I've got quite a few Apple products and I still think they have an edge in general user experience. I bought Galaxy Nexus out of curiosity, and it wasn't too bad. When here comes Galaxy Note II. I was never big fan of the 3.5 inch screen that led me to buy iPad for longer than 5 minute browsing. 5.5 inch screen sounded promising, hence I decided to try the Note II, although I was a bit worried about comments on TouchWiz.
After a few weeks with the Note II, I'm convinced that this is the phone for me. Not only I love the size of the screen, the S Pen works really well, and character recognition works leaps and bounds better than the days of Dell Axim x51v (My previous experience).
What really sold me are actually what Samsung did to Jelly Bean. Surely, stock Jelly Bean that I've used with GNex was pretty good, I couldn't help but feel that it's bare. Most of the default screens are minimal, and very dark in color. As someone who enjoyed Apple's more playful and colorful UI, the aspect was a definite downgrade that I just put up with.
While it IS true that TouchWiz is kinda mess in terms of how disorienting at places when I try to find things. However, the overall user interface is much more pleasent and colorful.
I like Android, and I think Jelly Bean is superior to iOS 6, except the dry look and feel. I love the look of the Note II. I've switched the system font that was never possible with iPhone. The google calendar is replaced by S-Planner. Even the stock email is usable compared to the stock email on GNex for me.
The camera app is also much better than GNex even with 4.2 upgrade. In overall, I've found the phone that I wanted. To me, little things and the feel and the look of the phone is every bit as important as hardware specs. Now, I understand why Apple is trying so hard to drive out Samsung from the smart phone market by suing left and right.
After a few weeks with the Note II, I'm convinced that this is the phone for me. Not only I love the size of the screen, the S Pen works really well, and character recognition works leaps and bounds better than the days of Dell Axim x51v (My previous experience).
What really sold me are actually what Samsung did to Jelly Bean. Surely, stock Jelly Bean that I've used with GNex was pretty good, I couldn't help but feel that it's bare. Most of the default screens are minimal, and very dark in color. As someone who enjoyed Apple's more playful and colorful UI, the aspect was a definite downgrade that I just put up with.
While it IS true that TouchWiz is kinda mess in terms of how disorienting at places when I try to find things. However, the overall user interface is much more pleasent and colorful.
I like Android, and I think Jelly Bean is superior to iOS 6, except the dry look and feel. I love the look of the Note II. I've switched the system font that was never possible with iPhone. The google calendar is replaced by S-Planner. Even the stock email is usable compared to the stock email on GNex for me.
The camera app is also much better than GNex even with 4.2 upgrade. In overall, I've found the phone that I wanted. To me, little things and the feel and the look of the phone is every bit as important as hardware specs. Now, I understand why Apple is trying so hard to drive out Samsung from the smart phone market by suing left and right.