Note 3 from Windows Phone

Xarok

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I am thinking of picking up a Note 3 as they are fairly cheap now and still have respectable specs.

I don't like Google and have never used Android before. How much of Google's services do I need to use? I use all MS services and would like to continue to do so on an Android phone.

How is the Note 3 one year on? I have heard Android lags and requires all these high specs to run well. Will the Note 3 get the latest version of Android or would I be better off going for a Note 4?

I was also looking at an iPhone 6 Plus since I have never had an iPhone either and they run extremely smoothly with their tight software integration despite lower hardware.

I am wanting to move from Windows Phone as my HTC8X with dev preview is the most laggy, crashy POS in existence, and there is no new Windows Phone hardware on the horizon.

Any help would be appreciated :)
 

B. Diddy

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Welcome to Android Central! Is your dislike of Google a philosophical thing, or a preference based on the quality of their apps or services? Being that Android is a Google product, you'll have to expect pretty tight integration of Google services. You don't have to use a lot of them, and in fact you can disable a lot of them in the settings menu. But in order to remove them completely, you'd have to root the device, and then exercise caution and restraint, since deleting the wrong thing could render the phone useless. But there are plenty of people on these forums who could tell you more about de-Googling an Android device with decent success.

Modern Android itself doesn't lag (i.e., from Jellybean on, or thereabouts). Lag is mostly from devices that run heavily skinned versions of Android (like TouchWiz)--but the Samsung flagship devices have such high end hardware that it cancels out. Lag can also be related to specific apps, which is more of a coding issue. I have a Nexus 5, which is very fast and very smooth--I would say that I never experience lag.

iPhones are undeniably good devices, and they work smoothly because Apple can completely optimize the OS for the single line of devices that they produce themselves--but that means no variety in hardware at all. Their ability to customize is catching up to Android, but is still behind in my opinion. Apple's strength has always been the quality of the apps in their Appstore, but I also find Android apps to be very high quality as well.

You're on an Android site, so there will obviously be a heavy bias from other respondents ... Good luck!
 

Xarok

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Hey, thanks for your reply.

My dislike of Google is both philosophical and based on the quality of their services. I don't want to use their services, but if I use one I feel they try and make me use all the others they offer. I realise Microsoft is increasingly following this practice but since I enjoy using their services, I'm happy with it. It's just a shame after looking at iOS and Android, I see WP is loosing features that attracted me to it in the first place, and it isn't as high quality in terms of speed, features, apps etc, it does feel like beta software at the moment :( And when I want my phone to just work and not lag all over the place and restrict me with a lack of apps or features, I can sacrifice my preference for Microsoft in favour of a different OS, but one that integrates nicely with MS services.

Your info has cleared up some of the questions I had with Android, so I thank you for that :)