Galaxy Note vs Galaxy S2: Battle of Samsung Heavyweights

The Samsung Galaxy Note (with the S Pen) is a remarkable gadget. It has a large 5.3-inch display which allows users to see more while on the move and the S Pen allows them to write notes, sketch and browse the Internet. The Korean giant is set to offer a Premium Suite upgrade in the second quarter.

The Galaxy S2, on the other hand, is easily the company's most popular smartphone thanks to its dual-core processor, voice talk and Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

Check out the specs of both smartphones

Display:

The Galaxy Note touts a gorgeous 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED display with a whopping resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels at 285 pixels per inch (ppi). The screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass and includes a TouchWiz 4.0 User Interface (UI).

In comparison, the Galaxy S2 comes with a Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen that offers a resolution of 800x480 pixels. The 4.3-inch device incorporates Corning Gorilla Glass as well as touch-sensitive controls. In addition, the TouchWiz 4.0 UI features enhanced improvements such as hardware accelerations and gesture-based interaction.

Processor:

Both smartphones have the Exynos chipset as well as the Mali-400 MP GPU. With support for 2D vector graphics via OpenVG 1.1 as well as 3D graphics though OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0, the Mali 400 MP offers a complete graphics acceleration platform, maximises battery life and minimises heat dissipation.

More specifically, the Galaxy Note is powered by a 1.4 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core CPU and the S2 has a 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core processor.

Camera:

Both smartphones come with an eight-megapixel rear-facing camera with a resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels. The camera in the Galaxy Note features AutoFocus, LED flash and can adjust itself to take panorama, action and smile shots. It offers a two megapixel front-facing camera for video chats as well as 1080p video recording.

In contrast, the Galaxy S2 features, in addition to AutoFocus and LED flash, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and image stabilisation. It also provides a two megapixel secondary camera and video recording at 1080p.

Operating System:

Both the Galaxy Note and the S2 run on the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system. It can be upgraded to the latest OS - Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0, which features multitasking, rich notifications, customised home screens and widgets.

Storage:

The Galaxy Note offers 16GB of internal storage. The Galaxy S2 comes in two models - 16/32GB of storage. Both devices have a microSD card slot for additional memory up to 32GB.

Battery:

The Samsung Galaxy Note has a Li-Ion 2500mAh standard battery. It supports standby time of up to 960 hours on 2G and 820 hours on 3G networks. It allows for talk time of up to 26 hours 10 minutes on 2G and 13 hours 30 minutes on 3G networks.

In comparison, the Galaxy S2 comes with Li-Ion 1650mAh standard battery. It offers standby time of up to 710 hours on 2G and 610 hours on 3G networks and talk time of up to 18 hours 20 minutes on 2G and 8 hours 40 minutes on 3G networks.