Flaunting once again its new-found tech prowess, Korean electronics firm Samsung held an extravagant product launch at the Marriott Hotel in Pasay City on Tuesday night to officially unveil in the country its Galaxy Note II smartphone and the Galaxy Camera.
The tech firm, however, said the Galaxy Note II will become commercially available on October 20, while the Galaxy Camera will hit local stores in November.
The Galaxy Note II features a 5.5? (140.9mm) HD Super AMOLED screen, with a screen ratio of 16:9, which can be used for viewing HD videos on-the-go.
Its best feature, however, is its ability to launch multiple windows on one screen. Users don’t need to close applications to launch new ones. When users are completing a task in one application, they can immediately load another application on the screen.
Multiple applications are stacked on the screen like multiple windows and users can switch among applications. It lets them flip from task to task quickly, but it doesn’t clutter up the rest of the display.
Its new S Pen is now longer, thicker, and ergonomically designed for the perfect grip.
Air View allows users to hover with the S Pen over an email, S Planner, image gallery, or video to preview the content without having to open it. This feature gives users quick access to search and view more information in detail without screen transitions.
By pressing the dedicated S Pen button, the S Pen magically that users want to clip or edit the selected content on the screen. The Easy Clip feature allows users to outline and crop any content on the screen in any shape to save, share or paste. Once done cropping the image, users can freely edit the cropped content through coloring, shading, or their own personal handwriting.
Popup Note lets users open an S Note instantly as a pop-up window anywhere on the screen. When a user pulls out the S Pen during a phone call or double taps the screen while holding the S Pen button, the S Note application automatically pops up on the screen, allowing users to jot down a personal message. Users can also personalize photos by leaving handwritten memos on the backside of a photo using the S Pen.
In addition, the device’s new gesture pad feature, called Quick Command, lets users activate frequently used apps with the S Pen. The command pad appears when a user swipes upward on the screen with the S Pen button pressed. Users can send an email, make a call, or search a location as they draw pre-registered marks on the command pad or register a unique mark.
A feature called Popup Video extends the concept of “Pop up play”. While watching a video, with the touch of a button, the video will become a floating window on the display. The video will continue to play and it can be resized and repositioned to any part of the Galaxy Note II’s screen. This versatility means that users are free to load other applications beneath it to send SMS, browse online, chat with friends or plan a day.
The Galaxy Note II comes with a 1.6GHz Quad-Core processor, and has HSPA Plus connectivity. The Galaxy Note II is powered by Android 4.1, Jelly Bean OS. This brings graphical capabilities and an upgraded Google Now service, including new features such as contextual search to the Galaxy Note II.
The phone comes with 16GB internal memory and a microSD slot (up to 32gb). Its 3,100mAh battery allows users to enjoy the phone in a number of hours.
The Galaxy Note II comes with an 8 Megapixel rear-facing and 1.9 megapixel front-facing camera with HD video recording. The camera has features like Buddy Photo Share, Burst Shot and Best Photo, which were introduced on the Galaxy S III earlier.
In addition, the Galaxy Note II features a unique camera function called Best Face. Best Face allows users to choose the most preferred face of each person from group portrait photos.
Smart Stay, which was first introduced on the Galaxy S III, uses the front camera in the Galaxy Note II to prevent the device from going into standby mode while it detects a user in front of the device.
With AllShare Play, users can share content with a large group in real-time by connecting the Galaxy Note II to Samsung HD TVs, phones, mobile tablets, laptops, and other consumer electronic devices on the same network. AllShare Cast allows users to share and collaborate on documents, presentations, or images in real time, without loading files separately.
The Samsung Galaxy Note II is available via operators. It comes in two colors: Ceramic White or Titanium Gray.
“Camera, Reborn”
The new Galaxy Camera, meanwhile, is a hybrid product composed of, well, a digicam and a phone.
It runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and boasts of a 21x optical zoom lens and a 16M BSI CMOS sensor. It is equipped with 1.4GHz quad-core processor.
The device features “Smart Pro” technology, a series of modes that make professional-looking photography easy for anyone to achieve. Since it runs on Jelly Bean, it can tap applications for photo-editing, instant sharing, among others.
The camera’s “Smart Pro” allows users to choose from a series of preset scenario options which will automatically adjust the camera’s settings in order to capture the perfect photo.
For example, the “Rich Tone” setting delivers images with greater intensity — particularly effective for reducing overexposure in bright surroundings, while the “Light Trace” setting automatically controls shutter speed for atmospheric night scenes full of light trails.
The Galaxy Camera’s 21x optical zoom can be controlled by either button or touchscreen, rendering long-distance pictures in a quality that users will be proud to share, while OIS ensures that images stay clear and crisp.
The Galaxy Camera boasts large camera display — a 4.8?(121.2mm) HD Super Clear LCD screen.
Another feature of the smartphone is the Voice Control option which allows the user to control a number of functions such as “Zoom in” and “Shoot” through voice.
The Galaxy Camera includes a set of 35 photo editing features through the “Photo Wizard”, allowing users to make quality edits on the go. The ?Movie Wizard? also allows users to create and edit videos from the touch screen.
The Galaxy Camera also features “Smart Content Manager”, an on-device organization tool which creates folders, tags faces, and even suggests which pictures to delete when they don’t come out as desired.
In addition to the pre-installed applications from Samsung, users can browse the Web and enjoy applications from Google Play or Samsung Apps stores. If users are not sure which app to download, “S Suggest” will help them recommend a new photo editing app or fun game to download.
The camera’s “Auto Cloud Backup” feature will automatically upload photos in real-time to Cloud to auto save them top photo library without PC connection. The Galaxy Camera’s Share Shot feature also allows users to share photos with other Wi-Fi Direct enabled devices within range. The new connection to 3G (via SIM slot) and Wi-Fi, allows photo sharing and browsing.
Samsung said the Galaxy Camera is currently the only digital imaging device that is powered with various connection features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct, AllShare Cast and a 3G SIM.
Samsung did not provide pricing for the Galaxy Camera. It will come in two colors: Black and White.