the pins. SGH-T889 has the pins, but they are disabled.

Table of variants

Notes

* The bolded frequencies in connectivities, are to support the released carriers' networks. * All frequencies listed are in MHz. * "GSM: quad-band" denotes "

: 850, 900, 1800, and 1900 Mhz bands". * "UMTS: quad-band" denotes "

HSDPA High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two mobile protocols—High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)—that extends and improves the performance of existing 3G mobile telecommunicat ...

HSUPA High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two mobile protocols—High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)—that extends and improves the performance of existing 3G mobile telecommunicat ...

: 850, 900, 1900, and 2100 Mhz bands". * "CDMA: dual-band" denotes " CDMA 1xRTT/ CDMA EV-DO Rev A/ CDMA EV-DO Rev B: 800 and 1900 Mhz bands"

Release and reception

Commercial reception

The Note II launched on September 26, 2012, in South Korea on three carriers and it was expected to ultimately arrive on 2760 carriers in 128 countries. It is now widely available in the market after its official launch on September 27, 2012, in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

, India. The Note II was officially launched in the UK on September 30, 2012, available to purchase exclusively from the Samsung flagship stores in Stratford and

White City White City may refer to: Places Australia * White City, Perth, an amusement park on the Perth foreshore * White City railway station, a former railway station * White City Stadium (Sydney), a tennis centre in Sydney * White City FC, a football clu ...

. It was then released to all major stores in the UK on October 1 on ThreeUK,

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

and O2 and at retailers such as

Carphone Warehouse The Carphone Warehouse Limited was a mobile phone retailer based in London, United Kingdom. In August 2014 the company became a subsidiary of Currys plc (previously named "Dixons Carphone"), which was formed by the merger of its former parent Ca ...

and

Phones4U Phones 4u was a large independent mobile phone retailer in the United Kingdom. It was part of the 4u Group based in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. Opening in 1996, it expanded to over 600 stores. On 14 September 2014, EE and Vodafone, ...

. It was made available for pre-order in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

on September 29, 2012, o
Erafone

Telkomsel PT Telekomunikasi Selular (trading as Telkomsel) is an Indonesian wireless network provider founded in 1995 and is owned by Telkom Indonesia (65%) and Singtel (35%). It is headquartered in South Jakarta. Telkomsel is the largest cellular tel ...

, and

Indosat PT Indosat Tbk, trading as Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, is a telecommunications provider in Indonesia which is owned by Ooredoo Hutchison Asia, a joint venture between Ooredoo and Hutchison Asia Telecom Group (a part of CK Hutchison Holdings) sinc ...

. Samsung's mobile chief Shin Jong-kyun expected to sell 3 million Galaxy Note IIs during the first three months of availability. Samsung announced that 8.5 million Galaxy Note II devices had been sold worldwide, based on supply as of November 25, 2012. By September 2013, approximately 30 million units had been sold.

Critical reception

In September 2012, PhoneArena.com said the device uses "the best phone screen Samsung has ever produced", noting the phone offers improved S Pen performance.

Stuff Stuff, stuffed, and stuffing may refer to: *Physical matter *General, unspecific things, or entities Arts, media, and entertainment Books *''Stuff'' (1997), a novel by Joseph Connolly (author), Joseph Connolly *''Stuff'' (2005), a book by Jere ...

awarded the smartphone 5/5 stars and ranked it number 1 in its "Top 10 Smartphones" section.

The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media' ...

awarded the smartphone an 8.5/10 rating and stated that "the Note II is an unambiguous upgrade over its predecessor and can even challenge the Galaxy S III for the title of best Android device". They praised the device's performance and its improved handwriting recognition while criticizing the dearth of S Pen apps. In September 2016, India's aviation regulator said a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 device sparked and smoked in an

IndiGo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...

airplane, which was on its way to Chennai from Singapore. Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation will send an advisory to airlines warning passengers to keep all Samsung Note smartphones switched off during flights or avoid carrying the phones on commercial jets altogether.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2 Samsung smartphones

Galaxy Note II The Samsung Galaxy Note II (or Galaxy Note 2) is an Android phablet smartphone. Unveiled on August 29, 2012 and released in October 2012, the Galaxy Note II is a successor to the original Galaxy Note, incorporating improved stylus functionalit ...

Mobile phones introduced in 2012 Discontinued smartphones Mobile phones with stylus Mobile phones with user-replaceable battery