On The Go Solutions Blog

The Galaxy Note we reviewed a few weeks back is now available on T-Mobile’s fast 4G Network! Yes, there was the unlocked version prior, but the full 4G speeds of T-Mobile were not available…until now. A hacker over at XDA was able to create a hybrid radio which now enables the Galaxy Note to have full 4G HSPA+ speeds on T-Mobile. Have to love the development community right? Either way, it’s available now, to anyone who wants it!

The process may seem a little scary, but the benefits far outweigh the potential for a brick, but that’s what we’re here for! This is also a milestone for developers as it gives us users hope to have more phones ported over to be completely functional on other networks without the carriers say so! Only at On The Go Solutions can you have the best rooting services, upgrade services, and customer service! If you have T-Mobile, and want this phone, be sure to contact our sales team at Sales@onthegosolutions.com!

So, on Android Market Google Play there are a variety of Music players to replace your stock Android player, some of which request your hard earned money, some offer you a trial and some others are completely free, today i have compiled three of my favourite to review for you which are Poweramp, PlayerPro and N7 Player.

First up; PowerAmp

As you can see, clean player, big buttons which are all easily accesible, this feels to me to be the most suitable for use in the car just to tap or swipe across to change songs while driving, i’ve used each player i’m reviewing in the car and this for me was the easiest to use providing you’ve already set your playlist up beforehand.
There are a variety of settings for you audiophiles to tweak your audio to your hearts…or ears consent, You can edit all your frequencies, all the way up to 16KhZ, tone, Pre set equalisers, set limits and the balance, etc etc.
What i don’t like about this player and why i don’t use it is because it simply is not aesthetically pleasing in my opinion.

The UI is rather simplistic with menus to navigate to find your music which i don’t like, it took me a while to get used to finding my music, and the lack of Album and Artist Artwork in the Menus kind of spoiled it for me, if this doesn’t bother you, then this is a great player none the less.

Next up; N7 Player

This is the only one which is free (For now) In my opinion this is the best looking Music player out of the three and i now use this as my daily player over my stock player, it has a very intuitive user interface, displaying all of your albums in an exploded view with the names of the artists laid over them, you can then pinch to zoom in (As you can see in picture 2) and then you can select the album you wish to play, or with a long press you can edit your selection, add to the playlist or play after the current song, etc.

The Equaliser Settings are rather more simplistic, with less sliders to tweak your audio as finely as PowerAmp, but it’s not a big deal as you can see it still stretches from 100HZ to 13KHZ
Also, somthing i LOVE about N7 music player is the Input from the Developers, you are able to submit a report (as you can see in the picture above) to suggest something that needs adding or bugs that need resolving, i have done this twice, and within a week they were added, what i asked was for SRS to be added and for the Shuffle Track order to be resolved, and voila within a week they were done, Props to them for that.
What i don’t like is that Lock screen it has which is very simple and clunky, so i choose to turn that off, but hey i suppose if you suggest it to them it could get better.

Last up; PlayerPro

I think this is what PowerAmp Should be, it’s very similar in most senses however it includes those things that i find should be present in PowerAmp, The Album artwork, the easy to navigate simple Menus and the just overall feeling that it’s more intuitive to use.

There are extra’s you can download or customise such as Skins, Effects, screen options The lock screen etc. (The lock screen of this player is my favourite)
The Equaliser of this player may be the least refinable of the three with limited options however the Presets available do a great job to matching your listening style, also with the addition of HTC sound enhancement it does the job very nicely.

Verdict
If you are looking for a Great all round Player that is different and Intuitive to use with regular updates for the developers then N7 player is for you, if you prefer a simple clean to use Player then either firstly PlayPro is for you or Poweramp.

Let us Know what you think in the comments section and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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What IS a Kernel?

I kernel was first created back in the 70′s for UNIX computers so that applications can communicate with your hardware, in the most popular way, your processor. As I’m sure most of you know, Android is another form of LINUX and has all of the LINUX benefits and almost none of the drawbacks. A Kernel is NOT an OS, it’s only a part of the ROM you install. You don’t hear too much about flashing kernels as much as you do about flashing ROM’s, but they can do wonders for your phone. So today, you’ll be learning more about kernels, and how to flash them using the tools we already use to flash ROM’s!

