I am a big fan of gadgets/devices and owning the latest and greatest is my forte. I don’t care if I eat out or dress well as long as I have the coolest gadget in town.
From when I was a kid from owning my first video game - a Nintendo game and watch to Casio game watches, Atari, MSX AX170, A Macintosh LCII, a 16MHz processor computer(installed doom in 16 diskettes at that time, lol! but did not work), Palm m100, Sony Clie SJ-33, Mobilink pagers, mobile phones from Nokia to Sony Ericsson to Panasonic, and then the birth of the smart phones. The first ever smartphone that I remember I had owned was the Reliance LG-RD2030. I call it the first smart phone because it gave access to media on its shabby little grey scale screen and even access to email. It was awesome to flaunt video songs and music over CDMA to friends and family.
As the 2G spectrum grew, many more companies started to take advantage and provide Java content and access to internet. This is when I moved to Airtel and started using the Nokia phones(Nokia 6131) and Motorola(Motorokr E6) for accessing internet and email on the go.
My first ever full featured smartphone was the Nokia E63. After which I bought the Nokia N8 and then moved to the Galaxy Note which gave me access to all the information I ever wanted on the go on a 5.5 inch screen and with 3G too. I had the handset for about 8 months and exchanged it for the Note 2 in October 2012.
I wanted to wait till I write this review so I can explain in detail about the features and short comings of this phone.
To start off with the features of the Note 2:
Amazing power(1.6GhZ Quad Core) and RAM(2GB).
16GB built in with expandable to 64 GB. So far I am happy with the extended 16GB card.
The display is amazing. I always keep it on auto brightness.
Fast and reliable 3G and wifi connectivity.
S-Pen, really helps when you want to draw, or take notes on the fly.
The 3100 mAh battery that gives you over 24 hours of juice with full access.
Over the air connectivity Kies and the portable Wi-Fi hotspot feature.
Jelly bean with Project butter(for awesome smooth scrolling of on the screen).
Battery usage. The processor has an amazing AI to conserve battery when not in use. For example at night the battery drops only 1% when idle.
Lucidmike78 has awesome videos on youtube on how you can best use the Note 2. He has this video on how to make the most of the battery. Taking his advice, I bought a spare battery and charger from in.mobilefun.com and I always have a spare battery(100% charged with me always)
Link: https://in.mobilefun.com/36364-genuine-samsung-galaxy-note-2-extra-battery-kit-eb-h1j9vnegstd.htm
The only thing that I see as a shortcoming is the ability to transmit audio over FM like the Nokia N8.
But then again, for the features it already gives access to asking for the FM transmitter, I feel, is too demanding.
I recently bought the Galaxy Tab 2 P5100 for which I will be reviewing another time.
Waiting anxiously for the Note 3, but pretty much satisfied with the Note 2 for now.