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Is the Galaxy Note a hit or a miss?

I'm doing some amazing things with the Note which is helping me stream line my communication with my web developers and designers on a gaming website project for a large tech brand (using Dolphin HD to save photos and edit, then uploading via back end CMS..pure awesome while on public transit). Annotating on the fly is just amazing.

However, not sure what build you guys have, but my phone can be erratic at times and a lot less smooth than my Iphone 4s or iOS for that matter. I wouldn't recommend this phone to Iphone users or pretty much anyone who isn't inclined to tweak their device. Wozniak said it best..."The people I recommend the iPhone 4S for are the ones who are already in the Mac world, because it’s so compatible, and people who are just scared of computers altogether and don’t want to use them. The iPhone is the least frightening thing."
 
So far it is iffy for me. It is beautiful. It is wonderfully large. It is customizable.

Here are my concerns. Keep in mind i am a fanboy to neither platform. I have been using jailbroken iPhones for 3 years. I got an Android tablet (Toshiba Thrive) 2 weeks ago and love it. Thought it was time to try an Android phone. The Note really appeals to me.

But...

The scrolling is not as smooth as my 2 year old iphone. And sometimes the strolling has a mind of its own and scrolls farther than i direct it to.

The keyboard does not auto capitalize "i" in a sentence. Surely this is just a setting i am missing?

Placing the cursor within text is hard without a magnify type option the iphone has when trying to precisely place the cursor for typing or corrections.

I am surprised at the lack of music management and syncing. Yes, I have a large library organized in iTunes. I can get over this as i kinda knew this was the case.

The email app is missing a lot of basic functionality. Functionality that iOS has had for years. This is my biggest disappointment since i work on my phone, not play much.

I use imap email. Emails i delete just come right back after syncing. I cannot fix this!!! I expected it to be some sort of "delete from server option" but there is no such setting.

Not having a physical home button is a bummer for lots of reasons. Not sure why the US version had to lose it.

The stupid power button is pressed too easily and is poorly located. Driving me crazy.

There is no visual voicemail native. I specifically asked the AT&T rep about this before purchase and he told me it had visual voicemail.

Little bugs and crashes occur more frequently.

I REALLY want this phone to work out for me. I am not giving up.....yet.
 
daddybigas said:
The scrolling is not as smooth as my 2 year old iphone. And sometimes the strolling has a mind of its own and scrolls farther than i direct it to.

Placing the cursor within text is hard without a magnify type option the iphone has when trying to precisely place the cursor for typing or corrections.

I am surprised at the lack of music management and syncing. Yes, I have a large library organized in iTunes. I can get over this as i kinda knew this was the case.

The email app is missing a lot of basic functionality. Functionality that iOS has had for years. This is my biggest disappointment since i work on my phone, not play much.

I use imap email. Emails i delete just come right back after syncing. I cannot fix this!!! I expected it to be some sort of "delete from server option" but there is no such setting.

There is no visual voicemail native. I specifically asked the AT&T rep about this before purchase and he told me it had visual voicemail.

Little bugs and crashes occur more frequently.

I REALLY want this phone to work out for me. I am not giving up.....yet.
Click to expand...

I really think the smoothness will greatly improve with Ice Cream Sandwich as well as the little bugs and crashes. Hopefully the cursor placement will step it up as well.

I highly recommend Doubletwist for doing your music syncing. It takes all of your music and playlists directly from iTunes and works prettymuch the same way as well.

I've seen a post in this forum that points to an apk for visual voicemail from XDA, but yes it should be native. Mad props for giving it a real chance dude.
 
Size and monster Specs are not the only USP of the Note. Lets not forget the extremely useful Pen. Can take screen shots, do markups, edit pics, draw cartoons and what not using the Pen. Ive had this phone for 3 months now and im loving it.
 