Performance

This is easily one of the best features about Rooting, ROM’ing, and flashing a new Kernel to your phone. So you have your old phone, 550Mhz dual core (Motorola Droid for example) and you’ve just rooted your device finally, and you want to have all of the awesome benefits that come along with it. Do a little research, and you find that you can “OVERCLOCK” your phone to 1.3Ghz. Almost 3 times as powerful now, and this is why most people that root their phones consider it “Future Proofing” their device. So now your 2 year old device is now just as powerful as a the device that just came out. All because you flashed a 5mb kernel that took less than a minute to accomplish.

Battery

A huge factor in a judgment of a devices worthiness, is the battery life. It can make or break a review in most cases, and a huge reason why people avoid certain phones. And sadly, the more powerful the phone, the better battery it requires. Let’s say for example, you have a 1Ghz Dual Core device. This phone, whether you’re using it or not, is ALWAYS running at 1Ghz, and both cores are running. When flashing a new kernel, you now have the option to UNDERCLOCK it, and you don’t have to do anything explicitly to accomplish this either. Flashing a new kernel always has the default CPU speeds set by the developer, and a lot of times, you don’t have to do anything else. But we all have custom needs, you may want the CPU to always be at MAX, or you may just want a phone that never dies. You can use programs which we’ll get to later to adjust your perfect settings.

Governors

To make your life easier, Kernels include pre-set “Governors”, and each Governor does something different than the other. For example, one of the most common Governor you’ll come across is HOTPLUG; this governor will turn off all the other cores of the processor when the device is in standby (while you’re asleep or not using it), and another one ONDEMAND, which lowers the CPU to its lowest setting while not in use, but keeps your cores on until you start using your device again, and will scale to your usage. Pretty sweet right? There’s a Governor for every person, and if you have an unlock-able boot loader on your device, you can flash as many kernels as you want until you find one you like!

How do you FLASH a Kernel?

Well if you’re using ROM MANAGER, you just go in there, find your Kernel you just downloaded in the directory, and ONLY wipe your DALVIK CACHE. Your DALVIK CACHE is all about your Kernel, when flashing a Kernel, this is the ONLY thing you wipe. DO NOT wipe your DATA or CACHE. And always do a backup in case something were to go wrong. If you don’t feel like paying for ROM Manager, you can always boot into your recovery and flash it manually (ADVANCED>WIPE DALVIK CACHE>YES) then install it manually in the SAME SESSION (INSTALL .ZIP FROM SD>FIND IT IN YOUR DIRECTORY>YES) and you’ll be good!

Summary

Flashing a Kernel is awesome; definitely recommend it to anyone that roots their device or gets a rooted device from us. It has so many advantages and some kernels even have bonus features and apps that can control it and even let you control voltages and save your battery life even further, but that’s a different blog all together! Let us know if you currently use a custom Kernel, or are you just using the stock, and has this blog changed your mind? Always keep in mind our upgrade service that will get all this done for you for a low low price!

Hi Guys, for those of you that don’t know, we are On The Go Solutions.

So thats nice to know, now what do you do?

We specialise in Unlocked and Rooted devices (Check here for information on rooting)

We have a variety of services available to cater to your individual needs, Be it to give you friendly advice regarding your Device concerns, to Offering unbeatable prices on services such as Unlocking and Rooting your current device or Buying from our Range of ‘Pre Rooted’ devices.

OTG Solutions Products.

So why should I buy from you?

Good question, It’s your hard earned dough after all, well we are unique company that will go well and above what you’d expect from your local retailer or the Manufacturer, You, the customer are always right, unlike the same false claim made by the Big retail chains, We promise to give you 100% satisfaction.
If our word is not enough, feel free to check out the the warranties we offer, for example the OTG Executive Warranty which is the ultimate protection for your phone, It’s 2 years long, it covers Manufacturers Defects AND any accidental damage caused by you, Whats that?  Your toddler just dropped your beloved brand new Galaxy Nexus on the Pavement and smashed the screen? Don’t worry…. you’re covered.
This is brilliant if you take into the account that you’re rooted also….
Root your phone yourself> Your Manufacturer rids their hands of you.
Root your Phone with us> We give you an EVEN BETTER warranty than you had to begin with.
There’s really no arguing with that.
We offer a Variety of Devices at Great prices, you’re spoiled for Choice, whether you’re an Iphone Fanatic, An Android Afficionado or a simple and clean Windows mobile fan, we have them all waiting for you.

