[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] ChodTheWacko:
I've had the Note 2 for a couple of weeks, and formerly owned the Note 1 since launch day. (roughly a year).

I do want to ask the OP - do you actually have one? Or are you just going by specs?

Here's my supplement to your review, based on my experience of using the note 2 so far.

Pros:

1) I have to admit, the note 2 is more comfortable to hold. Part of it is that it is less wide, but the corners are also rounder and it doesn't jab into your palm as much. Biggest surprise for me.

2) The s-pen is much nicer to hold, and the button easier to find and push. The CPU also makes the pen more responsive. This is a rather big deal if you are a s-pen user.

3) The hardware s-pen switch is quite nice. You can pull the pen out, scribble on the s-memo, and put the pen back in. S-memo automatically opens and closes, making the final result a LOT like pen and paper. Also, having the 'you forgot your s-pen' alert is REALLY nice.

4) The Note 2 is really really responsive. I don't know if it's a factor of the faster CPU, faster GPU, 2 Gig of memory, and/or JB. It's probably all of them together. I thought the note 1 was great, but the note 2 is just insane.

5) Notification light. At last. and you can customize the colors with lightflow.

6) Bigger battery is GREAT. I can't wait to see what the Mugen extended battery is - 6700 mah? gulp.

7) it sure is nice that the microsd card isn't blocked by the battery.

8) Side note on the memory - 2 gig over 1 gig, for me, is a huge deal. After bootup, I only have 1.1 gig memory left. That's with a custom rom that stripped out all the bloatware.

9) NFC - don't really use it to be honest

10) Bluetooth 4 - should save power over BT 3.

11) Signifigantly louder speaker

12) Much better sound chip.

13) Minor thing, but the Note charges a fair bit faster. It's a bigger battery, but stock charger is a 2A charger.

14) bigger screen, but only slightly - 4%. I quickly got used to the 16:9. It's not THAT different from 16:10 in day to day use. It's not like you went from 4:3 to 16:9 or anything. I still believe that using a standard resolution is a good thing in the long run, but that's just me.

15) Gorilla glass 2. I'm not sure if it's a big deal in the long run, as they might have just made the glass thinner to compensate for the extra strength.

16) Power button isn't so close to the corner, so you aren't accidentally hitting it so much.

17) Apparently no black crush.

There are, of course, the numerous software improvements that may or may not make it to the Note 1.

I'll list them for completeness, but they can be considered 'short term' improvements in the Note 2.

A) multi view

B) smart view (i.e. auto-rotate doesn't drive you crazy when you are lying down)

C) JB in general I guess

D) air view

for starters. Those I use all the time.

In short - I really loved my Note 1 but I recognized that it had lots of little annoyances/quirks.

I just accepted them, knowing that the original note was a brave new step into unknown territory.

The note 2 pretty much wiped out every single complaint I had about the Note 1, and made everything I liked about the Note 1 maybe 20% better. I find it very hard to find anything to complain about with regards to the Note 2. The only thing that comes to mind is that the USB port is weird, and some USB cables don't stay in well.

The only other major annoyance is JB's fault - that you can't use Apps2SD anymore. DirectoryBind is almost a requirement now if you play huge 1-2 Gig games on the 16GB note. (which only has 10 gig of app data space). That means rooting your phone (which I did, so I'm fine).

So for me the Note 2 was well worth the money. I had definitely really maxed out my note though, having about 300 apps/widgets on it.

If you're a lighter user, then it's a tougher call.

- Frank