Samsung finally sees its first carrier to sell the highly anticipated Galaxy Note 2, and it seems there is no big competition out there to take the shine.
T-Mobile is the first carrier to start selling the "phablet." It is offering the smartphone in Titanium Gray and Marble White for $369.99 with a two-year contract.
"Samsung innovation at it's best, the Samsung Galaxy Note II offers unmatched power with a large screen and new slimmer design. Create, produce, and share with this fun all-in-one device," the website said.
AT&T will start taking pre-orders on Oct. 25 and will release the phone on Nov. 9, and wil be cheaper than T-Mobile with a $299.99 price tag. No word for Verizon as of yet.
How big is the Galaxy Note 2? It seems like the answer is pretty big.
First, the specs are what everyone is talking about.
Samsung's "phablet" will feature a 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED screen and a rear 8-megapixel-auto focus camera with LED flash and front 1.9 megapixel CT camera. It has a 1.6 Ghz quad-core processor and 4G LTE data speeds. It is also expected to have Android 4.1 Jelly Bean pre-installed and come with the S Pen experience and comes with up to 64GB of memory with 2GB RAM and a microSD slow up to 64GB.
Apple seems like the biggest competitor to Samsung. Apple just revealed the iPhone 5 last month and on Tuesday unleashed their new 7.9-inch iPad Mini, which was also a highly anticipated device.
The Note 2 is a little cheaper than the iPad Mini, which sells for $329.99 for the 16GB while for AT&T the "phablet" sells for $299.99.
Autoomobile.com did a spec comparison between the Note 2 and the iPad Mini. It reveals that the Exynos processor and 2GB RAM beats the iPad Mini's A5 processor and 1GB RAM.
Also, with the ppi of 306, the Note beats the iPad Mini's 162 ppi which does no provide Retina Display. The comparison also notes that the Note 2 is better when it comes to the viewing angles on the screen than the iPad Mini.
"While the display of the iPad Mini looks superb based on its sheer size, it falls behind the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 in display technology as it cannot match the brightness levels, ppi, color vibrancy and deep blacks," the report said.
The Note 2 also beats the iPad Mini when it comes to its 8MP rear camera and 1.9MP front-facing camera. The iPad Mini comes with a 5MP iSight camera with a 2-megapixel camera in the front. Even though iPad Mini's camera has good image quality in low light conditions, the Note 2 wins because "it has a faster camera with better image reproduction. Then there is also the fact that it is easier to take picture with the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 than the iPad Mini."
Apple's iPad Mini does beat the Note 2 when it comes to apps. The Apple app store beats the Google Play because of a broader selection. Also, the Note 2 does not use tablet apps, rather it can access 600,000 Android apps made for phones.
Autoomobile also did a spec comparison between the Note 2, HTC One X+, and Nokia's Windows 8 Lumia 920.
The Note 2 won in four categories. It's Android Jelly Bean platform had much to offer than the other two. The S-Pen features added to the Jelly Bean performance, along with the "revolutionary multi-windows and the reinvented screen rotation."
It also won because of its powerful hardware, a 1.6GHz quad-core chip and 2GB of RAM, which ensures multitasking. The Note 2 also wins in the memory area. It has 64GB of internal storage as well as an SD card for expandable memory. It also has a 1.9MP front-facing camera, which beats the other two phones 1.3MP and 1.6MP.
Another area is dominates if the battery life. The Note 2 wins with a 3,100 mAh battery "that fits snuggle into its huge body."
So, what do you think about the Galaxy Note 2? Would you buy it over the other devices? Sound off below!