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View Full Version : OK, so I was wrong to dismiss Samsung



Harold Mansfield
11-05-2016, 02:58 PM
I've been saying "Samsung is dead to me" since they killed the expandable memory and replaceable battery on the Note line. Until recently I had a Note 4 and figured I'd keep it until they pried it from my cold dead hands.

Then the Note 7 fiasco happened, plus the ever increasing price of the phones, and I figured that was it for me. I'm done with Samsung.

Then I lost my Note 4 and the insurance company was out of Note 4's, so they sent me a brand new Note 5.

I won't bore you with too many of the specs, but it's pretty good. First of all 4G RAM is spectacular. Samsung pay is far superior to Android Pay ( I was bad mouthing the amount of different pay platforms too). They've made nice improvements to the S Pen, finger print reader, security, reduced the crap, improved the things that are actually useful and you can now get rid of the bloatware and streamline your apps to just the ones you want and need.

Yeah you lose expandable memory, and replaceable battery and that was a big deal that made me say I'd never get one. When my Note 4 was acting up (after 2 years), a new battery fixed the issue. Hate not having that option anymore.

Not sure I would have paid $800 for it since I don't ever want to pay $800 for a phone ever again, but I have to admit that it is very fast, fluid, designed well, and has with many useful features and improvements that I find impressive and even helpful. It's a damn good phone.

I was wrong. I discounted it before I tried it for personal reasons and that's not a good characteristic to have as a small business owner.

Owen
11-06-2016, 01:27 PM
I've been saying "Samsung is dead to me" since they killed the expandable memory and replaceable battery on the Note line. Until recently I had a Note 4 and figured I'd keep it until they pried it from my cold dead hands.

Then the Note 7 fiasco happened, plus the ever increasing price of the phones, and I figured that was it for me. I'm done with Samsung.

Then I lost my Note 4 and the insurance company was out of Note 4's, so they sent me a brand new Note 5.

I won't bore you with too many of the specs, but it's pretty good. First of all 4G RAM is spectacular. Samsung pay is far superior to Android Pay ( I was bad mouthing the amount of different pay platforms too). They've made nice improvements to the S Pen, finger print reader, security, reduced the crap, improved the things that are actually useful and you can now get rid of the bloatware and streamline your apps to just the ones you want and need.

Yeah you lose expandable memory, and replaceable battery and that was a big deal that made me say I'd never get one. When my Note 4 was acting up (after 2 years), a new battery fixed the issue. Hate not having that option anymore.

Not sure I would have paid $800 for it since I don't ever want to pay $800 for a phone ever again, but I have to admit that it is very fast, fluid, designed well, and has with many useful features and improvements that I find impressive and even helpful. It's a damn good phone.

I was wrong. I discounted it before I tried it for personal reasons and that's not a good characteristic to have as a small business owner.

I just bought the iPhone 7 two days ago along with an Apple Watch. I regret nothing.

Bobjob
11-07-2016, 01:57 PM
I've been eyeballing Note since they came out with the Spen because drawing and writing on pictures is so important for my business. I told myself I would purchase one just to try it out, but never did. Plus I discovered Skitch app which does the photo editing I need. I'm hesitate because all I know is Apple. And I assume the Note phone would be like using a PC, which I've only recently begun learning.

Harold Mansfield
11-07-2016, 02:23 PM
I've been eyeballing Note since they came out with the Spen because drawing and writing on pictures is so important for my business. I told myself I would purchase one just to try it out, but never did. Plus I discovered Skitch app which does the photo editing I need. I'm hesitate because all I know is Apple. And I assume the Note phone would be like using a PC, which I've only recently begun learning.

Apple has drawing apps, and this company makes an iPhone stylus, although I suspect any stylus from Office Depot would work
http://www.adonit.net/snap/

As for the Note/Android. It's not like Windows/PC. It's different so there's a learning curve with anything that's different. But it's not like a PC.

Not sure I would get a Note just for that if you're an Apple person. Apple makes a lot of options for drawing and sketching on the phone and various iPads.

extramile
01-12-2017, 09:08 AM
I guess Samsung messed up badly with the Note, but I don't feel like it's going to make much of a difference. Still the main rival to Apple.

Zharlene
07-10-2017, 01:34 AM
Very interesting post...mainly because I'm still on my Note 4 (Duos). I bought it some time around late 2014. Here we are mid 2017 and my Note 4 is still everything I need a phone to be. I think it takes excellent daytime pictures. I've been eyeing the XiaoMi Max 2 because I recently purchased it for a friend and it's a HUGE phone, it really dwarfs my Note4.

shrinkme
07-10-2017, 10:36 AM
I like the Apple products but the Samsung phones seem very good. I would consider them in the future.

Harold Mansfield
07-10-2017, 10:57 AM
Funny, I wrote this back in Nov of 2016. Now it's July of 2017 and I'm back to being disgusted with Samsung. Still like my Note 5, but on the horizon is the Note 8 and regardless of it's features, I'm just not paying $900 for a phone. It's almost a certainty that they aren't going to include the features that are important to me, most of the changes will be aesthetic, Samsung specific features like Bixby which NO ONE NEEDS on top of Alexa and Google Assistant, and since it's probably going to be water proof if will be unfixable, won't be able to replace the battery and won't be dual sim.

$900 is probably the lower spec/memory model.

I'll wait to see what the actual phone has, but the price. I just can't do that price for a phone when options like the One Plus are out there with great specs (8G RAM), dual sim, unlocked, for $499. And there are many decent phones from Motorola and other device makers in the $299-$399 range.

At $900 I just feel like I'm carrying more of a fashion statement than any groundbreaking features that I need to make my life easier.

Zharlene
07-13-2017, 02:35 AM
I am tempted to shift to Apple. I like the Apple apps, and because I live in China at the moment where they've blocked Google and all apps related to Google (and for any Android device you can imagine how many apps are affected). So it's easy to just use an Apple device. :) I also don't entirely disagree with you Harold. Over the years Samsung seems to have grown complacent.

Bobjob
07-13-2017, 04:02 PM
You are in luck. They allow you to make payments so sticker shock (or logic) doesn't get in the way of a sale.

I see the manufacturers side a little bit, mobile is what everyone uses the most of these days.

But the public has been crying for better battery life, and all the manufacturers do is make the phone slimmer. I do not believe new phone sales will be strong in the future for samsung and apple. That said, I've never been the type to want the modern gadget, but recently I relate modern with getting stuff done faster, which I'm very keen on these days.

It's a shame business owners cannot write off their phone purchase and use.

Harold Mansfield
07-13-2017, 04:16 PM
You are in luck. They allow you to make payments so sticker shock (or logic) doesn't get in the way of a sale.


I know. But I'm not financing a phone. I thought prices were supposed to come down, not merely offering credit so that you can pay more for it.
If I ever finance an electronic device it's either going to have liquid cooling, 64G RAM, and 2 graphics cards or have 4 wheels with a 400 mile range on a charge.