Thanks. I did try K9. It mostly works. However it does not have the split view that the Note has. It seems a shame to me that I would have to use a third party tool that is not as nice looking and does not take advantage of my Note's resolution. I paid a premium for that resolution and one of the selling points for me was what looked like a very useful email app. I do a lot of email management through my phone.

Thanks though. I think a lot of iPhone converts will tire of having to work around so many of Android's shortcomings and flaws. It is a shame because the hardware is wonderful.

iPhone = a frustrating lack of customization, iOS innovation, and wow/fun factor.

Android = a lot a great ideas taken not quite to completion/polish.

I think I will probably return to my iPhone and try Android again 6 months to a year down the road.

I really think Google is missing a lot of converts because of a lack of polish.
 
Returned the Note. Beautiful hardware, questionable software for me at least. Will try Android again if iPhone 5 does not wow me this Fall.

Enjoy your notes. I already miss mine :-(
 
daddybigas said:
Returned the Note. Beautiful hardware, questionable software for me at least. Will try Android again if iPhone 5 does not wow me this Fall.

Enjoy your notes. I already miss mine :-(
Click to expand...

I'd recommend trying it once it has Ice Cream Sandwich for sure.
 
daddybigas said:
So far it is iffy for me. It is beautiful. It is wonderfully large. It is customizable.

Here are my concerns. Keep in mind i am a fanboy to neither platform. I have been using jailbroken iPhones for 3 years. I got an Android tablet (Toshiba Thrive) 2 weeks ago and love it. Thought it was time to try an Android phone. The Note really appeals to me.

But...

The scrolling is not as smooth as my 2 year old iphone. And sometimes the strolling has a mind of its own and scrolls farther than i direct it to.

The keyboard does not auto capitalize "i" in a sentence. Surely this is just a setting i am missing?

Placing the cursor within text is hard without a magnify type option the iphone has when trying to precisely place the cursor for typing or corrections.

I am surprised at the lack of music management and syncing. Yes, I have a large library organized in iTunes. I can get over this as i kinda knew this was the case.

The email app is missing a lot of basic functionality. Functionality that iOS has had for years. This is my biggest disappointment since i work on my phone, not play much.

I use imap email. Emails i delete just come right back after syncing. I cannot fix this!!! I expected it to be some sort of "delete from server option" but there is no such setting.

Not having a physical home button is a bummer for lots of reasons. Not sure why the US version had to lose it.

The stupid power button is pressed too easily and is poorly located. Driving me crazy.

There is no visual voicemail native. I specifically asked the AT&T rep about this before purchase and he told me it had visual voicemail.

Little bugs and crashes occur more frequently.

I REALLY want this phone to work out for me. I am not giving up.....yet.
Click to expand...

I also had an iphone till december before I UPGRADED to Android and the Note.
#Scrolling: Samsungs Touchwiz is a little sticky. Have you tried Launcher Pro? Its super smooth. I use SPB Shell 3D which is quite smooth and sexy. You cant change ur iPhone UI can u?? :)
#Keyboard: I use the Swype keyboard which comes with the Note. It auto capitalizes I and other single letter words. By the way does iOS come with a swype/slide type of keyboard?? Guess not. :)
#Cursor: Agreed, the iOS's magnify option is better. But are we not nit picking here? I can mention 100s of things that are way better in Android. Not to mention openly available technologies that Apple denies/delays to users just to keep their commercial partners happy.
# Music management and syncing: For god's sake there are very good third party apps for those who like syncing. Be thankful that Android does not restrict what you can or cannot put into YOUR phone. With Apple's sync there are only certain types of file types that can be synced. With Android I can drag and drop just about anything in the world. My 32 GB card is also my back up external drive!! And my Note is also a USB host, so I can transfer to a USB stick without syncing to a PC first. And I can thankfully transfer files via bluetooth too. Things Apple inexplicably doesn't permit.
Regarding Music and Video, the note supports 5.1 Channel sound. Music sounds a hell of a lot beter on the Note than on the iphone. And just about every video codec is supported including avi and FLASH.
#Email: use IMAP on my gmail account. What i delete gets deleted from the server too. Not sure what you are talking about here.
#Physical Home button: Id any day give it up for more screen real estate. You are again nit picking here. You might as well ask for a physical keyboard.
# Power button: For once I agree with you. That was really stupid. I guess the reason Samsung did not place it on the top was to avoid litigation from Apple!! Any way I have got used to it and I no longer accidentally press the power button.
#bugs and crashes: What bugs? None that I have found so far that is worth mentioning. Crashes? My Note has not crashed even once so far. You must be referring to third party apps that crash once in a while. Samsung and Android cannot be blamed for third party apps!!
 
