Xiaomi aims to be more than king of the budget smartphones

Posted on 01/11/2016 by Engadget RSS Feed

The day after the Mi Note 2 and Mi MIX launch last week, the flagship Mi Home store next to Xiaomi's headquarters was packed with visitors. Nope, they weren't there to spend their yuan, but to simply wait for their turn to play with the new phones. B...

Xiaomi’s curved Note 2 has a striking yet familiar look

Posted on 25/10/2016 by Engadget RSS Feed

It was only last month when Xiaomi launched the Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus, but the Chinese company is already back with yet another flagship model. What we have here is the Mi Note 2 which, as you can tell by the name, is all about its large 5.7-inch 1080...

Daily Roundup: iPhone 5s and 5c reviews, Cyber-shot QX10 review, iOS 7 now available, and more!

Posted on 18/09/2013 by David Fishman

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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Samsung Galaxy Note II for Verizon: what’s different?

Posted on 07/12/2012 by Brad Molen

The Galaxy Note II is a big phone that has attracted an even bigger following: Samsung shipped over 5 million units in two months, even before the holiday shopping season commenced in full force. And we don't expect the company to slow down either -- now that the device is available worldwide and on all four national US carriers (not to mention a regional player as well), Samsung's likely to pick up the pace exponentially. We've already painstakingly reviewed the Note II in all its glory -- twice, actually -- but Verizon's particular variant has a few key differences that are worth noting. What kind of carrier "enhancements" and other goodies can you expect as a reward for your 300 hard-earned dollars? How does the Note II match up against the rest of Verizon's lineup? Follow us past the break and we'll give you the full scoop.

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Note II (Verizon)

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Note II for Verizon: what's different?

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung, Verizon

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Samsung Galaxy Note II to arrive at US Cellular on Friday, pre-orders ship tomorrow

Posted on 24/10/2012 by Brad Molen

US Cellular has been offering the Samsung Galaxy Note II on pre-order for over a month now, but it just sent out an email clarifying that the device will be stocked on retail and virtual shelves beginning this Friday, October 26th. This falls in line with the "late October" timeframe we were promised; pre-orders, by the way, will also begin shipping tomorrow. As a recap, the Note II will only be available in titanium gray and with 16GB internal storage, and will cost $300 with a two-year commitment and $800 without one -- a huge difference, no doubt, given T-Mobile's $650 full retail cost. Tomorrow is the last day to pre-order if you're worried about facing inventory shortages or long lines on Friday. The best part? No silly logo on the home button (we're looking at you, Verizon).

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

Samsung Galaxy Note II to arrive at US Cellular on Friday, pre-orders ship tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 17:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint’s Galaxy Note II to arrive October 25th, with LTE and $300 price tag

Posted on 16/10/2012 by Sharif Sakr

Fancy being more than just a statistic on a Japanese balance sheet? Come October 25th, you can be a statistic and the proud owner of a stylus and an accompanying Note II to scrape it against. The Now Network just announced that it'll make the handset available to new customers and upgrade-eligible folk for $299.99 on a two-year contract, in either marble white or titanium gray. Expect to pay a significant monthly sum too, especially if you eventually want to exploit that Sprint-flavored LTE we keep hearing about.

Continue reading Sprint's Galaxy Note II to arrive October 25th, with LTE and $300 price tag

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Sprint's Galaxy Note II to arrive October 25th, with LTE and $300 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 09:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget UK Giveaway: win a Samsung Galaxy Note II courtesy of MobiCity

Posted on 08/10/2012 by James Trew

Samsung's Galaxy Note II is one of the biggest phones this year, both figuratively, and literally. The OG Note stretched palms when it arrived last 12 months ago, with its 5.3-inch display, and it proved so popular that Samsung did it all over again -- and a little bit more. Not only is it hot off the production presses, we've also got one to give away to a lucky UK reader, courtesy of the kind people at online retailer MobiCity. That's where to send the thank you card if it's your name out of the hat. And if it's not? Well perhaps peruse their many SIM-free handset deals and treat yourself all the same. Want to know if you're eligible to win? Head south for the rules, and then get involved!

The rules:

Leave a comment below. Any comment will do. Duplicate entries will be filtered out and discarded, so adding additional comments won't increase your likelihood of winning.
This contest is open to all UK residents -- aged 18 years or over! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so direct your anger at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
Winners will be chosen randomly. One winner will receive one (1) new Samsung Galaxy Note II. Service does not come included with the prize.
If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. Mobi-city and Engadget / AOL UK are not held liable to honor warranties or customer service.
The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here.
Entries can be submitted until 10th of October, 2012 at 23:59 GMT. Good luck!

