It’s out, folks, it’s finally out and it looks pretty awesome! I’m of course talking about the Galaxy Note 2, Samsung’s second-generation “phablet” that was unveiled just hours ago in Berlin.
We’ve had quite the extensive coverage on the Note 2’s unveiling here on Android Authority, where you have been spoiled with the monster's rundown of specs and features, an exclusive short video review coming straight from Deutschland, and a bunch of comparisons between the brand new “beast” and the HTC One X, the iPhone 4S, Galaxy Nexus and first-generation GNote.
We can’t stop talking about the Note 2 and we really hope you’re as excited as we are about it, so we have some new interesting details on the 5.5-incher. This time around we’re dealing with a few benchmarks, which should give us a good idea of how this big guy’s hardware behave in terms of raw speed. Keep in mind that all the scores below should be taken with a pinch of salt, as Samsung has mentioned a couple of times already that the Note 2 unit on display at the IFA is a pre-production one running “early software”.
One of the most well-known benchmark tests is also one that can be very deceiving. We’re used to seeing different Quadrant scores online for the same exact gadget, so usually we wouldn’t treat this test with much “deference”.
Still, according to Korean website smartdevice.kr, the Note 2 scored a 6,043 in Quadrant, which is darn impressive. In comparison, the HTC One X only scores around 4,500 points, while the Galaxy S3 has been seen scoring between 5,200 and 5,500.
This is a particularly complex test that can show off a gadget’s CPU, GPU, 2D, 3D performance, as well as the SD card reading/writing speed. Smartdevice doesn’t have a pic to prove how the Note 2 has handled this benchmark, but they say the “phablet” scored a hefty 13,500.
We remember seeing a similar score in Darcy’s review too, so we’ll take that figure for granted. This is again much better than the “competition”, with the Galaxy S3 only scoring around 10,000 points.
Nenamark is a popular benchmark that measures GPU performance and GPU performance alone, but unlike Quadrant, it can’t be very easily manipulated. The GNote 2 scored a decent 55.8 fps (frames per second), which is below what we’ve seen the Galaxy S3 scoring in the past (around 58-59 fps).
This is not surprising though, because the Note 2 and the S3 feature the exact same Mali-400 graphics processing unit. The Note 2 has the upper hand as far as the CPU goes, but the unfinished software makes it trail behind the S3 in pure GPU performance.
Although promising and exciting, these early benchmarks shouldn’t be taken for granted by anyone interested in buying the Note 2. We know very well that real-time performance and test results are two very different things. Also, you shouldn’t get carried away by Note 2’s apparent upper hand in a battle against the S3. After all, the “phablet” does come with a snappier proc and runs Jelly Bean, unlike the S3, which is still stuck (not for long though) on ICS.
The best pointers for the Note 2′s actual performance are yet to come, but be not afraid, because we should be able to get our hands on a more “polished” unit of the phablet soon enough and compile a truly comprehensive review. Until then, we would love to hear from you with your early views on the new Note. Does it look like everything you dreamed of? More? Less?
by Bogdan Petrovan, 31 minutes ago
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