Say i was Dissatisfied with the product i recieved for any reason, what can i do?
In the unlikely event you are not completely satisfied for any reason, we uphold your right to return the product within fourteen days, a fedex shipping label and free pickup is provided, to make it all that little bit easier for you.

You sound great, surely it’s too good to be true
Nope, no it is not….
Check out what people like yourselves are saying about us

I’m not sure what i want yet, can i talk to your team?
NO YOU CAN’T.

Okay, we joke, of course you can, follow this link to send an email with your enquiry and you’ll recieve a speedy response from our team to help you make up your mind, we understand it’s tough picking through the hoardes of phones and different softwares available in this day and age.
If you prefer you can reach us Monday through to friday on the following numbers.
Office Phone: (847) 933-1762
Office Fax: (208) 979-7058

Or you can mail us at this Address.
On The Go Solutions, Inc
8401 N. Crawford Ave, Suite 103
Skokie, IL 60076
But if you really need to i suppose you are in need of a device from us pronto…

Thankyou for your time, we hope to hear from you very soon, if there are any questions you have left unanswered feel free to leave them in the comments box below and we will get back to you

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter to be kept up to date.
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So, we’re all familiar with the Sony Ericsson Xperia phones right? Well, Sony and Ericsson got a divorce, and this is the first phone post-divorce! This is the Sony Xperia S. First shown at MWC and leaked much earlier, this small slab of power is nothing to walk past, the super crisp and bright screen makes me want to play with it all day, the dual core 1.5Ghz processor with 1gb of RAM keeps it running smooth, the custom LED lights that let you know when you have a specific notification lets us know what to ignore, and the camera – oh the camera, just keep reading to see what’s incredible about it.

The Screen – 9.5

This phone ships with a 4.3 inch LCD Display, now you’re probably thinking, “nah, AMOLED has that beat”, and normally you’d be right! This phone however, has ZERO PenTile display, meaning if you look close, you wont see those tiny little diamond shaped pixels; this phone just has a 342ppi pixel density rendering everything much smoother for a gorgeous display making me rather watch a movie on this device than the new PlayStation Vita’s AMOLED screen. This is a huge selling point here.

Software – 7 (will be upgraded when Ice Cream Sandwich is pushed out)

Right now, the phone comes shipped with 2.3.6 Gingerbread, which for some is a bummer, but Sony assures us that it will have ICS pushed out by the end of Q2, and it’s already nearing that time! But even with Gingerbread, this phones fluidness is great, we tried to find some lag, and failed! Very nice on Sony to ship a phone that is lag-free completely STOCK. Sony has also included some pretty nifty widgets, Facebook and Twitter integration lets you view our awesome posts without having to open the actual Facebook/Twitter App, not to mention the widget itself is pretty sleek looking! As far as storage is concerned, you get 32gb of internal digital storage, which makes your R/W speeds incredibly faster.

Hardware – 8

This is a double edge sword really, the design of the phone is pretty sleek, and at the bottom, comes a plastic navigation bar for your BACK, HOME, and OPTION keys that are lit up LED, now it’s pretty awesome in our opinion, but under that comes a larger Xperia branded bar. If you don’t mind the extra .5-inch, then you’ll be set, and if you have bigger hands, you’ll actually ENJOY it! Our second favorite feature is the LED notification light. Now most devices just have a light, which will flash whenever you have a missed call, text, email, etc. This phone has different colors for different notifications! Big help when your phone is across the room and you don’t feel like getting up to check it every time you get a notification. The 1.5Ghz processor included makes things move and run with incredible speed, so much so that we really tried to make this phone lag, and we couldn’t, the combination of the OS and the processor is a treat.

