Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Review (T-Mobile) - The Phablet Returns
by Brian Klug on October 24, 2012 9:00 AM ESTWhen it comes to video, surprise, the Galaxy Note 2 performs like a Galaxy S 3. Samsung has always had good video encode compared to the competition and the Note 2 is obviously no exception. I’m starting to suspect that M5MO is doing the video encode and thus how Samsung is able to keep 17 Mbps H.264 high profile looking so consistent across devices and different SoCs and time. This has been a feature they’ve touted for some time now and continues here on the Note 2.
Unfortunately I shot my video on the same day I took my bench photos and it was a bit overcast, which doesn’t quite match the sunny to very sunny views we’ve had in previous videos at the test location. Nevertheless despite the lighting changes the rear facing video quality looks pretty sharp to me. Front facing seems soft or undersampled for some reason compared to the 720p video I’m seeing out of some of the other high end smartphones I’ve recently reviewed.
Users coming from the original Note will also find that they have a much wider field of view on the Note 2 while shooting 1080p video thanks to the fact that the different CMOS and possibly different ISP firmware reads out. It doesn’t appear to be a center crop anymore like the original Note took, instead you get the wider but still not totally full field of view behavior of the Galaxy S 3 era camera.
As usual I’ve uploaded the videos from the front and rear video to YouTube for easy viewing and also provided the original untouched output from the camera in a zip file (167 MB) for your enjoyment if you don’t want to view samples through YouTube’s x264 transcode blockiness.
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MaziarKia - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Great review but the battery life results are kinda odd.In all GN2 reviews that I've read around the web,it performed better than any other phone(with the exception of Razr MAXX)
geniekid - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Where are these other reviews? Were they as rigorous with their testing as AT is?Not trying to call you out. I'm genuinely curious.
MaziarKia - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
gsmarena,phonedog etc.sherlockwing - Saturday, April 6, 2013 - link
It is completely possible for AnandTech's Battery test to be very unfair toward AMOLED display phones.jamyryals - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Brian and Anand have talked about this on their podcast recently. Specifically, the choices you make when creating a benchmark. They try to remove the bottlenecks, via benchmark design, that would unduly stress a certain aspect of the device (ie baseband). Their goal was to get as much of a mix in stressing components as possible. Sounds like a hard task given the very different hardware in these devices.The0ne - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Since the original, I've been waiting for the update and now that it's finally here I think it's time to upgrade my basic 8525 phone to the next generation "smartphone" and pay the fine..fees that comes along with it. I plan to make the most out of this phone for personal and business.1. Reading
2. Planning
3. Office apps
4. Music
5. Movies
6. Map/Travel
Having a larger screen just makes it much more appealing for all the stuff I want to do, especially reading. Just a personal taste mind you.
PeteH - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link
I notice your task list doesn't include phone calls. Maybe you should get a tablet instead.ascian5 - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Great review per usual Brian.Please get out the Lumia 920 ASAP! Heh. Until I can play with these phones in person, and likely even then, I'm really on the fence as to what phone to go with. This doesn't happen often with me and tech, but I'm really on the fence between these 2 devices.
OCN's_3930k - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
I spy razr i results... is it getting a review?wicktron - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
There's a severe lack of trolls on the comments section of this review. It's appalling. I miss the trolls that enter the Apple reviews and talk smack about Apple products being toys and the inability for them to be used for any real work. What happened here, guys? Where art thou, troll!?:(