Step into Android or go all out?

[anthonyng]

Lol
I'm trying to decide if I should go simple android like a Nokia 8.1 or go all out with a galaxy note10+

I'm interested in the pen to supplement my workflow but not sure if it'll work out that way

Thoughts?

 

[seventeenapg]

Lol
I'm trying to decide if I should go simple android like a Nokia 8.1 or go all out with a galaxy note10+

I'm interested in the pen to supplement my workflow but not sure if it'll work out that way

Thoughts?

I've just got the 10e having come f r om a lumia 950. Have it Microsofted as much as possible and I'm liking it so far. Phones have come so far since 2015, it's quite incredible. I still wish there was a MS alternative....

 

[ochhanz]

Lol
I'm trying to decide if I should go simple android like a Nokia 8.1 or go all out with a galaxy note10+

I'm interested in the pen to supplement my workflow but not sure if it'll work out that way

Thoughts?

, I would get the Note10+ if I would use the pen regularly for work (or Note 10 if battery life / screen size is less important). Otherwise I would get the Nokia 8.1.

I read that Samsung ships it with some a decent app for note taking so that or Office might be worth it for work, but I wonder how useful note taking on a Note really is compared to typing / swiping? Sketching / drawing might be more worth it. :?

 

[anthonyng]

..., but I wonder how useful note taking on a Note really is compared to typing / swiping? Sketching / drawing might be more worth it. :?

I'm interested in it more for a digital whiteboard. Been watching one of my peers carry an iPad pro and drawing out their ideas or what they've heard... Esp with online meetings where they can illustrate concepts for all to see.

But I don't want an iPad lol. I don't really want to carry another thing around along with my work laptop. Maybe my intended purpose needs me to go that size but I'd probably go with a Surface X (actually, should just use my SP3 or S3 or Miix630!)

I guess I'm wondering if the note10+ would help me do digital whiteboarding and not be limiting due to it's size or ability. I also use onenote and office lens a lot and annotate on top of the images. I'm not really a handwritten note taker, much faster on keyboard lol

 

[ochhanz]

I'm interested in it more for a digital whiteboard. Been watching one of my peers carry an iPad pro and drawing out their ideas or what they've heard... Esp with online meetings where they can illustrate concepts for all to see.

But I don't want an iPad lol. I don't really want to carry another thing around along with my work laptop. Maybe my intended purpose needs me to go that size but I'd probably go with a Surface X (actually, should just use my SP3 or S3 or Miix630!)

I guess I'm wondering if the note10+ would help me do digital whiteboarding and not be limiting due to it's size or ability. I also use onenote and office lens a lot and annotate on top of the images. I'm not really a handwritten note taker, much faster on keyboard lol

, yeah indeed, for that purpose I use my either my 2-1 laptop (with pen) or big phone but idd drawing with a finger can be a bit clumsy and my 2-1 is 15 inch so it is clumsy too. Best for this as you mentioned something like a Surface Pro/X, 12.9 ipad pro or a relative lightweight 2-1 laptop (the extra screen estate is nice compared to the smaller screen of the phone).
That being said, if you have a small hand writing I can imagine the Note 10+screen being big enough.

 

[anthonyng]

Was so sad about Surface neo for 2020, that definitely seems the right size. Even the duo would be a lot better than the note10+

The galaxy fold is not dual sim and I need it to be dual sim

 

[fatclue_98]

I'm interested in it more for a digital whiteboard. Been watching one of my peers carry an iPad pro and drawing out their ideas or what they've heard... Esp with online meetings where they can illustrate concepts for all to see.

But I don't want an iPad lol. I don't really want to carry another thing around along with my work laptop. Maybe my intended purpose needs me to go that size but I'd probably go with a Surface X (actually, should just use my SP3 or S3 or Miix630!)

I guess I'm wondering if the note10+ would help me do digital whiteboarding and not be limiting due to it's size or ability. I also use onenote and office lens a lot and annotate on top of the images. I'm not really a handwritten note taker, much faster on keyboard lol

I can't speak intelligently about the Note 10 in particular as I haven't used it. But if previous Notes, Android in general and Chrome OS is any indicator, Samsung's S-Pen has nowhere near the inking capabilities that an iPad with a Pencil or any Ink-capable Microsoft PC has. Their software isn't on par with Apple or Microsoft for even the most basic of tasks like annotating a PDF. I would strongly suggest you play with one at a carrier store or other big box place like Best Buy, etc. before making a decision. Granted, Samsungs play much nicer with the Your Phone app than any other Android and have more features available if you wish to stick with your SP3.

 

[NYCMetsPDX]

I moved to a Note 10+ this year for the pen...and I love it. I regularly use it to sketch out engineering diagrams for emails, specs. etc. I find it to be on par (in some cases better) than some of the inking functionality in Windows. Since the inking is Samsung specific I would avoid comparisons to "Android in general and Chrome OS" as Samsung heavily skins their version of Android (granted that's another can of worms entirely, but after coming from a "pure Android" experience I actually kind of like it).