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

Engadget UK Giveaway: win a Samsung Galaxy Note II courtesy of MobiCity originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Oct 2012 06:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Galaxy Note II for AT&T hands-on: an S-Pen phablet with 4G LTE (update: video)

Posted on 04/10/2012 by Joseph Volpe

AT&T's still keeping us in the dark about a hard date for the Galaxy Note II's release, but at least we know it's real and on the way. Confirmed to ship sometime this holiday season, this variant of Samsung's phablet refresh sports a 5.5-inch 1,280 x 720 HD Super AMOLED display, 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor, 8-megapixel rear camera capable of 1080p video capture, beefy 3,100mAh battery and, of course, a refined S-Pen. It's nigh unchanged from both the global and Sprint models we'd gotten hands-on with previously; a trend the OEM sparked off with the release of the GS III earlier this year. And in a move that augurs well for those of you averse to branding, there's no superfluous carrier logo blemishing its smooth white back.

If you thought the original Note was big and unwieldy, prepare to stretch your thumb even further up the display. Samsung added 0.2-inches to this update, while incorporating elements of its "famed" inspired by nature design that conspire to lend this handset a reassuring in-hand fit. On the lower right-hand side, you'll find a convenient slot for the S-Pen which, when removed, triggers an action menu that can be customized to launch selected apps. A large physical home button rests just below the expansive 16:9 screen and is flanked by capacitive buttons for menu and back, while the front-facing camera resides up above and hardware keys for volume and power are placed on the left and right edges, respectively.

On the software front, you're still looking at a TouchWizzed version of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, as well as some carrier-specific apps that come pre-loaded, like My AT&T, CodeScanner, FamilyMap, Navigator and Ready2Go. As you might expect from its quad-core Exynos, performance was smooth... almost buttery smooth, but we'd be remiss if we didn't mention a slight hesitancy between pulling out the S-Pen and the launch of that Smart Actions menu. Bear in mind, this is a pre-production model, so most of those kinks should be worked out by the time it launches this holiday season. Check out the video after the break.

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Note II for AT&T

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Note II for AT&T hands-on: an S-Pen phablet with 4G LTE (update: video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung, AT&T

Samsung Galaxy Note II for AT&T hands-on: an S-Pen phablet with 4G LTE (update: video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Oct 2012 17:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Galaxy Note II launches on three carriers in Korea

Posted on 26/09/2012 by Mat Smith

Looking for Samsung's latest big phone? Get yourself over to Korea, where the Galaxy Note II has kicked off its ~~launch~~ "world tour" with a party in the center of Seoul. The 5.5-inch Jelly Bean superphone will be available across SKT, KT and LG U+ carriers, supporting LTE connectivity on all three, available in 32GB and 64GB storage offerings. The Galaxy Note II will eventually arrive in 128 countries -- and we're expecting a US arrival date sometime in November, on even more carriers than its Korean debut.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Samsung Galaxy Note II launches on three carriers in Korea originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 07:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Galaxy Note II for Sprint hands-on

Posted on 21/09/2012 by Edgar Alvarez

All we know so far is that it's possibly coming to US shores at some point in November, but the good news is that Sprint brought along one of the world's most famous phablets to a press event in New York City and, better yet, we got to play with it for a little while. Yes, we're talking about the Galaxy Note II. Looks-wise, the Now Network's flavor of that 5.5-inch behemoth hasn't exactly changed much from the unit(s) we landed our hands on when it was first unveiled to the world, meaning there's no "Sprint" branding anywhere to be found on the plastic shell -- at least for now, and, frankly, we kind of hope it stays this way. With that being out of the picture, the oversized handset looked as shiny as ever in its Marble White attire, which is the only color Sprint was happily showing off for the night. And while this particular Jelly Bean-loaded Note II was capable of running on the carrier's new LTE network, we weren't able to test out out data speeds due to matters out of our reach.

On the software side of things, we didn't notice any major hiccups worth pointing out, with the experience being rather similar to the one during our first encounter with Sammy's second-gen Note -- or, in other words, it felt very, very snappy and overall great. That said, the carrier, as it did with the Galaxy S III, looks to be pre-loading the device with some of its own applications, including ones such as Sprint Zone and other third-party apps like Polaris Office 4. Naturally, we popped the obvious question to Sprint of when we could expect the device to legitimately become part of its lineup, to which the carrier told us that it'd be sometime "this holiday season." For now, it looks like the hands-on gallery below will have to suffice, but you can be sure we'll let you know as soon as we find out the official release date.

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Note II for Sprint hands-on