Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Review (T-Mobile) - The Phablet Returns
by Brian Klug on October 24, 2012 9:00 AM ESTThe original generation Galaxy Note I played with was an AT&T model, and as a result was based around the same platform (I call a platform the combination of SoC and baseband) as the Skyrocket, which was AT&T’s SGS2 with LTE. That platform was Qualcomm’s Fusion 2 chipset, the very popular combination of a APQ8060 SoC (45nm dual core Scorpion at 1.5 GHz with Adreno 220 graphics) and MDM9x00 for baseband (Qualcomm’s 45nm first generation multimode LTE solution). The US-bound Galaxy S 3 variants were built around the successor of that platform, which was Qualcomm’s MSM8960 SoC (28nm dual core Krait at 1.5 GHz with Adreno 225 graphics and an onboard 2nd gen LTE baseband). The result was quick time to market with the latest and greatest silicon, improvements to performance, onboard LTE without two modems, and lower power consumption.
The Galaxy Note 2 does something different, and finally brings Samsung’s Exynos line of SoCs into devices bound for the USA where air interfaces are a combination of LTE, WCDMA, and CDMA2000. It’s clear that the Note 2 was on a different development cycle, and this time the standalone 28nm LTE baseband I’ve been talking about forever was available for use in the Galaxy Note 2, that part is MDM9x15, same as what’s in the iPhone 5, Optimus G, One X+, and a bunch of other upcoming handsets. If you haven’t read our other reviews where I’ve talked about this, the reason is that MDM9x15 is now natively voice enabled (MDM9x00 was not unless you ran with a Fusion platform), smaller, and lower power than its predecessor. The result is that there’s finally a multimode FDD-LTE, TDD-LTE, WCDMA (up to DC-HSPA+), EVDO (up to EVDO Rev.B) and TD-SCDMA baseband out there which doesn’t require going with a two chip solution. I could go on for pages about how this is primarily an engineering decision at this point, but the availability of MDM9x15 is why we see OEMs starting to finally ship handsets based around SoCs other than Qualcomm’s and also include LTE at the same time.
Anyhow, for a lot of people this will be the first time experiencing Samsung’s own current Exynos 4 flagship, Exynos 4412, which is of course quad core ARM Cortex A9s at a maximum of 1.6 GHz alongside ARM Mali–400MP4 built on Samsung’s 32nm HK-MG process. To the best of my knowledge, the Note 2 continues to use a 2x32 bit LPDDR2 memory interface, same as the international Galaxy S 3, though PCDDR3 is also a choice for Exynos 4412.
I’ve put together a table with specifications of the Note 2 and some other recent devices for comparison.
Physical Comparison | ||||
Apple iPhone 5 | Samsung Galaxy S 3 (USA) | Samsung Galaxy Note (USA) | Samsung Galaxy Note 2 | |
Height | 123.8 mm (4.87") | 136.6 mm (5.38" ) | 146.8 mm | 151.1 mm |
Width | 58.6 mm (2.31") | 70.6 mm (2.78") | 82.9 mm | 80.5 mm |
Depth | 7.6 mm (0.30") | 8.6 mm (0.34") | 9.7 mm | 9.4 mm |
Weight | 112 g (3.95 oz) | 133g (4.7 oz) | 178 g | 180 g |
CPU | 1.3 GHz Apple A6 (Dual Core Apple Swift) | 1.5 GHz MSM8960 (Dual Core Krait) | 1.5 GHz APQ8060 (Dual Core Scorpion) | 1.6 GHz Samsung Exynos 4412 (Quad Core Cortex A9) |
GPU | PowerVR SGX 543MP3 | Adreno 225 | Adreno 220 | Mali-400MP4 |
RAM | 1 GB LPDDR2 | 2 GB LPDDR2 | 1 GB LPDDR2 | 2 GB LPDDR2 |
NAND | 16, 32, or 64 GB integrated | 16/32 GB NAND with up to 64 GB microSDXC | 16 GB NAND with up to 32 GB microSD | 16/32/64 GB NAND (?) with up to 64 GB microSDXC |
Camera | 8 MP with LED Flash + 1.2MP front facing | 8 MP with LED Flash + 1.9 MP front facing | 8 MP with LED Flash + 2 MP front facing | 8 MP with LED Flash + 1.9 MP front facing |
Screen | 4" 1136 x 960 LED backlit LCD | 4.8" 1280x720 HD SAMOLED | 5.3" 1280 x 800 HD SAMOLED | 5.5" 1280 x 720 HD SAMOLED |
Battery | Internal 5.45 Whr | Removable 7.98 Whr | Removable 9.25 Whr | Removable 11.78 Whr |
The Galaxy Note 2 also is one of the first handsets on the market other than Nexus devices to ship running Android 4.1. This puts it at a definite advantage in some tests as we’ll show in a moment, both due to improvements from project butter and what appear to be even newer Mali–400 drivers. I pulled the Note 1 out of my drawer and updated it to Android 4.0.1 and ran all the same tests again.
