T-Mobile scored a coup when they released their quad core Galaxy Note II phablet before the competition in the United States. The handset runs on their HSPA+ network at speeds up to an impressive 42 Mbps. Launching on October 24, the Galaxy Note II is the first Samsung mobile handset to deliver the much-anticipated Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system out-of-the-box. You have your choice of titanium gray or marble white body, and the Near Field Communications (NFC) support, smart stylus S Pen and native handwriting technology from the original Galaxy Note has returned.
The handset also delivers a quad core processor as one of the first handsets in the United States to do so, DLNA wireless video out is present, and the multimedia package includes a YouTube video player, built-in music player and Stereo FM radio with RDS display capabilities. Popular online destinations Facebook, Twitter and Picasa applications have been pre-installed, and the Samsung TouchWiz UI Android overlay meshes with Jelly Bean 4.1, accepting multitouch, capacitive gestures or the S Pen for device navigation.
Even with an oversized, extended life battery of 3,100 mA the handset is thin at 0.37 inches (9.0 mm), if not heavier than average for a 4G smartphone, at 6.3 ounces (179 g). The display on board is the largest you will find on any smartphone at 5.55 inches, and is protected by a scratch resistant layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 2. True HD viewing is built in with a 16 to 9 aspect ratio on that display, and resolution runs 720 x 1,280 pixels on the Super AMOLED screen.
Talk time on the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note II 4G runs nearly twice as much as is delivered by the average 4G smartphone at 15.0 hours, and standby time runs approximately 12.0 days. A Samsung Exynos 1.6 GHz quad core central processor is part of the microchip package, which also includes an ARM Mali-400 MP4 (Quad-Core) GPU. A full 2.0 GB of RAM system memory is present, as is 16 GB of built-in data storage. The microSD slot on board allows for storage expansion, accepting cards up to 64 GB.
Facing the Galaxy Note II user on the front of the handset is a 1.9 megapixel chat cam which allows for video calls and portrait snapshots, and around back is an 8.0 megapixel camcorder. That rear device provides video capture at 1,080P HD resolution, and contains a built-in LED flash, offering autofocus, a burst picture mode, panorama mode, face and smile detection and image stabilization.