I can't tell if you are being funny or if you really are a douche bag. My goodness... I will give you the benefit of the doubt and go with the former.

I run a software company for PCs, not Apple. I own and maintain multiple PCs and servers. I do not care for Apple. I own Android devices and like them. My point in saying all that is that I am far from an Apple fan. I jailbreak my iPhone because I have to do so in order to get functionality I need. I want to switch to Android so I don't have to jailbreak, root, or otherwise tinker to get what I need. For me a phone is a tool to help me get my job done and at the end of the day the last thing I want to do is fight with a phone to get it to do what I want.

I tried the Note and it did have issues. I believe you when you say yours does not. Just because imap works for you it is shortsighted to assume it will work for all. Not all imap servers are the same. Side note: My other android devices (tablets) have no imap issues with my servers. So it is Note specific or Gingerbread specific.

I will switch to Android, or Windows phone, or whatever as soon as it offers a better experience for ME.

My opinion so far is:

1. Android tablets are way more fun than iPad.

2. My jailbroken iPhone 4 is smoother, faster, and more efficient for my workflows and habits than an Android phone so far.

3. A jailbroken iPhone is still one of the best smartphones available. A non-jailbroken iPhone is one of the worst for those who want the most out of a phone.

4. Apple better innovate for their next iPhone or they will lose customers. Conversely, Android better polish up a bit and become more seamless or they could lose customers.
 
francton said:
You sound like an incurable apple fanboy. You can only see so called faults in Android.
Click to expand...

First of all, I fail to agree with your point here. Daddybigas, was clearly listing the things he did not like about the Note and so would have sounded negative by default. I am sure that he did not want to list all the things he loved about it as I am sure it would have taken too long ;)

daddybigas said:
I can't tell if you are being funny or if you really are a douche bag. My goodness... I will give you the benefit of the doubt and go with the former.
Click to expand...

My advice to both of you is to try and moderate the language somewhat. People come here for advice, not to be insulted. Even responding in kind goes against the spirit of this forum.

That all being said, I can get off my high horse. I cannot really top the advice of JunBringer who has a lot more Android experience than me. I simply wanted to add one observation. I read, about a year ago now, a post from someone who was amazed by the complaints related to smart phone performance. I share his amazement. Given that you are holding a telephone, not a desktop computer, you cannot seriously expect it to respond immediately all of the time given the level of customization that is possible. Even using a desktop can be a laggy experience sometimes. Apparently Apple provides a smoother experience (I would not know because I have never owned one). If that is a priority for you then you know which phone you need to buy. Everyone has their own priorities and I am ok with that. It makes the world a far more interesting place. Certainly the Note is not for everyone, but it certainly is for me.



Regards,
Eric Ritchie.
 
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I had a unlocked 3gs for a few years Apple has u by the balls unless u jailbreak .. no phone is perfect were human and find flaws n everything I love my note !! and HTC sensation android vers IOS/apple U simply have more options with android devices .. We all know both phones are good ... The time i spent unlocking ,avoiding updating, transferring music crazy !! I would like to see Apple come out with a phone that is open to any operating system when i think of Apple i see $$$$$$ u stuck with ios itunes etc... Now that Steve has passed they r going to have to take it to another level he saved apple... time will tell
 
I currently have the iphone 4 and I really want to jump into the android phone market by means of the note. I love the display and the customization possibility of the note. The included pen is also a nice touch that brings endless possibilities to the phone market.