First up are some of the usual JavaScript performance tests which are run in the stock browser. Anand added a few in, and personally I think we’ve got almost an abundance of JavaScript performance emphasis right now. Again this is strongly influenced by the V8 JIT (Just In Time Compilation) library bundled with the stock browser on Android. OEMs spend a lot of time here optimizing V8 to the nuances of their particular architecture which can make a substantial difference in scores.
The usual disclosure here is that Android benchmarking is still a non-deterministic beast due to garbage collection, and I’m still not fully satisfied with everything that is available out there, but we have to make do with what we’ve got for the moment.
Next up is GLBenchmark 2.5.1 which now includes a beefier gameplay simulation test called Egypt HD alongside the previous Egypt test which is now named Egypt Classic. Offscreen resolution gets a bump to 1080p as well.
Here we see Mali–400 MP4 performing basically the same as I saw in the International Galaxy S 3 which is no surprise — it is after all the same SoC. Other than a slight bump in the Egypt Classic offscreen performance numbers, there aren’t any surprises. We see Exynos 4412 putting up a good fight, but Adreno 320 in APQ8064 is still something to look out for on the horizon. I'd run Taiji as well but we'd basically just see vsync at this point.
Vellamo 2.0.1 is a new version of the previously well-received Vellamo test developed by Qualcomm initially for in-house performance regression testing and checkin, later adopted by OEMs for their own testing, and finally released onto the Google Play Store. This is the first time the 2.0 version of Vellamo has made an appearance here, and after vetting it and spending time on the phone with its makers I feel just the same way about 2.0 as I did 1.0. There’s still the disclosure that this is Qualcomm’s benchmark, and that stigma will only go away after the app is open sourced for myself and others to code review, but from what deconstruction of the APK I’ve done, and further inspection of the included jS, I’m confident there’s no blatant cheating going on, it isn’t worth it.
Vellamo 2’s biggest new thing is the inclusion of a new ‘metal’ test which, as the name implies, includes some native tests. This is C code compiled with just the standard android compiler and -o2 optimization flag into both ARMv7 and x86 code. There’s Dhrystone for integer benchmarking, Linpack (native), Branch-K, Stream 5.9, RamJam, and a storage subtest.
Exynos 4412 and Android 4.1 is definitely a potent combination, which puts it close to the top if not at the top in a ton of CPU bound tests. My go-to application with lots of threading is still Chrome for Android, which regularly lights up four core devices completely. Even though our testing is done in the stock browser (since this almost always has the faster, platform-specific V8 library) my subjective tests are in Chrome, and the Note 2 feels very quick.
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HanakoIkezawa - Friday, November 16, 2012 - link
I haven't had this problem with my note or with my sister's iphone4s with the Kia soul. have you tried going to the store to see i it defective or tried to see if it fails to work with other cars?I do agree that some kind of Bluetooth testing would be nice to see with future reviews
abhi.12 - Friday, November 9, 2012 - link
what is the response of galaxy note 2 with other languages like hindi. I am searching for a device in which i can take notes in hindi. Is it responsive enough to write.Random Guy99 - Thursday, December 13, 2012 - link
That the iPhone 5 is more powerful and has better battery life than the note 2 despite it having a battery 3 times larger and a quad core chip. The A6 must have far superior architecture and you can see how far optimisation goes and googles lack of it. I guess that's the problem that is bound to happen when one company doesn't make both hardware and software.MichaelEvans - Monday, December 24, 2012 - link
Just got a new Samsung Galaxy Note 2! Am thrilled!! I have a graphics design salon in New York and use it to doodle ideas while on the go. Then because I'm on AT&T's 4GLTE I send the doodles to myself at home and it’s very cool.anhminh1232002 - Tuesday, January 1, 2013 - link
Hello everyoneThe G-sensor doesn't seem to work when the screen is off.
I am using Note 2 Galaxy Samsung.
I tried Justflip to flip to turn on the screen. The screen wasn't on at all.
Please tell me if the is a fix for this bug.
Thank you.
mgrant - Sunday, February 24, 2013 - link
S-Note is pretty nice looking, and as you say OneNote is feature rich and you've got lots of content in it which you can get at if you install the OneNote Mobile app on your phone.But what about creating notes using the pen in S-Note? Is there some way to say store those notes in a Dropbox and get at them on the laptop? What would you edit them in? So far, about the only thing I've found is that you can export an image (pdf or jpeg) of the S-note note into dropbox and view the static image on your desktop. That's not so useful.
Is there anything out there that lets one have notes across platforms, that can use the pen, and preferably stores stuff in my existing dropbox account rather than making me pay yet another cloud storage service?
There's Evernote, but it doesn't work directly with S-Note. You can export a static image into Evernote as a sort of final resting place for the note, but this is unfulfilling at best.
Hanna - Tuesday, April 9, 2013 - link
How much does it cost?Hanna - Tuesday, April 9, 2013 - link
I mean the Galaxy note 2 or 3Hanna - Tuesday, April 9, 2013 - link
My mum does not want to buy 700 euros. So ...What should I do? How can I persuade my mum to it? HELP??!! PLEASE REPLY
SamJack - Monday, May 13, 2013 - link
this is awesome but i think NOte 3 will be the best ever !! as i read in this site : http://crackerpie.com/2013/03/22/samsung-galaxy-no...