Galaxy Note Tips & Tricks

Top 10 expected improvements in Galaxy Note 3

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exynos5Almost certainly, Samsung will announce the Galaxy Note 3 during (before) IFA 2013. Galaxy Note was announced during IFA 2011, Note 2 was in IFA 2012.

There are some leaked images and specifications circulating around. But none of them accurate, because Samsung surely produced several prototypes for evaluation. A few additional prototypes may be just to confuse competitors.

Based on Samsung’s track record in Galaxy S series and Galaxy Note series, it is certain, that Galaxy Note 3 will be an “upgrade” to Galaxy s4, not just an upgrade to Galaxy Note 2. This is the product strategy for Samsung. When S4 was released, there is about one year time for competitors to beat S4 with newer hardware. Note series at least shorten this window to 6 months.

So, what will be seen in Note 3? Here is the top 10 list.

1. Full HD display

Galaxy Note 3 will surely have full HD (1080p) screen. And it will surely be Super AMOLED made by Samsung. Early this year, before Galaxy S4 was announced, there was a rumor that Samsung had problems with full HD on AMOLED.  S4 stopped this rumor.  So, Samsung definitely has no problems to produce full HD AMOLED display in a bigger screen.

Full HD on a 5″ screen like S4 may be a waste. But for a 5.7″-6″ screen, the pixel density (arounfd 370ppi) is human eyes’  limit.  More pixels will be just wasted.

For Galaxy Note 2 users, it is an upgrade from HD 720p to 1080p.

2. Exynos 5 Octa  5420 processor

Exynos 5 Octa 5420 will very likely be used on Galaxy Note 3.  This is an improved  version of Octa 5410 found in Galaxy S4.  The 1.8 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 and 1.3 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 provide 10% more CPU raw power than 5410. But the most significant improvement of 5420 is its GPU. It will pack the latest ARM Mali-T628 MP6 GPU, which provides 130 GFLOPS at 667MHz. The  OCta 5 5410 only has IT PowerVR SGX544MP3, which provides 51.2 GFLOPS.

If we compare this processor …

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Who stole my butter? Solving slowness probelms in Galaxy Note after Jelly Bean update

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slow-jelly-beanJelly Bean 4.1 updated for Galaxy Note has been rolled out in phases since February 2013. This update brings Galaxy Note owners many excited improvements, new features and apps. Some of the new features were explained in  the Top 12 new features you should try after getting Jelly Bean 4.1 update for Galaxy Note.

However, some users reported serious slowness issues after the Jelly Bean update in their Galaxy Notes. It seems the Project Butter is nothing, or Samsung stole our butter.

What are the causes, and what are the solutions?

First, Galaxy Note is powerful enough for running Jelly Bean smoothly. 1GB RAM, and dual core 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Dual 4210 chip are still decent hardware specifications even after1.5 years. A lot of middle range Jelly Bean handsets has far less powerful hardware specifications.

So, do not suspect your hardware. Jelly Bean is not hungry for hardware. Any hardware that can run Ice Cream Sandwich should meet the requirements of Jelly Bean. A lot of manufactures do not give Jelly Bean update simply because  they do not want to put more resources on an old model. In this sense, Samsung did an excellent job.

The slowness problem in Jelly Bean update lies on the update itself. When you update the system, most of your old settings will be kept, some are necessary, some are unnecessary . Some of these settings are fully compatible with Jelly bean; some are compatible  but with degraded performance. For the known incompatible settings, the update will handle them. The biggest issue is that some old settings are not compatible to the new OS/ROM, but it is unknown yet.  Therefore, for the slowness caused by such problematic settings, a factory reset will solve the issue.

Please be careful when performing the  factory reset because it will erase your internal storage. You need backup all your data in the internal storage, including your contacts and messages. Apps can be re-installed, but the settings will be gone. If you have rooted your phone, you can use Titanium Backup  to …

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Galaxy Note 8.0: the largest smartphone in the history!

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Galaxy Note family now has a new member: Galaxy Note 8.0.

galaxy-note-8It is different from Galaxy Note 10.1, which is clearly a tablet. It is simply a larger version of Galaxy Note 2, a giant phone.

So, this is a smartphone, at least, not a pure tablet. This can be easily identified by: 1). an earpiece and, 2).the iconic Home button and two navigation keys.

The major difference to Galaxy Note 2 is the odd location of the speaker. In Galaxy Note 8.0, it is in the bottom, not on the back. Designer may come from the Mars.

Specification wise, this is surely not a top-notch smartphone or tablet. It is merely a not-so-bad device, based on today’s standard. Under the hood, you get a 1.6GHz quad-core A9 processor (it should be a Exynos 4XXXX), a 2GB RAM, a 1280*800 PLS display, a 16/32GB storage, a 4600mAh battery.

The weight is only 338g, thanks to its full plastic exterior, except display and bezel. Typical Samsung style.

The good news for Galaxy Note and Note 2 users is now you finally can use S Pen  for the menu and back buttons. You also get a new reading mode to make your reading more comfortable.

The bad news is it runs on Jelly Bean 4.1.2 (just like most Note 2 and Note 10.1), not the latest 4.2.2. Disappointed, although you will very likely get the update later.

More disappointed, the battery is not removable.

The most disappointed: the main camera has no flash. So you can guess its quality. The 5MP tag reminds you the price is not in the cheap side.

However, if you compare this giant phablet with the tablet with similar form factor (e.g., iPad mini). It is actually quite decent.

So, the imaginary competitor of this Galaxy Note 8.0 is not smartphones, but 7-8″ tablets.

Samsung probably hopes this giant phone will be the king or queen in this form factor. This could have been true if the specifications were slightly elevated.

It looks stupid to hold this giant phone near …

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