I will be following this thread to see how others rate the note, so far the reviews seem very encouraging!
Nice thread by the way!
 
quote touringhaggis
First of all, I fail to agree with your point here. Daddybigas, was clearly listing the things he did not like about the Note and so would have sounded negative by default. I am sure that he did not want to list all the things he loved about it as I am sure it would have taken too long ;)
 end quote touringhaggis

You are correct about that. As a matter of fact I will probably buy an international version of it once ICS is available. Then I can carry my iPhone or the Note depending on my mood that day.

quote touringhaggis
My advice to both of you is to try and moderate the language somewhat. People come here for advice, not to be insulted. Even responding in kind goes against the spirit of this forum.
end quote touringhaggis

Trust me, I did moderate my language. I spend a lot of time on Android forums, iPhone forums, Nikon forums, etc. Without fail I always run into people who try to lay the overused "fanboy" or "hater" moniker on people who happen to have a different experience. I just think it is lame and I usually just ignore it. I usually just ignore these people but I got sucked in this time ;).

quote touringhaggis
I read, about a year ago now, a post from someone who was amazed by the complaints related to smart phone performance. I share his amazement. Given that you are holding a telephone, not a desktop computer, you cannot seriously expect it to respond immediately all of the time given the level of customization that is possible. Even using a desktop can be a laggy experience sometimes.
end quote touringhaggis

True. Even the crappiest free smartphone is a miracle device if considered a few years ago. However, when looking at a bunch of miracle devices it is only natural to compare and contrast to find the best for one's situation. Since we are often locked into our device for 2 years, and since many of us use the device as practically an extension of our body it is important to get it right. But I know what you are saying (we are lucky to have such "problems", eh?). Keep in mind this entire thread is, in fact, about why the Note is a hit or a miss so praises or complaints are to be expected here. :)

Thanks for the kind reply touringhaggas.
 
MaxTO said:
I currently have the iphone 4 and I really want to jump into the android phone market by means of the note. I love the display and the customization possibility of the note. The included pen is also a nice touch that brings endless possibilities to the phone market.

I will be following this thread to see how others rate the note, so far the reviews seem very encouraging!
Click to expand...
MaxTO said:

Nice thread by the way!
Click to expand...


MaxTO, I think this is one of those times you will need to grab one and try it. It is a beautiful device for sure. I am going to check it out again myself once ICS is available for it.
 
I have a question for those of you who like phones lacking a physical home button.

My phone has a physical button. So if I am in the car and I want to make a call while in traffic I can reach down, hold down the button, and then use a speech command to dial. I never have to look at the phone. I can even do it in my pocket.

When a phone has no physical button (only touch buttons) how do you achieve this without having to turn on the phone and then looking at it to press the voice command option?

Is there some easy way to do it on phones like the U.S. version of the Note that I am missing?

Thanks in advance.
 
customworkskin said:
I would like to see Apple come out with a phone that is open to any operating system when i think of Apple i see $$$$$$ u stuck with ios itunes etc... Now that Steve has passed they r going to have to take it to another level he saved apple... time will tell
Click to expand...

I would say that 100% of the people that have moved away from the iPhone agree with you, but it is never going to happen. The reason that the iPhone is so smooth is that Apple control all parts of the OS that are time critical. Developers have to work with a set of APIs that have (I assume) restricted priority. They built a smartphone for the lowest common denominator with style as its defining factor and the slick UI is part of that. To open up the hardware would dilute their control and risk having iPhones out there with lag.

We live in a free market and therefore we have a choice. You can go for a locked down piece of hardware that is smooth 99.9% of the time. Or you can go for a more flexible phone which lags quite a bit of the time but is lagging because it is doing what YOU want not what Apple thinks you want.

