I have owned a Samsung Vibrant for the past couple of years. It has been a solid phone but Samsung never updated it past 2.2. At my current job the server certificate vendor being used, GeoTrust, is not trusted by my phone. I have been unable to use my device to run the software I am currently writing.
Face it 2.2 is pretty old and very few devices on the Play Store are using it. Most people update their phone every couple of years so they move beyond it. As a developer you need to stay a bit on the cutting edge too. I am a cheap person by default so I hate to buy stuff just to have it. There was a sale on the phone this weekend so I decide to take the dive.
Why the Note 2? Didn't Samsung hose me over by never updating it during its life with me? Very true but it has been a rock solid phone. I could have rooted it if I wanted to lose functionality. Seems like the various ROMs have some sort of issue. Can't use the camera or something with the audio is messed up. No thanks.
I am not using the heck out of the phone as it is. Yes I do some text messages, get calls from my wife and kids and play a few games. Other than that I am not playing with it all day long. I am coding for it. Now I need something new to code against.
We have a Note as a test device at work. I have found it to be a nice phone. People say it is huge but I don't find that to be the case. It is about the right size to do what I want. Big enough to read web pages but still small enough to fit in the pocket. I got a lot of use out of the Note when I took it home on different nights.
Samsung does very nice screens. Bright colors, easy to read text. The addition of the stylus appeals to me too. On top of coding I do a bit of graphics work. I want to practice drawing more often. Now I can do that anyplace I have a bit of free time. I type very fast on a computer keyboard. I really like the Swype keyboard. I tried the handwriting side and it seemed to work very well. The Note needed to be faster to keep up with my writing and drawing.
Another guy at work bought the Note 2 so I got to try it out for just a little bit. The stylus was able to keep up with my drawing. This appears to be a really fast phone. I will finally get JellyBean on a device that I have on me all the time. I have a Xoom at home with JB on it so I know my way around.
Curious to see how the dual app stuff will work. I think my wife would like it as she plays Words with Friends and uses some website to help her look up words. Right now she will have the phone in one hand and the tablet in the other to look up words. Doing it with one device would be very useful to her. I don't play WWF but I hope to find other areas this would be handy.
The local libraries just sent a note they are now supporting e-books. I really want to try that out. I would love to try out some other authors but just downloading a book, no gas wasted, book on me all the time. I also want to keep up on some other technology websites while watching TV etc. I know I was able to do that when I had the Note at home.
All very exciting. Should arrive by the end of the week. My son will inherit my old phone giving him is first smartphone. He is totally pumped for that to happen. It will help him keep track of his schedule with Google Calendar and GMail. I hope it helps him track his own schedule better so my wife and I can stop doing that. Upgrades all around. I will post a review once I have the actual device in hand.
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