Trip Journal Lite

Free Get it here

A Facebook photo and check-in may be a simple way to tell your friends about your travels, but what if you could give them a little more detail?

This app allows you to record all the details of your latest odyssey by detailing GPS maps with photos, videos and journal notes. You can then enjoy these on the vivid and generous display on the Note II and share your adventures from within the app on Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and elsewhere.

Omnisketch

£1.23 Buy it here

They say the greatest art comes from suffering, but this app calls for minimum effort to produce some truly amazing pictures. Use the S Pen to get precise control of 24 different brush patterns and access scores of blending options and adjustments.

Pictures are stored locally, but it’s easy to post them on Facebook and Twitter, or create an online gallery to share your masterpieces with the world!

Google Maps

Free Get it here

The greatest reason never to carry a paper map again is alive and well on Android, with this latest version boasting 3D buildings, live traffic information and voice-guided turn-by-turn GPS navigation.

It even features indoor maps for some airports, hotels and shops, and is fully compatible with the Note II’s groundbreaking Multi Window feature. With no excuse ever to get lost again, why would you ever use a different navigation app?

Rayman Jungle Run

£1.99 Buy it here

If you lost hours of your youth to this classic award-winning platform game when it appeared for PlayStation in 1995, you’ll know just how addictive it can be.

Now perfectly at home on the Note II’s superb HD Super AMOLED screen, Rayman has never looked better. With timeless gameplay that is easy to pick up but hard to master, it’s proof that the Note II can replace your separate handheld gaming console.

Swift Key 3

£2.99 Buy it here

By learning your personal writing style, this brilliant keyboard app can predict your next word before you even think about typing it.

It learns the names of people and places you regularly use, and can even sync with Facebook and Twitter to learn even more about the way you type. With support for 42 languages and 14 keyboard layouts, there’s no wonder it calls itself the world’s smartest keyboard!

Flipboard

Free Get it here

Remember magazines? Those paper things you used to read in the days before smartphones? Well, Flipboard is a magazine-style service that brings together the latest news and updates from your social media, all in one beautiful-looking app.

Optimised for large-screen smartphones like the GALAXY Note II, it allows you to ‘flip’ through content from Facebook and Twitter, plus Instagram, YouTube, Flickr and many more.

Solo

£2.49 Buy it here

Offering authentic classical, acoustic and electric tones, and allowing you to play along with any music you have stored on your phone, Android’s most popular virtual guitar is an essential purchase for beginners and grizzled axemen alike.

Its huge chord library includes great instructional diagrams, while a free add-on offers chord and lyric overlays to help you learn new songs. You can even use the S Pen as a handy plectrum! 

EZPDF Reader

£1.99 Buy it here

The Note II handles even large PDF files with ease, and allows you to annotate them using the brilliant S Pen. But this ability really comes into its own when combined with this ingenious app.

Once you have annotated a document, EZPDF Reader lets you save your doodles as a vector layer, or flatten the whole amended PDF into one image – perfect for mark-ups and forms that require a secure signature. There’s even a free version available, too!

Minecraft Pocket Edition

£4.99 Buy it here

One of the gaming world's biggest phenomena in recent times is perfectly playable on Android, with the Note II's huge display, quad-core processor and 2GB RAM allowing for buttery smooth gameplay, making this cuboid universe more appealing than ever.

Like an online Lego world, where you build huge structures and generate entire landscapes from blocks, it's a hugely enjoyable toolkit for building your own little fun palace and meeting new people online.

Amazon Kindle

Free Get it here

You don’t need to buy a Kindle to make the most of the eBook revolution. This app gives you access to more than a million books – including thousands of free ones – and subscriptions to digital editions of your favourite magazines and newspapers.

Text and images look stunning on the Note II screen, and you can even use the S Pen to highlight text. It also features a built-in dictionary and easy-access links to Google and Wikipedia.

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