From Windows Phone, start up/noob to Android help

[Saint Michael]

Hi! I've been a member and follower of the wpcentral site, being that I'm a bit of a MS fanboy (also die hard Nokian).
But my GF just got her HTC 8X broken. She loved the phone. But can't afford a New one.

I myself currently carry around the Surface RT for my web-browsing(as I use the Nokia 808 Pureview as my daily driver, and it can't be used for such tasks effectivly....gotta love symbian OS...)

So she was thinking of doing a similer thing, carry around a tablet for the web and such, and a dumbphone for Calls etc. I know my GF, and I know this wont work, she wont carry around a ipad mini and a phone at all times, no she needs a smart phone. her Counter arugment was that Reading the web would be more enjoyable if she had a bigger screen.

so I, in all my not thinking Things through enough - ness. bought her the Galaxy note 2.

so I have 2 questions for you who are much more knowlageble about android world.

1: I was Reading rumours the other day about the Note 3.... Is the Galaxy Note 2 a old Device? should I regret purchasing it atm? (The choises was between the note 2 and the nexus 4, would have gone for the HTC One if it came out when it should, but cant wait around for a month..)

2: is there anything essential I should do With the note 2 right away? any must have apps or anything different? I've only ever owned Symbian and WP Devices, she has had IOS and WP, but none of us know much about android....


PS: it's an unlocked international/European Note 2.

Sorry for my bad English, and thank you in advance for Your time!

 

[TheOtherBill]

At this point in time the Note 3 is nothing but rumors and most likely won't be available until the end of the year. Don't worry about it.
The Note 2 is only a few months old and most still consider it fairly new and it hasn't lost any awesomeness yet. It's nowhere near out of date, and many of the new features seen in the Galaxy S4 (The replacement for the World #1 Galaxy S3 that was intro'd last week) are coming to it at some unknown time in the future. I'd buy mine again tomorrow.

Essential? Get a Spigen SGP screen protector and a case - some people don't even feel those are essential but most people do. The phone works fine as it is -- there is no app that you must have so don't be in too much of a hurry to download the entire playstore. Better to wait and get familiar with the device, it can do plenty without added apps. If there was an app used on another phone that you do need, then it or its equivalent is available.
Then, once she's familiar with it, she can experiment with trying replacement apps for things she's not crazy about, or adding new things. Just get to know the phone first before trying to change it.

First apps to consider:
Dropbox (You may get a free 50GB account but at least 2GB free)
Samsung App Store (gets you Moleskin journal, plus photo and video editors) You may already have it, depends on the carrier.
Amazon App Store (they give away a free app daily, mostly games, about 1/10 are something you'll want to at least try)
If you use them: Pandora, Netflix, Kindle, etc. Oh, and Android Central