life in the note 2 in 2015?

[alanandroid]

Hi all.. kind of fancy a change. You know what it's like? Running nexus 5 presently and everythings fine but I'm starting to look at other phones. I've had it about 9 months now and I keep getting drawn to the note 2. I hear it's likely to get lollipop at some point so it must still be relevant even 2 years on..? Yes/No?
What do you think folks? Would I hate it after the initial excitement wears off or could it be a runner for the next 6 month?

 

[Thierry Henry]

Going from a N5 to a Note 2 is like replacing a Ferrari for a Volkswagen beetle. Jokes aside it really is an old phone and you would rather have a Note 3 which is still a very relevant phone, but i would recommend highly a Note 4 if you want to go for the Note series. Cheers!

 

[Rukbat]

Lollipop isn't future-proofing a phone, it's putting bugs into a phone. I haven't heard of one that doesn't have one bug or another.

Putting Lollipop into a phone as old as a Note 2 is like using nitro fuel in a Volkswagen.

Not 3 if you want to save money or Note 4. Depending on the carrier and what you expect to do. AT&T and Verizon versions of Samsung phones can't have custom recoveries or ROMs - the bootloaders can't be unlocked and the ROM signature can't be obtained. So if you're on either carrier and want to do anything with your phone's recovery or ROM, at least with the Note 3 (I don't know about the 4), you can install Safestrap up to 4.4.2 (and freeze the updater once you root), so you can sort of be running TWRP as your recovery. I don't know if anyone's come up with a safe root for 4.4.4 or 5.x.

 

[alanandroid]

Yeah, thanks guys.. Maybe it is a bit long in the tooth. Would consider switching to a N3 or N4 but the Note 2 seems such good value second hand at least. Probably pick a decent one up for around £200ish. My reason for targeting the N2 is obviously because of the price and the N4 is still rather expensive and I hear the difference between the N2 and N3 is not so big in terms of performance/screen/speaker.. We'll see.. It would be great to have a try of a 4g/Lte variant and see how it runs from day to day. Maybe Amazon could assist me with their returns policy!?

Cheers Alan..

 

[alanandroid]

Well, what do you know.. Out of the blue a Galaxy Note 2 turns up! Unlocked, Titanium Grey and like new. Totally unmarked. As you can see guys I took your advice.. Tracked this down at one of the local CEX stores and managed to bag £170 for my Nexus 5 and paid an extra £30 to secure the Samsung.
So far, all things good. Surprised how good the screen quality is compared to the Nexus 5 and the speaker is miles better. I know the the Nexus had a 1080 display but the 720 on the Note just seems so much more appealing. Colours are better and blacks are blacker. Not as bright outdoors mind you but so much more satisfying to look at. Ive adjusted the display to cinema in the settings and that pretty much toned things down some. Yeah, the phone is that much bigger and heavier than the Nexus but it still feels good in the hand if not the pocket. As far as the Samsung lag is concerned I initially went down the route of installing Nova prime and tweaked it as you do. This here and that there and arranging things just the way you like it. After a few days I've kind of realised there was a clash of personalities here. Most of the time while your using a different launcher everything seems okay but I found that when having to adjust system settings and the like I was being taken back into another dimension if you like. I just seemed to be fighting with the phone and maybe missing out on some of the functionality of the device. Over the last few days I've decided to uninstall Nova and just use TouchWiz as Sammy intended. I've gone to using only one home screen and disabling all the Samsung nonsense including S voice. I've also gone into developer settings and disabled all animations which so far seems to have rid it of the slight lag which was there. Now I've got a phone which considering it's age and processor is really performing quite well. I know it's not as quick as the Nexus but I'm honestly quite impressed how fluid it is.
The camera is also pretty good in the right lighting and I'm also enjoying it's features compared to the bare bones approach of the Nexus. Also, loving the slo mo feature in video and the ability to pause your recording. Little things, but they all add up. I've been able to get some images off my Sony RX100 onto the Note. I used an OTG cable and the Samsung file manager and it works a treat. Great to see the high res pics on that lovely display and the ability to move them on through gmail, facebook or whatever.. Well, like I said so far so good. I've ordered a few accessories from Amazon including a 32gb sd card and a wireless charging module that fits on top of the battery and should enable Qi charging. I haven't really touched the S pen and maybe never will but it's always there should I wish to explore. We'll see how things go then..

Cheers.. Alan