New inking functionality in the Note 10 family this year is improved inking in several apps. One such example is where you can write something out (Say a shopping list) and have it convert that to a Microsoft Word doc, converting your handwritten notes to text, so you can send it to others. The inking is easily on par with that of what I can do on my Surface or other good Windows inking devices (HP Elitebook is what I use at work and it too is pretty darn good!).
Other cool features if you're looking for pen fun:
- Easy annotation of screen images
- Super easy annotation of PDF docs
- Annotations on videos
- If you connect your phone to your laptop you can sketch on the phone, view it on the laptop and use Windows screen capture if you want to share the image
- Ability to jot down notes with the pen without having to turn the screen on
- Being able to select text from photos and converting that to actual text that you can use in a doc, search bar, etc.

Like other said, play with it in a store and see for yourself but I do think the inking experience is pretty fantastic. I for one went to a store to try it out and was pretty amazed with it, previously I was quite skeptical of using a stylus with a phone.

Have fun mulling the decision over!

 

[anthonyng]

@NYCMetsPDX wow that's awesome. Thank you to take the time to write your thoughts! Are you using the Microsoft launcher or is it better to stick with the Samsung? I gotta find time and make my decision soon and you've definitely helped! Thank you

 

[Ryujingt3]

@NYCMetsPDX wow that's awesome. Thank you to take the time to write your thoughts! Are you using the Microsoft launcher or is it better to stick with the Samsung? I gotta find time and make my decision soon and you've definitely helped! Thank you

You are actually better off going with the Nokia. It runs a pure Android experience through the Android One program. That means you get the bare bones needed and no additional bloat (unlike Samsung), so it's like how W10M was, just the main apps and nothing more. That means faster performance overall.

 

[tgp]

You are actually better off going with the Nokia. It runs a pure Android experience through the Android One program. That means you get the bare bones needed and no additional bloat (unlike Samsung), so it's like how W10M was, just the main apps and nothing more. That means faster performance overall.

The "pure Android experience" isn't always better. Samsung does add some things, yes, but much of it is very useful. They are also scaling back on duplicate apps, such as their own photo app alongside Google Photos. The "bloat" on a Samsung phone is much less than it has been in the past.

I switched from Samsung to OnePlus a year ago, and I still miss some of the Samsung specific features. I am not ruling out returning to Samsung someday.

Basically, the advantages of each side are down to personal opinion more than anything else. There is a reason Samsung phones are the most popular, and it's not all due to marketing. Their flagships sell very well year after year. They have many returning customers.

 

[ochhanz]

You are actually better off going with the Nokia. It runs a pure Android experience through the Android One program. That means you get the bare bones needed and no additional bloat (unlike Samsung), so it's like how W10M was, just the main apps and nothing more. That means faster performance overall.

, I heard deleting the cache (or something like that) once every year or few years also helps a lot to prevent Samsung phones from slowing down (probably also helps with other Android phones though, but I can imagine it is more important with Samsung phones than e.g. Android One phones).

 

[nt40lanman]

If one of you gents is truly gifted in configuring Androids for post-W10M I could really use the help.

 

[Ryujingt3]

If one of you gents is truly gifted in configuring Androids for post-W10M I could really use the help.

What do you want to do?

Do you want your Android phone to look like W10M?

If so, use a launcher such as SquareHome2 or Launcher10 (search for them on the Play Store on your Android phone). You can then use either of them to replace your current launcher and make it look like W10M, with live tiles and such. The live tiles effect may vary though and if I remember one of the launchers makes updating live titles a paid extra (but you can get a trial).

Alternatively, you can install the Microsoft launcher instead and use that as your default launcher, and just install all MS Android apps (I used this approach). Your phone won't look like W10M, but you will have all the available MS apps that were on W10M.

I found that the launchers didn't fully recreate the W10M experience and were hard to set up and use. I guess I could just tell that it wasn't really W10M. I'm not a fan of skinning apps at the best of times though - so give it a try and see what you thnk!

 

[tgp]

If one of you gents is truly gifted in configuring Androids for post-W10M I could really use the help.

The best thing to do is to not try to turn your Android into a Windows phone. Turn it on and use it. That is what the most gifted person would do. You should not be fighting your mobile device.

Yes, it's different than Windows phone. But it's not necessarily worse. Just different. Learn it and get used to it.

 

[nt40lanman]

I don't care about the look, although I love WP home screen. Mostly it's the use. I have MS Launcher, Cortana Outlook, Word, etc installed. I use all MS services and apps, Outlook.com, OneDrive, OneNote, MS Hosted Exchange mail, etc. because I don't really trust Google. The reason I ended up at Android is that it will manage 2 online contacts lists decently. The various parts of WP worked well together. This feels compartmentalized.

