Got the phone delivered yesterday. The first thing I did was put on my SGP Ultra Oleophobic screen protector on and pop it into my Samsung TPU case after putting my SIM and micro SD card into the phone. I had several things going on so spent many hours at different times setting it up the way wanted then charged it overnight.
My first impressions are:
I like the size and holding it. It is a bit narrower than the OG GNote, so it feels better in my hand. I definitely like the home button better than the one on my SGSIII, it I bigger and sturdier and gives better feedback when you press it. The screen is nice. It could be the lighter wall paper contrasted with the darker wallpaper on the OG Galaxy Note but the screen did not blow me away as much as my OG GNote did back in December 2011. It is a nice screen but I am not sure what I expected from the non pentile screen on the GN2.
There are a ton of settings on this phone. I am very familiar with touch wiz and the number of settings is a bit overwhelming initially. Also changing things like the icons on the lock page etc are a bit different. I was surprised to see the screen mode settings, which is usually taken out for US variants. The default number of screens is three, which you can increase. Like the SGSIII, the default setting on the front camera is not the highest resolution so you have to change that if you want 1.9 mp on the front facing camera. Also the camera settings are a bit different from the SGSIII. You can record video in a variety of formats including slow motion. Of course you can snap pictures while taking video. I recommend the app frame grabber (paid) if you want to get picture from video already taken. Also disappointed that you cannot remove at least some of the ATT bloatware in the stock form. I already had the ATT Visual voice mail app on my SGSIII, so I just added it from the app store. It is working fine. I also tried to add flash player from my list of apps in the play store but it said it was not compatible with my phone. I have the APK and can add but will hold off a bit. Has anyone added the flash APK to their GN2?
The updated S-Pen is amazing. I am still trying to figure out all the functions. There are a lot of videos on you tube that can show you most of the features. I see a lot of useful applications here.
The UI is smooth. I thought it might be way faster than my SGSIII based on reports, but I think they are about the same. It is certainly smoother than my OG Galaxy Note. I disabled the S voice double click from the home button as well as set Window and transition animation scales to .5 from 1. This speeds up the screen transitions a bit. I have not had much time out on the town to see the LTE but the wifi is good and the signal looks better inside my house than my SGSIII. I did use the navigation yesterday to take my daughter to a birthday party and it was flawless. I used the GN2 in my iottie car bracket for the Galaxy Note. It worked flawlessly and is $20 on Amazon. I did not really get the chance to use it with my car?s Bluetooth so I am looking forward to doing that. Also I have had a few phones calls and the headset volume is fine and the speaker really improves on the OG Galaxy Note. For the first time I thought max volume might be a bit too loud lol!
I am looking forward to spending more time and getting more familiar with the GN2 and know it is going to be a great device!
Hopefully you all are enjoying your new GN2 as much as I am.