Camera shows us just how detailed it is

Camera – 9.5

Here it is, the camera, oh definitely our favorite feature! A 12Mp Hi-Res sensor keeps your photos incredibly crisp and gorgeous; very impressed and a huge jump from last years Xperia’s models. The phone shoots 1080p and keeps your videos smaller in size, and great to watch on the big screen. The device also features a front facing camera for 720p video capture or 1.3Mp pictures, there is nothing to bash on here and we found that the camera and shutter speed on this device is much more clear and responsive than the iPhone 4

Closeout – 9

This phone is a huge upgrade from last year’s models (looks at iPad 3) and a huge contender if you’re looking for a new phone that will WOW your friends and keep things running smooth all day. It has NFC and will soon be “PlayStation Certified” as well as having Ice Cream Sandwich pushed soon! Be sure to check it out, we have it up for pre-order, rooted and all!

Google , In an attempt to Unify their Media has Rebranded Android Market to ‘Google Play’
Google Books, Google Music and Google Movies will all now be found under one name, Google Play.
The Update to this will be rolling out to all Devices running android 2.2 or Higher, but if you want to get it earlier here is how.

Option 1.
-Download Google Movies, Google Music or Google Books
-Clear all data from Android Market by going to settings>Applications>Manage Applications>Select Market>Clear all data.
-Open up Google Books, Movies or Music then select the Google play icon.
-Accept the Prompted T&C’s
-Voila you have the (Arguably pointless) Update.

Option 2
-Download the Apk file from http://www.mediafire.com/?72w5189rc2wpa0
-Install onto your device, and enjoy.

Google Play, No different to Android Market.

As you can see there is no Noticeable difference regarding the UI, just simply a Name and a logo change.

The New Re-designed Icon for what was the ‘Market’ is in the lower right corner of the Above image, Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of it, Maybe because it reminds me of the Old Sony Ericsson ‘App store’
I’m all for change how-ever I feel it could have at least looked better

What’s your opinion on the change?
Good?
Bad?
Don’t care?

Feel free to leave a comment, and don’t forget to suggest us to friends and family in order to gain a chance to win our next give away.

Titanium Backup has been a rooting tool since “rooting” was first known. If you flash as many ROM’s as any of us, you’ll know how amazing and important backing up your data is. Now, before you think this is just another backup method for documents and files, know that it’s a lot more than just that. It backs up your Wi-Fi nodes, any apps you want, and even your system settings (Brightness, Icon Placement, Bluetooth Pairings, etc.) Tell me any other backup method that does all of that!

Well let’s jump into the meat of it, you need a rooted phone (which we can do for you HERE) and the application downloaded from the Android Market or now known as “Google Play”. Once you’ve downloaded it, you can go ahead and open it. It should ask for root permissions, be sure to ALLOW it before going further. Once opened, you’ll most likely be overwhelmed with all the text, take a deep breath and go forth with confidence knowing you have this excellent guide to – well… guide you.

First thing, click your MENU button and click BATCH, once there, you’ll see the screen chance to the image above. And from here is where all the backup goodness happens. From here you can choose to backup all the apps you’ve ever installed, all the apps + system data (all your custom settings) as well as re-doing all of them and backing up all newer apps! Yes, plenty of choices, but if you’re moving to a completely different ROM, best thing to choose is BACKUP ALL USER APPS. If you’re just upgrading a current ROM, you can BACKUP ALL USER APPS + SYSTEM DATA. (Reason being is restoring system data to a different ROM can cause unwanted results)

Once running, it may take a while depending on how many APPS you have. But when it’s done, you don’t ever have to worry about losing your apps, or settings, or having to log into the hundred apps again! It’s done and you’ve successfully completed your first backup! Now how do you restore these apps? Well, funny you should ask, because that’s what we’re talking about next!

The same way you backed up your APPS, is the same way you RESTORE them! Yes, just hit that MENU button; choose BATCH and scroll down to the RESTORE section. Choose the restore you want, and RUN it. Now if you’re restoring just your APPS, you don’t need to restart, but if you’re restoring SYSTEM SETTINGS, you’ll need to restart your phone for everything to take effect.

