Galaxy Note II review: The phablet sequel that turned a ridiculed idea into a runaway hit.
The phablet idea, vindicated.
Galaxy Note II took the once-mocked phablet concept and made it a blockbuster — a refined S Pen, quad-core power and a big removable battery. It sold tens of millions and confirmed that big-screen phones with a stylus were a category, not a gimmick.
01Display
74/100At 74/100 this is one of the strongest display showings among flagship phones of 2012 — 8 points above the cohort average.
02Camera
58/10058/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2012.
03Performance
60/100At 60/100 this is one of the strongest performance showings among flagship phones of 2012 — 7 points above the cohort average.
04Battery
70/100At 70/100 this is one of the strongest battery showings among flagship phones of 2012 — 10 points above the cohort average.
05Build
62/10062/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2012.
06Value
62/100At 62/100 this is one of the strongest value showings among flagship phones of 2012 — 14 points above the cohort average.
- Improved S Pen with Air View and gestures.
- Quad-core Exynos and 2 GB RAM.
- Big 3,100 mAh removable battery.
- microSD + jack.
- 720p on a 5.5" panel.
- TouchWiz felt heavy.
- Still large for one-handed use.
- Mono speaker.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 82-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .