My BestBuy Purchase Experience
Yesterday I decided to pull the trigger on a new Note5. I had an S6 Edge. My first Android phone. I liked it well enough, except I wanted a larger screen (I came from a Lumia 1520, so the smaller screen on the S6 was a step back in some ways), and I also wanted the stylus for when I didn't have my Surface Pro 3 and had to jot down some quick notes or sign documents. The battery life was borderline on the S6. Sometimes I could barely make it through a day - which included keeping it charged when I was driving to and from work. So, I decided to pay off the phone and to get an Note 5.
For me, I liked the previous Notes except the materials felt so cheap I couldn't stand it. The edges bit into my skin as well - something that I hated about my Lumia 1520. Anyway, to cut a long story short - I decided to get the Note5 after seeing Youtube videos and early reviews. BestBuy has the $200 credit with an old Smartphone and I had an old iPhone 3G(!) sitting in my closet.
I went there to pickup my White 64GB (AT&T) at 10am which is when they opened. The Samsung rep there was very nice and she got me a Samsung T-Shirt, and the Sales Person said that I would get $200 for the iPhone, and a $45 Activation Credit, which I could use towards the downpayment of the new phone! So that was $245 towards the new device. That was fantastic.
I also got the Wireless Charging Station for preordering. That's going to sit on my workstation desk for when I set my phone down. After that it took a very long time to get the contract updated, and the phone activated, and the data transferred between the phones. Almost an hour total. That part I could have done without.
But $245, a free t-shirt, and a free charging station was pretty good I think. Oh, and the phone? So far I'm liking it a lot! A lot snappier for some reason than my S6 Edge ever was. The Edge had lagginess from day one at times - but was inconsistent. Sometimes it would be buttery smooth, then it would lag.
Since this is the same guts more or less, I am assuming it is Android 5.1.1 that is better. I transferred all of my apps over with the Samsung SmartSync tool, so I basically have the same environment as before. Just wanted to let you all know that I usually don't have great experience with BestBuy but this time it was pretty good.