Now this was just a tutorial on how to use the BASIC features of Titanium Backup, you can also FREEZE APPS, restore specific APPS and upload your backups to DROPBOX, yes, pretty awesome. Especially when you’ve just purchased one of our excellent already rooted and unlocked phones so you can download all your apps from the previous device! Let us know your thoughts and comments in the comments section below!

It’s underway, the Most anticipated Mobile Event each year.
With plenty of Goodies being Unveiled from the Likes of Sony, HTC, Samsung, LG, And more.
Here I’m going to fill you in the the Hot products unveiled in Barcelona throughout this week.
Don’t forget that OTG Solutions will have these First- Unlocked and Rooted for your Unrestricted Pleasure so watch this space.

MWC in Barcelona 2012

The Biggest hitter we’ve seen so far is the HTC One X, but you already knew that didn’t you?
The Internet is Awash with News regarding the One X, One S, and the One V, 140+ Carriers already yearning to get their sweaty bloatware installing paws on them. (You get the sense i don’t like the carriers?)

The One X commands the spotlight among this family with It’s 4.7″ HD Resolution display, Quad core ’4 plus 1′ Tegra 3 Processor along with a seperate Imaging chip as part of HTC’s ‘Image sense’
(The US version from AT&T is ‘only’ a dual core version for now due to NVIDIA’s Chip not supporting LTE at the time of Production.

The HTC One S is the Younger, Skinnier Brother with a 4.3″ qHD Amoled Display, which may please many that complain about the SuperLCD display HTC is Accustomed to, the One V is sporting 1GB of RAM, a Smaller Dual Core Processor which is clocked at 1.5GHZ also, which is nothing to scoff at, this will be HTC’s Mid range phone, though today it would be firmly in the High End category, but evolution is evolution.

The third product from HTC’s Hero range is the Little Man, with a big chin, the HTC One V.
Re-incarting the HTC Legend the One V brings back the chin at the bottom of the device, good or bad?
It sports a 3.7″ 800×480 Display, which isn’t at all Bad considering the ‘Budget phone’ status, which is questionable, As It’s pre-loaded with Android ICS, Sense 4.0 and the improved Beats Audio integration like It’s older brothers.

HTC seem to have a positive outlook this year with their change in strategy, I have high hopes for them.

Next to cause a stir at MWC is LG.

Sticking with the Recurring theme, LG has announced a Quadcore phone of their own, the LG optimus 4X HD, Also sporting the ’4 plus 1′ architecture Tegra 3 chipset.
With a 4.7-inch True HD IPS display, the Optimus 4X HD has an amazing screen, Blowing Away all the other contenders in the Display field.
Great to view those pictures you’ve snapped with It’s 8MP camera.
As it should, the 4X comes pre-loaded with ICS and a Fresher looking Incarnation of LG’s UI.

LG has also Unveiled their Successor to the LG Optimus 3D, With the LG 3D Max, delivering a faster, brighter and slimmer handheld 3D experience.
The 3D Max sports a 4.3″ 3D WVGA Display using a 1.2GHz dual-core processor accompanied by 1GB of RAM, The 5MP dual-lens 3D camera makes light work of capturing 720p 3D footage and 1080p 2D footage, Unfortunately this is Android 2.3.6 straight from the Box so you’ll have to wait for the Update shortly after buying.

3D Max

This is the best 3D Phone on the Market, yet the Lack of ICS and the Slightly less slick UI than It’s competitors is a bit of a Dissapointment, yet nothing to Scorn at.

Next ZTE Didn’t hold back at Mobile World Congress, as the company introduced multiple smartphones and tablets, highlighted by the quad-core ZTE Era smartphone.

The ZTE Era as you can guess also sports the NVIDIA quad-core processor with Android Ice Cream Sandwich and the new user interace flavor known as Mifavor???. You can look forward to a Decent 4.3-inch screen and an 8-megapixel camera. Along with the Era, ZTE also announced multiple smartphones including the Skate Acqua, Kis, Blade II, and ZTE Mimosa X.

