Samsung's Galaxy Note II gets smarter: hands-on

The Korean manufacturer's 'phablet' now comes with Jelly Bean, beefed-up internals and a more functional stylus.

By David Meyer, Contributor Aug. 30, 2012 at 3:36 a.m. PT

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One of Samsung's biggest announcements at IFA on Wednesday was the Galaxy Note II, a successor to the mid-sized device released one year ago at the same show.

The new Note comes with a quad-core processor and Android Jelly Bean, making it as up-to-date as could be hoped for.

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A lot of the innovation in the Galaxy Note II comes in the functionality attached to the improved S Pen stylus.

The stylus can now make specially-recognised gestures on the screen, while hovering over certain types of content with the S Pen can bring up previews.

Samsung has added other tricks too, such as bringing up a notepad just by withdrawing the stylus from the body during a phonecall.

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When the original, 5.3-inch-screened Note came out, it drew a bit of mockery for being small for a tablet and big for a phone.

The new version has a 5.5-inch screen. But somehow, with many new Android smartphones such as the Galaxy S III being on the large side themselves, it no longer seems as outsized.