[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Silberpfeil3110:
Hello everyone!

Nearly everyone, who is reading this, will own a SAMSUNG Galaxy Note GT-N7000. Our beloved device is a real special phone with many functionalities, other phones doesn't have. But be honest. I am from a more mechanical-technical sector, like from car-planning and constructing.

And one very very important thing about cars is, the first car of a new type, like the new Mercedes A-Class, will have more faults than the last one. That's a proven thing, because over time, the developers change things because of the feedback.

So everyone who owns a Galaxy Note One is kind of a guinea pig or experimental rabbit. Name it as you prefer, but fact is:

Samsung built something from scratch with no feedback at first.

Thats' the FIRST thing why I thought, that I have to buy the Galaxy Note Two.

I fell so deep in love that I thought I must have this device although it's as expensive as three used, but well preserved Note One's.

I spent very much time for searching videos about this telephone and the specifications. I thought the phone is a real MUST HAVE, but after that, I found things that made me thoughtful.

That's why I am opening this thread. Everywhere you can read reviews where people are idolizing the Note 2 and everything that belongs to it. They say it's a real successor and so on. But there are no real objective comparisons between the old and the new one. But at first I want to say, that the Galaxy Note 2 is for sure a real great device and the name successor is partly given right. But not in all situations and circumstances.

Let's begin :cowboy: :

Size of the display and resolution:

> For everyone who don't know the difference between PenTile and normal matrix, please use Wikipedia.

When I heard that the Note 2 has a screen diagonal with 5,5" is was like OMG :cyclops: ! I must have it. After some time, I found out, that the resolution is less than before and so the density shrinks noticeably. I thought that's a minus point, but then I thought OKAY it's a normal RGB matrix so the difference could be acceptable. Then I thought I should compare that in real, so I drove to the next store, where I can play around with the Note 2 and I came to

the following conclusion

.

The density IS less but you

won't notice it really easy

. BUT. Yes, there is always a but. The RGB matrix shows a worse picture than the PenTile matrix. I couldn't believe it a first so I checked again with many different pictures. The Note One provides MUCH MUCH MUCH better clearly defined borders and more beautiful colours. Anyone who can't believe this now, check it out by yourself! The other point is, that pictures on the Note Two get some kind of grey stripes in vertical. That won't look nice and doesn't emphasize the potential of such a big screen. Fact is, that borders with a PenTile matrix a looking jagged, but they are clear.

EDIT:

It's not a RGB matrix, it's a non-striped BGR-matrix. And after some more comparison of the displays, I came to the conclusion, that the screen of the Note 2 is really better. The striped pictures were... I don't know where from. So the screen provides very natural colours and you won't see any bad things to mention. Just test it out by yourself!

Although both phones are not bad, this point goes to the Galaxy Note Two!

Ergonomics (phone itself and also stylus):

The S Pen is an invention that makes sense in every way. It's very comfortable to use it and makes life with our Note's easier most of the time. But the stylus of the first Note is not really good designed. If it's dark it's very hard to find the button on the stylus without holding it near to the display the get some light. With the stylus of the Note 2, there is not such a problem. The side with the button is flat. You will find the button very quick, although you won't look at it and in addition it's very comfortable to hold. Also the bigger size makes it a pleasure to use.

The design of the first Note is a little bit abstract. You need some time to get used to it, but after that, you can use the phone without problems. I know what I am talking about, because I changed from my Samsung Galaxy S2 to the Note. Today I am using my Note without problems also with only one hand. That won't make any problems at all. The buttons have their places and I am used to this phone. BUT... The Note 2 is in this case a real real improvement. The buttons are moved downwards a little bit, so you can reach them also if you are holding the device normal at the lower end. The width of the phone is PERFECT! You can type on the virtual keyboard with no problems AT ALL! So the screen ratio is a big improvement. Also the home button got raised a little bit, so it's easier to push it. Also the round corners make the phone very easy to hold.

Undisputed this point goes to the Galaxy Note Two. (That's also the point I wanted to mention at the beginning with car development.)

Hardware and it's potential:

Most of the hardware components haven't changed since the Note One, but there ARE improvements! The processor changed, the RAM, the Note 2 got Bluetooth version 4, NFC. I won't talk about BT4 and NFC because these are nice features, but commnly not in excessive use, that's why they are not important now. My Note One has nearly the same specs as my Acer 5253 notebook (regarding the processor), so that's not bad. 1GB of RAM is also not bad for Android, BUT it's not the world. It happens very often, that RAM is

full very quick

and if I juggle between more than four apps like browsing the web, then starting the music player, answering an SMS, reading an E-Mail and making a note, and then coming back to the browser, the phone has to completely reload the app. That can be very annoying. 2GB of RAM are a real enrichment. The processor of the Note One does it's job very good, I would say we should blame Samsung for their interface because of the stuttering sometimes. But the processor of the Note 2 is also a real diamond. It also works really good.