ZTE Era

Fujitsu was making a big deal at MWC about how its phones and tablets are waterproof and it makes for an awesome demonstration, its tablets and phones work fine outside of water and can then survive being submerged, and not being content with just waterproof devices they also had on display a Iron Ball dropping machine to show the strength of the Screens.

Phones in a Tank of water

Samsung Have not brought the S3 to the Field instead a Mid-range Samsung Galaxy Beam shined It’s light at MWC.
The highlight of this Device is the Ultra Bright Built in Pico Projector, with 15 Lumens more than a Standalone Pico Projector, and the Ability to Project HD Content at up to 50 inches wide is a sure winner for those looking for such a feature along with a Reasonable Mid-range Android Handset, those looking for the Superfast ICS feature rich phones best look elsewhere though as it ships with Android 2.3 with a Dual core Processor.

Samsung Infused Pico Projector

We now have the HTC One X up for pre-order! Check it out!

Check back here for more MWC Updates as the week go’s on.

Right, so welcome back to the next installment from OTG solutions.

Today we’ll talk about Rooting, (Seasoned Rooters need not pay Attention)
If you Don’t understand a word used here then refer to the bottom of the page for Terms

So What is rooting?
Rooting is taking your phone, and Planting a Daffodil bulb inside it, once the roots have grown you’ve Succesfuly rooted….(Oh, It’s not?)
Rooting is actually exploiting Firmware Weakpoints in the phone to be able to Gain ‘Super user’ rights, This means once done you have free reign over your Phones Flash memory chip and can Remove/change system level files; Upgrade or downgrade your OS, Remove Carriers ‘Bloatware’, Baseband Modifications and much more.

Are there risks involved?
As with Any modifications, of course.
A- You can turn your Phone into a £400  paperweight- If you Incorrectly Modify the System you can ‘Brick’ the Device leaving it useless, there are some programmes to Recover your phone from this state or to Make your phone ‘Unbrickable’ but we’ll discuss that another time.

B- ‘Your Warranty may be invalidated’ Now this should not be disregarded but as soon as you know how to root and Unlock your device, you can do the same process to ‘Unroot’ and Re-lock your device, the Manufacturers will never know, not that I’m condoning being Un-truthful of course…..�
If you were to choose to buy from us, We at OTG solutions offer a Warranty for our Rooted devices for a Cheap price starting from $75 for two years, taking that worry off your shoulders if Anything was to go wrong.

C- A modification such as Overclocking can bring significant benefits however the Processor will become hotter working at a higher speed than it is currently set at, possibly causing irreversible damage to the phones guts.
Though, on the same token you can easily use an App such As SetCPU in Android Market to change the CPU needs depending on different factors, Thus avoiding Total meltdown.

So should I root?
No.
Maybe.
Yes.
It all depends on you, the User, Do you feel limited with your Phone in stock state? Are there Too many Applications Hogging the System that you aren’t permitted to Un-install?
Or is Your phone failing to keep up with the Latest Phones being churned out Week by week and you fancy giving it a burst of new life along with a Speed increase?
If you Answered yes then sure, providing you do your research thoroughly then there is no reason why you couldn’t.
Failing that, If you want a risk free option take a look at What OTG Solutions has to offer by clicking on the Sale items, New products or Home link.

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How do I root?

There are different Methods for different phones, Some easier, Such as HTC’s where Bootloaders can now be unlocked, and some Harder such as the Motorola Droid X  which has a security boot-loader that will put the phone in “recovery mode” when you load Up an Un-signed ROM
so you should do a little research here, Type in your phone Model on Google followed by the word Root and you’re sure to be met with many Results to get you on your way, also take a Look at XDA Developers forums.

Terms
ROM- The ‘Aftermarket’ software.

BaseBand- The Baseband is What controls the Radio on your Phone.

Bootloader- The Bootloader is basically what packages the instructions to boot the operating system kernel.
Kernel-Essentially the link between the Hardware and software.

Bloatware- The term for the Software Network carriers add to branded devices, that you usually don’t want.

OverClocking- The process of Increasing the Processor speed to Higher than it was specified for.
CPU- Central Processing Unit, the Brains of the device.

So, I’ve kept it short just to give you a little insight.
Any questions feel free to Comment and I’ll be happy to reply.

