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How much do/will you use the S Pen?

I imagine myself switching from using it almost exclusively to almost not at all (sometimes even within a matter of minutes) until I find a happy medium that works best for me. Every time I go to a store and play with the display model of the Note 2, I find myself picking up the S pen first; whether I use it or not is a different story. :p

As a side note, specifically to those who already own a Note series phone: how easy or difficult is the S pen to hold on to and keep in place? When I use the display model, I find the pen has a habit of wanting to roll one direction or the other, causing the button to move out of place. If this is a common occurrence even with a "wild" stylus, it will become a pet peeve very quickly. However, every S pen I've touched has had an anti-theft cable attached, so I'm hoping it's to blame for the rolling.
 
xaelith said:
I imagine myself switching from using it almost exclusively to almost not at all (sometimes even within a matter of minutes) until I find a happy medium that works best for me. Every time I go to a store and play with the display model of the Note 2, I find myself picking up the S pen first; whether I use it or not is a different story. :p

As a side note, specifically to those who already own a Note series phone: how easy or difficult is the S pen to hold on to and keep in place? When I use the display model, I find the pen has a habit of wanting to roll one direction or the other, causing the button to move out of place. If this is a common occurrence even with a "wild" stylus, it will become a pet peeve very quickly. However, every S pen I've touched has had an anti-theft cable attached, so I'm hoping it's to blame for the rolling.
Click to expand...


My only gripe with the s pen, and I use it often, is that I'm a person who writes where the meat of the base of my thumb (very close to the palm) rests on the paper/screen. Now, the s notes addressed this by making so that only the pen can mark up the page and not my hand, BUT...That doesn't stop me from accidentally hitting the back button with that same body part.

I hope this makes sense, I've never had to describe that part of my hand before.
 
I'm pretty much using it all the time. I hate a mucky screen. It's my number one beef with touch screen devices - so I also use capacitive pens on the SatNav etc. It's even more critical with the lovely Note 3 screen.

The pen was a major factor in my buying decision.
 
I specifically drove to AT&T yesterday for another look. The S Pen was missing in action. We all know how careful the public is with demo units. If it wasn't tethered to the display, I would have thought it was run over by a truck. :rolleyes:

The manager came over to say hello (the result of my frequent buyer addiction) and mentioned that particular Note 2 had only been on display for days and it's his last, a good sign ours should ship soon.

To the topic, I expect to make very good use out of the S Pen and I've already prepared myself to be patient while getting acclimated. My only concern is its thin diameter. Hopefully I'll adapt.

After all I've read, and the terrific videos I've watched highlighting the pens advancements over last year's I'm completely sold on its exemplary usefulness.
 
When I got my Note 2, I knew I liked the idea of the S Pen but wasn't sure how much I would actually use it. One year and 150 S Note notebooks (each between 1 and 5 pages each) later, I can say I find it extremely useful. Instead of having a collection of paper notes in different places, I now have my notes handy wherever I am, whenever I need them. If you tend to take notes or write things down, the S Pen is not a gimmick at all, it's definitly functional.

I also find myself literally writing emails and texts now too. The handwriting recognition is so good, its faster than typing.

Im looking forward to the extra S Pen functionality in the Note 3.

Sent from my Note 2 using Tapatalk 2
 
Hey Meerbot, thanks for the usage background and welcome to AF!

One question: I take a lot of small notes, but it's useless to me unless I can sync or copy them to a PC. Does that ability exist in the Note series?

Okay second question: Is entering text with the S Pen faster than using Swype or any of the other gesture input keyboard replacement apps?
 
I use the Android app called "Draft" for my notes. It syncs with Dropbox. A great combo which makes my notes accessible at work via PC, or at home via my Mac.
 
I bought my note 2 because of the s pen and screen size. For my work I process credit cards on my phone with square and PayPal here. The s pen makes signing my screen so much easier for my customers. I find myself using the pen a lot also for notes and just navigating the phone.
 
Thanks, Bluebiker:). I actually don't look at my notes on a PC, so there may be better person to answer that. I do sometimes share my notes to Evernote as PDFs though. And my Evernotes are available everywhere, Some combo of Evernote and S Note Would be my dream app. Zendroid, how does "Draft"work?

As for text entry, I do love swyping too and I go back and forth. My phone is set up so that if my S Pen is out and I click in a text field, the stylus input opens. So it just depends on whether my stylus is out or not.

Sent from my Note 2 using Tapatalk 2
 
Ah, good to know. I'll have some fun experimenting. I make extensive use of the custom dictionary w/Swype, may just continue to use that. I have a feeling that'll also work really well taking notes with the Note's multi-window feature.

Off-topic: How weird is it that Microsoft with Windows 8 is making it hard to use multi-window on full-size PCs... while Samsung is doing the opposite on phones. :stupid:
 
Meerbot said:
Thanks, Bluebiker:). I actually don't look at my notes on a PC, so there may be better person to answer that. I do sometimes share my notes to Evernote as PDFs though. And my Evernotes are available everywhere, Some combo of Evernote and S Note Would be my dream app. Zendroid, how does "Draft"work?

As for text entry, I do love swyping too and I go back and forth. My phone is set up so that if my S Pen is out and I click in a text field, the stylus input opens. So it just depends on whether my stylus is out or not.

Sent from my Note 2 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

Draft is a favorite because it's a plain text note taking app which I can then edit from my PC or Mac. Because it syncs to Dropbox it's available everywhere. In addition I use Evernote but it's rather cumbersome for fast short notes. Draft is great for longer ones if you're so inclined. I've always had a fondness for plain text, as a software engineer it's just so useful.

Sent via Nexus 7.2
 
Hi. I am new to this forum and this is my first post. Note 2 is my current, first and only smartphone. I bought it only because of the S pen. I don't use it to take notes regularly, but I will give an example.One of my students once called me asking a doubt about a problem. The explanation involved some diagrams and integration and stuff. I didn't have my laptop with me. So I did the whole thing in my note 2 using the pen and mailed him as an image. I don't think it would be possible with fingers only.

Yes the S pen is not the most used feature, but at times it can be a life saver.
Also if one wants to go artistic, hell yeah...
 
swordrage said:
One of my students once called me asking a doubt about a problem. The explanation involved some diagrams and integration and stuff. I didn't have my laptop with me. So I did the whole thing in my note 2 using the pen and mailed him as an image. I don't think it would be possible with fingers only.
Click to expand...

Hey swordrage, welcome to the forums.

They say that phones and tablets aren't useful for "content creation" but they obviously are with you and your Note 2. Nice example!
 
Methos1979 said:
This is a question for all the Note 2 users. I'm looking at possibly going to the Note 3 when it comes out, unless it's a dud, then I might scoop up a Note 2 for the small change it will surely drop in price to.

The S Pen has always seemed kind of... gimicky to me. To have to take the time to remove the pen and use it seems counter-intuitive to a touch screen phone where I can do most everything with my fingers without fumbling for a little pen.

Most of the people I know with Note 2's (only a few) seem to rarely if ever even use the S Pen. They'll pull it out to show it off but when in actual use, I rarely see it come out.

How many people here that are current Note 2 users even use their S Pen that much? Also, it seems that a whole of the most popular promo video is spent using the S Pen and the limited and quite frankly ugly little pop-up launch menu. The seems even more lame and gimicky to me.

Thoughts? Like I said, I think I'm going to either the Note 3 or 2 anyway but that's more about the size and other features of this fine phone (hate the term phablet). I'm just wondering what the die-hard Note 2 users feel about this.
Click to expand...

I use it all the time.
 
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