Although the specifications are speaking for the Note Two, that can't be the last consequence. The main difference is, that the Note Two comes with Jelly Bean and "Project Butter". The Note One provides Ice Cream sandwich with no "Project Butter". Also we know, that the memory management of Samsung is not the best, which are causing this stuttering. I don't have any of these problems on CM10 AT ALL! Also most of the apps won't unleash at least the potential of the Note One, so there is no real need for a quad-core processor.

AND there are also some points reagarding the whole phone market. Two years ago, phone's had only single-core processors. Computers already had quad- to octo-core processors. FACT IS that manufacturers were already able to build phones with quad-core processors in 2009, but they didn't because if they use every step, they can achieve more money. THAT'S A FACT! So don't get impressed of horsepowers. What count's is INTEGRITY! I was talking to a Samsung developer of SAMSUNG AUSTRIA and he told me, that the quad-core isn't a real improvement, because information processing get's worse per core. But that's too deep now.

So summarized, more cores are not always more performance.

To be fair, this question ends in a tie.

These three points are the main differences between the Note One and the Note Two.

I WON'T MENTION SOFTWARE-REGARDING IMPROVEMENTS BECAUSE MOST OF THEM

WILL COME TO THE NOTE ONE IN DECEMBER TO JANUARY.

And also I want to eliminate this common believe about the stylus and HOVERING!

Samsung told us, that the Note Two is able to recognize the stylus, although you are not touching the phone with it. WTH is new here? You can also hover with the stylus on the Note One! Test it out and open the XDA homepage and try to hover over the buttons of the page at the top (Quick Links for example).

You will see that it works.

Responses from YOU ALL I want to answer:

I talked about the ratio in ergonomics. The 16:9 ratio is in this way an improvement, because the phone got narrower. It's easier to write on the keyboard, also when you are not used to such a big phone. But in my opinion the 16:10 ratio is WAY BETTER for productivity. I compared the phones also in this way and came to the conclusion, that it depends on what you are doing with the phone. If you use it as a media center, you will love the 16:9 ratio, if you use it for office and productivity like I do, 16:10 is much better. And at the first sight, the Note One's screen looker bigger although that's not true. Only because is wider. Proven.

YOU ARE RIGHT! The S Pen and the stylus recognition is much higher, the Note Two will detect the stylus earlier than the Note One, but both are able to hover something. And AirView and all the features of the Note Two are ONLY software features. I said, that I don't want to mention them because the Note One will get them soon.

Yeah, I forgot that! The battery is very big, that's super for using your phone during the day. Some people already tested the battery and some mean you have more actove-time now, but that's partly a myth. The Note Two NEEDS the bigger battery because the RGB matrix has more subpixels to light. They display needs more power. But its true, the battery as blazing strong! More screen-on-time than I need :D ! And yes, the camera is faster now. The burst mode is a very attractive feature, like the Zeroshutter-Lag. I know much people like these features, I don't care about that, so I'd forgotten to integrate that into my post. FACT ist also, that the Note Two makes more natural pictures, while the Note One's pics are more yellow. And really I can't tell any difference in Audio Output/Input, so thanks for this information!

At first I want to especially thank your for your enlargement of this comparison! And I'm sorry of cutting your post, but therwise my post would get to long. So no, I don't have a Note Two but I really wanted to buy it and I spent much time playing around with one in a shop, so I tested everything in real. And the first point is also for me very interesting, the notification light! IMPROVEMENT IMPROVEMENT! I like it, that the Note Two has a notification light. Really! It's also nice, that you can change your microSD card, but in my case, that doesn't matter, I will tell you at the end of my answer why, because it could be also interesting for everybody here. And the louder speaker. As I already mentioned before I didn't know that, but it looks like the Note 2 has really a little bit better sound processing. And you are also right with the USB cable. It's not possible anymore to use old MHL-Connectors for example. They will fail. If thhe new pin configuration of the USB port was neccessary or only a new marketing gag... I don't know.

And regarding your space problem. I have also the 16GB version of the Note One. As I am using Google Play, my space can shrink very fast because I want to keep the music on my card in the cache. THE PROBLEM IS: Google Music only uses the internal memory, as also games does.

Here is the solution for you:

In system/etc/ there is a file called vold.fstab this file configurates the mounting points of your storages. You can simple change the mounting points of the microSD card and the internal memory and they are swapped with no disadvantages. That makes sense because I am using a 64GB microSD card and now my phone hast 64GB INTERNAL MEMORY. For detailed instructions, please PM me.

That's vice versa. The Note One has 1.9MP in front. But I don't think that this is a real improvement.

Thank you all for your answers and questions!

SUMMARY ON PAPER:

SUMMARY IN REALLIFE:

I hope I can clarify all the questions around this thorny topic.

If there are any other questions, please post it.

If they are important, I will include them in this post!

I am from Austria and English is not my native language.

I am feeling very sorry for my language rape :D !

If this is helpful or informative for you please hit the Thanks-button.

Best regards,

Gerhard