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.
One of Samsung's biggest announcements at IFA on Wednesday was the , 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.
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.
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 being on the large side themselves, it no longer seems as outsized.
The Galaxy Note II also comes with various optional accessories, such as this multimedia dock.