Though the original Samsung Galaxy Note eventually became the hit that it was in the smartphone competition, its initial release late last year was met with doubts regarding the device’s capability to make it big in the smartphone market. After all, people felt that they aren’t ready yet for a niche device like the phablet. However, the tables got quickly turned when these same doubters realized the advantages of the phablet’s massive screen real estate. Not only that, the fact that the components under the hood of the Samsung Galaxy Note were very impressive also added to its appeal.
Its successor, the Samsung Galaxy Note II, did not have to contend with doubters though. Prior to its launch, anticipation for the second generation Samsung phablet was already at an all-time high. No surprise here given the fact that it is “bigger” than its predecessor – bigger in size and bigger in specs.
During its unveiling a couple of months back, it was said that one of the major selling points of the Samsung Galaxy Note II is its multi-screen feature – a functionality that takes advantage of its massive screen real estate where users of the phablet can split the screen of the handset between two applications. There were reports however that came out a couple of days back that some units of the Samsung Galaxy Note II that got shipped did not have this feature activated. It was also reported that this issue was associated with Samsung Galaxy Note II devices running an older version of its firmware.
However, Samsung is quick to point out that it is on top of its game by rolling out a software update that enables the feature on affected Samsung Galaxy Note II handsets. As it stands, the Korean electronics giant is now in the process of unleashing an OTA update that will crank up the software version of the phablet to XXALIJ1 to enable the multi-screen feature on the handset. In addition to that, the software update also brings a new baseband version and Google Chrome to the Samsung Galaxy Note II.
With the way Samsung immediately stepped in to get things rectified, we are pretty sure that all variants of the Samsung Galaxy Note II that will be released in US shores will already have this feature right out of the box.
As for the Samsung Galaxy Note II, it is said to be the Samsung Galaxy S III on steroids. It is expected to ship with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean powered by its Exynos 4412 Quad chipset. This SoC gives the phablet a quad-core 1.6 GHz Krait processor and a staggering 2GB of RAM. It will be released in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB in terms of storage capacity and a user can still expand that by using the microSD card slot of the device. Its display on the other hand is a massive 5.5-inch SuperAMOLED HD panel with a 1280 x 720 resolution while its camera department mimics that of the Samsung Galaxy S III with its rear 8MP shooter and front 1.9MP snapper.