Yes, my Note lags, sometimes up to a second. Would I prefer if those lags were to disappear? Yes, of course! Would I buy an iPhone to get a lag free phone? Let me answer this way: You'll have to pry this phone from my cold dead hands. Seriously though, I would be far more annoyed by the lack of function of the iPhone than the lags of the Note (which may be fixed soon). Is my opinion unique? Clearly not, given the number of iPhone users. You want to know why I am fine with that? Walk into any room and ask those present to hold up their smartphones. Count the iPhones and count the Notes. Yes, I am more of an individual without a me2phone. :)

Regards,
Eric Ritchie.
 
daddybigas said:
Trust me, I did moderate my language. I spend a lot of time on Android forums, iPhone forums, Nikon forums, etc. Without fail I always run into people who try to lay the overused "fanboy" or "hater" moniker on people who happen to have a different experience. I just think it is lame and I usually just ignore it. I usually just ignore these people but I got sucked in this time ;).
Click to expand...

I understand the frustration especially when you were looking for help and/or advice and you get insulted in return. But as an experienced forum user I am sure you know that responding in kind does not help.

daddybigas said:
True. Even the crappiest free smartphone is a miracle device if considered a few years ago. However, when looking at a bunch of miracle devices it is only natural to compare and contrast to find the best for one's situation. Since we are often locked into our device for 2 years, and since many of us use the device as practically an extension of our body it is important to get it right. But I know what you are saying (we are lucky to have such "problems", eh?). Keep in mind this entire thread is, in fact, about why the Note is a hit or a miss so praises or complaints are to be expected here. :)
Click to expand...

I am usually locked into a device much longer because I tend to buy my phones outright and then go for cheaper SIM only tarrifs. I understand that this is unusual in the US market. There are things I miss about my previous phone namely a hardware keyboard and root out of the box (yeah the n900 was that cool) but I am learning to adapt. The near desktop performance is helping the transition I must say. Yeah, there are things I could complain about (long pause here to think), yeah battery life I guess, but then I think about my old phone or a laptop doing the same thing and I suddenly feel better.

Sure the Note is not a perfect phone (damn thing refuses to read my mind) but it is pretty close to it imho. Still if you find another phone that is better in all areas for the same price I'll be all ears.

Regards,
Eric Ritchie.

P. S. Perhaps better that it can't read my mind ;)
 
touringhaggis said:
Seriously though, I would be far more annoyed by the lack of function of the iPhone than the lags of the Note (which may be fixed soon). Is my opinion unique? Clearly not, given the number of iPhone users.
Click to expand...

This has turned into quite an interesting thread discussion. Here is one area that you and I disagree...partly. You are bang on when you say Apple has too much control and lock down. However, my jailbroken iPhone does pretty much everything my Note did. And in some cases I found out I needed to root my Note to get some functionality my jailbroken iPhone did. And in some cases I found out that I needed to replace the native Note apps with third party ones to get ones that were not buggy or that were fully featured.

So to get where I want to be I have to either:

A. Jailbreak, modify, tinker with my iPhone to have a kick a$$ phone.
B. Root, modify, tinker with my Note to have a kick a$$ phone.

Sounds about the same to me! So why sign another 2 year contract, spend $300, and go to the trouble when either way I have to do a lot of work to end up with what I want? Of course, this is just my opinion and experience.

Here is the deal: I HATE Apple as a company. I used to just laugh at (and pity) them and their users back in the early days. I am close to 40 years old so I have been a geek a long time now. But now they have seriously good products. But their lock downs are evil, the revenue percentages they forcefully demand from developers are evil, the fact that they demand a large cut of in-app purchases is BEYOND EVIL. The latter even hurt consumers since now I can't make Kindle store purchases on an apple device. The fact that they are steadily working towards allowing only Apple App Store purchases on their desktop/notebook computers scares the crap out of me and pure evil and greed!!! I think the general consumer (and certainly the general Apple user) has no clue what Apple is trying to achieve. Apple has become the most perfect personification of their famous 1984 ad!

