Samsung Galaxy Note 2 top accessories

Anyone who’s been lucky enough to get a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 can be comfortable in the knowledge that they’ve been gifted with one of the best, if not the best gadget of 2012. And what do all great gadgets deserve? Great accessories of course!

SD Smart Stand Case for Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Cases, they’re big and bulky and tend to detract from the design of your phone without adding much value, until you drop your phone that is. Even then, some bumpers and cases offer little beyond a questionable amount of protection. Thankfully, the SD Smart Stand Case for Samsung Galaxy Note 2 manages to both protect your phone with its rubberised body and add oodles of utility in the process by acting as a kickstand.

Cramming nostalgia factor into the mix, the case includes a curling strip along the back. Anyone who doesn’t know what one of these is, think back to your school days and those high visibility bands that were all the rage with the kids - you know, the ones you’d snap on your wrist and they’d wrap around? The strip on the Smart Stand case uses the same coiling mechanism embedded in its back, uncoiling with a press of a pressure point along the bottom portion.

While we weren’t convinced when we saw it online, once we got it in to test we were sold in moments. It’s now on our Note 2 twenty four seven, propping up our phablet wherever we are - perfect at our desk, watching a film or on our bedside table while our phone’s charging.

Triggertrap Mobile

DSLR and Samsung Galaxy Note 2 owners should definitely consider Trigger Trap . The accessory allows you to take control of your DSLR by plugging it into the headphone jack. Once linked up, you can download the app from the Google Play Store and get creative.

While it doesn’t offer a live view of what you’re shooting - which admittedly would have been fantastic - it does pull out a whole range of creative modes that would be nigh on impossible to automate for most amateur users. These include time-lapse, variable bracketing as well as long exposures and light trails to name a few.

You can pick Trigger Trap up from Amazon.co.uk for around £22 and it fits most mainstream DSLRs out now.

Official Samsung back cover

We know, this might seem like a cop-out, but hear us out. Some Samsung Galaxy Note 2 owners may have purchased their phone with a flip cover hard wired into the back panel. That’s great - protection for your phone’s gorgeous display without you even having to think about a case - right?

Well, not quite. We found the flip cover to be more pain than protection and given the fact the Note 2 is such a sizeable beast as it stands, an extra layer that we couldn’t take off proved frustrating. This was only exacerbated by the whiteness of our cover, attracting more dirt than deceased celebrities and US politians put together.

In contrast to the aforementioned though, any issues we had with the Note 2’s flip cover were quickly rectified with a simple buy - the official Samsung Galaxy Note 2 case. This slippery case turned the Note 2 into the relatively slender phablet it was intended to be and made out pockets a whole lot happier.

Jabra Sole Mate

Jabra have absolutely nailed it with their Sole Mate - our favourite Bluetooth speaker of the moment. This relatively compact sound machine is capable of both base and balance, which coupled with its nifty design makes it a shoe-in for any top accessory list this Christmas.

The reason it’s so great with the Note 2 in particular is because of the Bluetooth element. The two devices paired in no time flat and it meant we could carry on taking full advantage of everything our incredible phone could do while still playing back our audio to external speakers - no wires needed. This includes using it with the SD case, propping the phone in landscape and enjoing a 5.5-inch 720p movie.

Design-wise, the Sole Mate gets its name from its rubberised shoe like base or ‘sole’ and overall look. It’s small enough to fit in a bag and even houses a line-in cable for non-bluetooth devices such as iPods. With a micro USB charging cable and carry case in the box, the only thing missing are music control buttons - a very minor thing. Everything else about this is as good as we could hope for from a £99 Bluetooth speaker though, so if you know anyone who loves music and loves their Note 2, give them their Sole Mate this Christmas.

Kidigi USB cradle with HDMI out

When you consider the fact that Samsung’s HDMI cradle costs a whopping £79.95, anyone who wants similar functionality, without the bells and whistles of USB functionality would be just as well served by the Kidigi USB cradle with HDMI out. Available for £24.95 over at Mobile Fun, the cradle simultaneously charges your Note 2, docks it and outputs the picture to an HD TV.

Coupled with a bluetooth keyboard, this can turn your Note 2 into the perfect productivity tool and if you just want to have fun, throw some HD movies on your phone and enjoy full HD output. The cradle ships with a power charger, so you’ll have to provide the HDMI cable, but once you do, you’ll be in high def heaven with your Note 2 and its Kidigi cradle.