Have you already rooted your phone? Feel free Share to your experiences.

The Samsung Galaxy Note is one large smart phone, or really small tablet; regardless, it is one incredibly powerful device. The Galaxy Note ships with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but will soon have an over the air update to 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and will then be on the same OS as the Galaxy Nexus, making Samsung the only manufacturer with 3 phones with 4.0 ICS! What makes this phone so special is the dramatic size of the phone, a whopping 5.3” screen, an 8MP Camera and a stock 2500 mAH battery to support the Super AMOLED screen. The processor isn’t too bad either, a dual core 1.5 GHz, making for a smooth experience all around and 16Gb of internal storage with expandable memory up to 32Gb, but are all of these specs enough to make this phone a top contender in the never ending smart phone war? Let’s take a look!

The Screen 8.5

Wow it is one big screen, 4.5” almost doesn’t fit comfortably in a user’s hand! But crisp it is, the Super AMOLED screen is gorgeous and makes movie viewing, and game playing an absolute pleasure. Having such a screen is nice but how does it fare with battery life? We found that having the brightness up, and constantly on was somewhat a strain on the battery, but the same could be said with all 4G LTE devices really, we suggest turning the brightness down and making the screen timeout a decent time, or you can go and purchase one of the super sized 5000 mAH batteries available anywhere online. Besides that one small avoidable issue, this screen is incredible and beats all other phones out right now in our opinion.

The Processor 9

As mentioned, the phone ships with quite a powerful processor, 1.5 GHz Dual Core is pretty impressive, and makes everything pretty fluid even with the huge screen and 2.3 Gingerbread UI. Since we are a PRO-Rooting site however, the development support for this phone has been great, and once rooted and unlocked (as we sell it), this phone has the potential to be an absolute powerhouse! Another great thing about this processor is it handles battery life quite well, with brightness at a decent level, we were able to get a solid 13 hours of constant use playing movies, and 7 hours use streaming movies using 4G which for phones out right now, is pretty excellent, and almost on par with the RAZR MAXX.

The Body 7

So as we know, the body of this phone is massive, which is really a double edge sword in our opinion. Personally, the good far outweighs the bad. Not everyone can use this phone in one hand comfortably, but if you have a normal sized hand, you should be fine. It’s a good slim design, coming in at 0.38” and is a great solid body, feels good and not flimsy like some other phones. What caught everyone off guard was the stylus that came with it, now hold on, hold on, we’re usually no big fans of any phone that needs a stylus, but this one may be the exception. Back in the day when phones and PDA’s had stylus’, they weren’t accurate at all, Samsunghas changed that. This stylus is dead accurate on the screen and almost makes you feel like you’re writing with a pen.

The Camera 9

The 8 Megapixel camera the Note comes equipped with is no joke here, this camera records 1080p flawlessly and playback is a breeze. The pictures are beautiful and crisp, but taking stills without adequate lighting may be an issue; with this phone though, the flash will light up even the darkest rooms making a quick comeback for even the hardest critic. On the front, you get a 1.3 Megapixel camera for those self portrait pictures and for video calling using Google+ Hangouts. At the end of the day, we were quite pleased with the camera build, shutter speed, and quality of the pictures and videos.

Overall 8.5

This is one of the most FUN devices we’ve had the pleasure of reviewing. We say that because Samsung really outdone themselves on this and tried something new, which not many manufacturers have done recently. Between the screen size, the HD Super AMOLED screen, the 1.5 GHz Dual Core processor, and the excellent build quality, we believe an 8.5 is an accurate rating. The only downside is the battery; yes it lasts a good amount of time, but because of the sheer size of the phone, they could have done more like the RAZR MAXX, having a 3300 mAH battery. The last issue that could even be considered a great thing is the size, yes the size. Not everyone will be happy about it, and for that, we had to drop it .5 points. If you want a phone that is a new concept, and don’t have a problem with the size, this is the phone for you. Everything about it is just great and easy to use, and they’re selling like hotcakes which must be a good sign. Let us know what you think in the comments; we have them  rooted and unlocked for worldwide use and for a great price!