Yes, it's early days yet but my old phone is just creaking along, the decision making process is complicated, and I don't have many opportunities for thorough research. I'm hoping people here can help me find the right phone for work and play.
I use the Note 4 but I'm not a TW fan, not at all. Except for the S-Pen and S-Health, I use only the Google apps instead of Samsung's "me too" imitations. Those two exceptions are very useful though and the S-Pen seems to be unique. Otherwise the TW environment is a huge negative.
I'm also not a fan of Samsung's obnoxious level of bloatware. I'm constantly having to delete files as the phone's memory fills up, so being unable to delete useless TW crapware is truly offensive It's going to be even worse in the Note 8, especially with MS paying to install apps that can't be deleted.
The inability to use one button for anything but Bixby is really offensive too. I don't currently use an assistant but if I do it will be Google's version, a decision I made even before Bixby's bad reviews came in.
OTOH, the Note's hardware is awesome and the S-Pen irreplaceable.
Pixel 2: love the ecosystem, the ability to customize (and delete!), and the freshest security updates. Downsides are no S-Pen and rather less impressive hardware, from what I've seen to date.
Questions:
- Is there an Android counterpart to the S-Pen?
- Any chance of a dev-edition Note 8 so I can delete useless apps, maybe install an ad-blocker?
- I'm not sure I'd want to root the 8, even once that becomes possible, for security reasons. How long has it taken to root the last few Note releases roughly?
Thanks!
I use the Note 4 but I'm not a TW fan, not at all. Except for the S-Pen and S-Health, I use only the Google apps instead of Samsung's "me too" imitations. Those two exceptions are very useful though and the S-Pen seems to be unique. Otherwise the TW environment is a huge negative.
I'm also not a fan of Samsung's obnoxious level of bloatware. I'm constantly having to delete files as the phone's memory fills up, so being unable to delete useless TW crapware is truly offensive It's going to be even worse in the Note 8, especially with MS paying to install apps that can't be deleted.
The inability to use one button for anything but Bixby is really offensive too. I don't currently use an assistant but if I do it will be Google's version, a decision I made even before Bixby's bad reviews came in.
OTOH, the Note's hardware is awesome and the S-Pen irreplaceable.
Pixel 2: love the ecosystem, the ability to customize (and delete!), and the freshest security updates. Downsides are no S-Pen and rather less impressive hardware, from what I've seen to date.
Questions:
- Is there an Android counterpart to the S-Pen?
- Any chance of a dev-edition Note 8 so I can delete useless apps, maybe install an ad-blocker?
- I'm not sure I'd want to root the 8, even once that becomes possible, for security reasons. How long has it taken to root the last few Note releases roughly?
Thanks!