The good news is I believe Apple is so arrogant that they cannot see the rising tide. They lost the desktop OS wars to Microsoft back in the early days because they refused to allow their software to run on other hardware. They simply do not see that the same thing is about to happen in the phone/tablet wars. Android and Microsoft are hitting Apple hard and they are getting better all the time. This is why I said earlier that Apple better heavily innovate for the iPhone 5 or I think that is where the tide will turn on Apple.

So if Android would polish up a bit so that the average non-geek has as good an experience out of the box as the average non-geek has with an iPhone I would be a happy camper. I hate that I am going to have to recommend an iPhone to my 68 year old father who has decided he needs a smartphone...but I know I will have more work if I recommend an Android phone for him. I realize us geeky folks can do magic with Android. But us geeky folks pale in comparison to the number of regular folks. We geeks are superior of course :cool:.

touringhaggis said:
You want to know why I am fine with that? Walk into any room and ask those present to hold up their smartphones. Count the iPhones and count the Notes. Yes, I am more of an individual without a me2phone. :)
Click to expand...

LOL. I have to be honest and admit I fall into that camp too. I am the king geek for my family/friends and I like the wow factor of showing off something new. I am expected to buy all the new gadgets...you know what I mean. That said, my iPhone is very personalized and does a lot of stuff that I can show off. I did enjoy blowing peoples minds with my Note for the few days I had it though.
 
daddybigas said:
This has turned into quite an interesting thread discussion.
Click to expand...

Well, if there is one thing you can expect from a Scotsman, it is an interesting discussion. It gets even more interesting after a bit of drinking, but sadly I am too sick to consider that tonight. Pity, because you sound like someone I could drink with.

daddybigas said:
However, my jailbroken iPhone does pretty much everything my Note did. And in some cases I found out I needed to root my Note to get some functionality my jailbroken iPhone did.
Click to expand...

Surely rooting an iPhone would not give you the missing microSD card slot that I cannot live without or the user switchable battery. I am on the road so much that I need my media library with me at all times. So I have the 32Gb internal, plus an SD card and I intend to use the OTG USB cable to plug in my 128Gb USB stick to give me access to lots of movies in addition to my thousands of mp3s. I have also heard that iPhone does not support USB host mode. Is this also a limitation for a rooted iPhone? (I have never owned one so I cannot tell and you seem to know your stuff).

I guess the missing hardware features of the iPhone are not as important to you as they are to me.

daddybigas said:
Sounds about the same to me! So why sign another 2 year contract, spend $300, and go to the trouble when either way I have to do a lot of work to end up with what I want? Of course, this is just my opinion and experience.
Click to expand...

And your opinion/experience is greatly valued. If you are happy with your phone, then save the 300 bucks and hang onto it (I know I would). As a system administrator I can fully get behind the "never change a running system" paradigm.

Actually I am fairly neutral towards Apple and their products. They seem to put together a quality package, but I get a bit nervous when the masses go mad over any particular brand. I am quite allergic to marketing: It gives me the runs (in this case to Samsung). But you have to hand it to them, they cornered the smartphone market and have milked it for all it was worth. Evil perhaps, but highly effective business practice. As you say we will see if they can continue to milk it for much longer.

Aside from the aforementioned missing hardware features I fail to see what could be added to the iPhone 5 to make it so much different. The problem is that smartphones do so much these days, there is only so much more that can be added. Perhaps a quad core processor that can also be used to cook your breakfast? I doubt they will go with a higher resolution or bigger screen because the masses would (probably) not like a bigger phone.

Then again I have been wrong before and I will be wrong again. Just ask my wife ;)

Regards,
Eric Ritchie.
 
I recently purchased the Note (yesterday) after having been an Apple convert from blockberry. I was nervous at first because i have and iPhone and an iPad. What I can tell you is that the size does not bother me, it is faster than my apple products (esp. using the 4G) and looks great. My only problem is trying to familiarize myself with the Android OS and figuring out the stylus. Keeping my fingers crossed.
 
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