It won't announce an incoming text and let me answer hands free. When I ask Cortana to add an appointment, it goes to the non-default calendar. So many little things that are more important to me. It's hard to express them all because I haven't put a SIM in it yet.

 

[Laura Knotek]

The best thing to do is to not try to turn your Android into a Windows phone. Turn it on and use it. That is what the most gifted person would do. You should not be fighting your mobile device.

Yes, it's different than Windows phone. But it's not necessarily worse. Just different. Learn it and get used to it.

Those are my thoughts as well.

Over the years, I've used: desktop Windows, various Linux desktop distros, Nokia Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Android. I've never tried to make one OS look or behave like another one. I enjoy all of them and haven't had any issues with any of them.

 

[anthonyng]

I went with the note 10, smaller one. Pretty happy with the deal I managed.

Got it on the 21st but only put the sim in from my 950XL today.

Oh my the targeted ads, instant effect! so used to unsupported w10m apps not showing ads lol

Looking forward to trying out the pen for work and whiteboarding. Pen already awesome for those websites with hover over pop up dialogs lol

I think I want to ignore Bixby, we'll see, using Microsoft launcher and apps, nice note about not trying to recreate w10m but try to use the phone with what it offers

 

[ochhanz]

Oh my the targeted ads, instant effect! so used to unsupported w10m apps not showing ads lol

, this is true haha, on my Lumia I sometimes see black rectangles in places where ads would normally show e.g. in Edge.
You could try something like Blokada or such. Iirc some adblockers block also ads in apps. On the downside the app dev won't get his ad revenue but on the plus side it improves security since modern ads can be and are sometimes used to spread malware.

ps: just read there is a Note 10 Lite coming out, might be interesting for people that don't need the latest mobile cpu's but do want pen support and other Note goodies.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

I went to the Dark Side as the clock was approaching the new year. I have spent 100, 200? hours beating the BB Priv I bought into submission and since I was almost "there," it seemed like a logical time to switch. Marshmallow 6.0.1, BTW. Getting it to run as I would think a phone should. The advice of just letting Android bend you over the barrel and learn it is terrible.

I tried at least 15 of the Metro UI launchers, plus the MS one. Square Home 3 stood out head and shoulders above the others, and the developer actually will communicate with you. We are now working to get live tiles into the product.

One of my goals was to stay out of the Google ecosystem as much as possible, and use MS and Onedrive as much as possible. I am astounded at how intrusive Google itself and many Android apps are. Many won't even let you pay the ransom ("In store purchases,") to end the ads! Even launchers! And I'm not talking the little bar at the bottom of the screen but full screen intrusions that are difficult to get out of. When was the last time you saw ads in a MS app? And tracking you everywhere. Google sells ads, MS sells..................phones. Well, they did.

Android requires much more constant "under the hood" attention to do the most simple of tasks. WP to PC? Plug it in, drivers get downloaded, good forever more. Android, well, first you have to become a developer by the secret hand shake. That let's you turn on "USB Debugging." Which has NOTHING to do with debugging in any classic sense. So now it's connected........to only charge. You have to pull down Notifications and look for USB Debugging which when entered will give you four options. You have to select File Transfer to.....well, transfer files. And every time you connect, same thing, it defaults back to charge only.

Then, with every app installation, granting permissions. For many, the cryptic granting "Overlay permission," I think it's called. I feel like I'm driving a Yugo (if you know what that was) with a ten speed transmission that I have to constantly row.

I never found a Glance type app that didn't suck the battery. Every. One. Of. Them. Despite having an AMOLED screen and Android 8, I think, and later, builds it in. I had a light bulb moment and bought a $45 smart watcch to do some of the same things. But now I'm having to wear a watch, and I don't like that. Oh, well, it does track my steps and reminds me that I'm a lazy ******.

The claim of Android having so many apps is false in functional practice. Ninety percent of a category are redundant. I have noticed that many have been plagiarized! They have the exact same interfaces, just tweaking the look a tiny bit. Trying to cash in on ad revenue. And many of them crash, or should be called pre-beta or something.

Besides installing the Onedrive app, you should also install the One Sync app. That will shoot your pictures up to Onedrive instead of Google.

I tried a lot of photo gallery apps. Most sweep your phone and just throw them all onto the screen without any delineations of date of where they resided. A+ Gallery fixed that. BTW, if you can support the developer (and get rid of ads,) by paying a few shekels, do! I can't believe the number of reviewers that are pissed off that a free app has ads and won't pay the support.

My favorite phone of all time was the Nokia Communicator 9290, a horizontal flip phone with a huge keyboard. Those were the original smart phones, ya know? keypad, no touchscreen, but Jobs stole the concept. Anyway, my 9290 still works fine (with a big sim!), but it was long ago time to move on. And so I have. I still have an Alcatel Idol 4S for a backup phone. I shall turn it on now and then, love me that Windows 10 Mobile for a fix along with a shot, and cry.