In a smartphone market that’s expanding at a breakneck pace and offers a wide variety of choices, Samsung’s Galaxy Note II is somewhat unique. For the longest time, companies were offering phones which sacrificed performance sets in order to achieve the smallest hardware footprint possible. Now, features are literally crammed into the latest designs and screen sizes have ballooned to proportions that would have been considered ridiculous not too long ago. Where the current “standard” screen size typically hovers somewhere between 4” and 5” the Galaxy Note II bumps things up to a staggering 5.5”.

Unlike many other Android-based phones, this one isn’t meant to compete with today’s iPhones and Windows Phone 8 devices. Rather, it is carving out a unique niche which strides within the grey space between tablets and smartphones. Samsung has also included features that are uniquely designed to take advantage of the additional real estate.