Real world hands on after 2 days

[cperrry1]

First i'd like to say I am not what you would call a power user, or a person who looks for things that are wrong, rather i'm a person that uses a device and notices issues as they occur. So, after having the View for 2 days, my Note pro 12.2 is up for sale. I enjoyed the Note Pro for its large size, but I wanted bigger, and the View is it, for me that is. My first thought when I took the View out of the box, was Damn, this thing is big. Its dwarfs all of my devices, hell, it even makes my 32 inch tv seem small, if that makes sense. It is heavy, for a tablet, but it will stay on my desk, so the weight isnt a problem. I have a 10 inch tablet that I take out and about.

Its running 5.1.1 which runs smooth and fast. Using chrome to stay up on the numerous sites I visit daily, works fine. First issue I noticed was many of the sites I visit don't utilize the full 18.4 inches. USA today gives me a desktop view, as well as Android central, but sites like CNN, XDA, Android police, the Verge, and Cnet, and many others treat the View as a tablet. Hopefully Samsung or Google will include a desktop setting in a future update.

As far as games, I play a lot of Madden, and it does utilize the full screen size, and its great. In fact its gonna take some getting use to because its so in your face, like being at a theatre sitting in the front row. As far as I could tell it ran as well as the Note Pro. Samsung also included and app called S console which allows you to connect a bluetooth game pad to the tablet. I downloaded Modern Combat 5, which i'm not very good at, and it ran as well as when playing on my Nexus Player, no stuter as far as I could tell.

Google Newstand, Plus, Earth, Maps, Youtube, Music, Gmail, Xfinity Tv, [redacted], Hd Cinema all use the full 18.4 inches. Samsung also included a Smart manager, which allows you to free up memory, which is nice. No need to download a Ram manger.

Speakers are nice, and loud, they are located on the back of the View. I will say, when the View is in the upright position the sound seems muffled, less highs, more bass, but when laying down sound seems to be more balanced. When I get my notifications on my cell its more tingy, all highs, with the View, the notification has high and lows, which is different, but nice.

Battery life for what I use it for is great, better than the Note pro. I went 2 days without charging. With the Note pro I had to charge every day. I dont let my devices go below 30 percent before charging.

As far the Views 1080 x 1980 display, for me its fine. Compared to my Note pro I really dont see that big a difference, but compared to my Galaxy tab S, the S is by far a superior displa.

Split screen is fine, Samsung has had this feature for years, and as always, works well but the apps are limited. I will say for such a large screen, it would be nice to open 4 seperate windows as well as cascade windows, but that is not what the tablet was designed for.

I also use the Samsung bluetooth keyboard and mouse(which im using now) , which works fine for me

Cost was a big factor for me, and I got lucky and through Amazons open box sale I was able to get the View at 468.00, no tax free shipping. that was 28.00 dollars more than I paid for my Note Pro, which I purchase refurbushed. Yes, I'm a bargin shopper.

I purchased the View to use as a tablet more than for media consumption, and for me its great. If your a member of the PPI patrol, and you have to have the highest resolution possible, maybe this isnt for you, but think about it. If the View had the display of the Galaxy tab S, 4gb of memory, S pen included the price would be over 1000 dollars. My Galaxy Note 12.2 retailed for over 700 dollars. For the 468.00 I paid for an 18.4 inch tablet, its a win win. Again, this is my opinion.

My wish list:
All apps optimized for the full size of the View.
Better speaker placement, and equalizer settings.
More than just 2 viewing angles.
Be able to remove/disble TV service screen.
Sold by T-mobile.

I hope this helps anyone on the fence about the View. Feel free to ask me any questions and i'll do my best to answer them.
"Love is in need of Love", Stevie Wonder.

 

[cperrry1]

Update after several days of use. My Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 is up for sale on ebay. The note pro was a great tablet, but for me not big enough.

I mentioned the View came with a Smart manager app, which turns out to be powered by Clean master, which gives lots of useful info and easily frees up ram. It doesnt show running in the application manager, so i'm not sure if its running in the background or not.

I was disappointed to find that with such a large display, google magazines text is still small in landscape. I really wish google would include font size settings for there services. With devices becoming larger people are using them in landscape as well as portrait mode.

I downloaded the Galaxy View remote app on my phone, (not available for tablets yet) and it works great. So you can be across the room and control the View with your phone. Most functions work with the remote except power. Now if they could find a way for me to use my gear S2 to launch apps on the View, like netfix, Hulu, Google Now, Milk music, Google music etc., that would take things to a whole new level.

I also found a carrying case at Samsung.com, but there is no pricing or availabilty yet.

Needless to say, im very happy with the View, and for only the second time since I have been purchasing smart devices, the first being my Note 4 edge, I plan on keeping this for a long time.

"Love is in need of Love", Stevie Wonder.

 

[pjniez]

I wish the Galaxy View had a higher resolution display. But it's not that big an issue since I bought it as a portable media consumption device for my family and it looks fine if your you're a few feet away from it. The battery power seems to be really good too which is nice for an Android device for a change!

I wish the speakers were front facing too. But, the seen to be loud enough and I've gotten used to the "indirect" audio coming from it.

I didn't know about the Galaxy View remote app. That could come in handy for me on my S5 Active. I'll check it out. Thanks!

 

[cperrry1]

Now if I could have a better a display at the price I purchased it at, hell yea, lol. But with the lower specs, the View runs smoother than my Note Pro. Maybe its because the View was optimized for this version Android.
As with all my devices I disable or remove unused apps, turn off all animations, but with the Note Pro, it didnt live up to the specs. I was clearing cache partition on a regular basis. Thats why, for me I no longer care so much about specs, its about how it works for me.

 

[cperrry1]

I seem to have a issue while using Google docs with my Samsung keyboard. Its very slow, I have letters that repeat. So if I hit the letter "e", I will get as many as 6 "e's", to appear. This happens with most letters if I type fast, in fact its also happening now, but not as bad as with Google docs.
I suspect its a software issue. and Samsung needs to send out some type of update for this issue. I did not have this issue with my Note pro.
Any ideas or fixes would be greatly appreciated. Thnx in advance.

 

[cperrry1]

After I posted about my keyboard issues, I decided to unpair, forget, my Samsung keyboard and mouse and re-pair them, and that seemed to fix the issue. I'll post if the problem comes back.