Database Develop

Personal Verdicts?

What are the verdicts so far from y'all lucky ones that have the phone already? I have seen lots of reviewers out there talk well about it but I'd like to know from the real life users who have been using the phone for days or more now!
I really want this phone and plan to get it when it drops in the US but what is everyones' personal review?

Of all the phones I've had I might just be the best. Battery life is good. I unplugged it 10 hours ago (8:15 am to 18:15) and I'm down to 70% in that time I've sent a few texts, emails, listen to podcast in my car over Bluetooth for half an hour. Taken a few pictures and listened to 20 mins of music. Not bad really. It's been on wifi for most of the day which is less taxing than 3G.
The screen is very sharp and colours are good. The screen looked a bit washed out for the first day or so, but that's because I've been using amoled for the last two years. Anyone thought the same? I'm already used to the new screen now though.
Still not sure about the camera? Stills really are hit and miss and when it misses its really not good. 1080p video is good, but only in standard mode. Use the 60fps or slow motion and there are some horrible artefacts which make it unusable for me.
The speakers are amazing! Listening to music on this just blows everything else away. Call quality is again a bit hit and miss. I've heard the odd hissing, popping and sometimes the caller sounding muffled, but in fairness the muffle could have been the caller's end.
So far I've not seen the slightest hint of any lag. This phone is very snappy and looking at the used and available RAM, the management looks good. Whenever I've checked there has always been over a gig of RAM free. Why do I keep looking? Because I've come from a Galaxy S3 which was crippled by its measly RAM. This is nothing like that I'm please to say. It looks premium and feels premium too. I can't think of anything else to trump it at the moment. Go get it!

A step forward
MrSteez said:
What are the verdicts so far from y'all lucky ones that have the phone already? I have seen lots of reviewers out there talk well about it but I'd like to know from the real life users who have been using the phone for days or more now!
I really want this phone and plan to get it when it drops in the US but what is everyones' personal review?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The One is a Smartphone and not a phablet like the Note 2. If you want a top end Smartphone this is the One to get. Love the screen clarity and music playback. Will be using the my One a lot for music playback. Battery life so far better than I expected. Got through a work day with 60% left. I replaced the standard launcher with Nova and I am much happier now.

Read the stickied thread about reviews to see what users have to say. Mine is on the last page aswell.
Sent via my HTC One using XDA Premium

mwatson said:
Still not sure about the camera? Stills really are hit and miss and when it misses its really not good. 1080p video is good, but only in standard mode. Use the 60fps or slow motion and there are some horrible artefacts which make it unusable for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hit and miss? you never showed us your hits

hamdir said:
hit and miss? you never showed us your hits
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
true! optimism, denial on my part maybe maybe?...

My personal verdict: From a scale from 0 to 10 I give a 10000
Superfast, beautiful design, good materials used, best-looking user interface (I even like it more than vanilla android), awesome stereo speakers, perfect screensize for me. Also important is 2GB Ram (1GB is out of date, apps get closed in the background too fast) and LTE...yes, there are some phones also with 2GB Ram and LTE but for me the HTC One is the best one of them, so I chose it as my next phone ^^ Never have been so satisfied by a phone

Screen: In a word, stunning. Once or twice in the past 2 weeks I have almost gone into a daydream like state looking at this thing.
Audio: I have never heard audio of such a quality from any mobile device. It literally makes people ask "what is that". If I had one small complaint, it would be that the lowest volume level is not low enough. The granularity of the incremental volume levels is too coarse. Maybe 24 levels and not just 10-12.
Battery: I have been pleasantly surprised by the battery life. I get through a day fine with it. If you play Real Racer a lot or wish to make a blockbuster movie with the thing then battery will not last as long.
Camera: Superb for a phone. If you wish to print out your shots then you will not be able to get higher resolution images out of it. This is not the job of a camera though. The video and snaps are fantastic I have found. HDR is pretty good also.
Speed: It's fast. Yep.
If you are getting this thing soon... if you have it on order... you will really like it. It just oozes quality. It just feels like a supremely well made piece of hardware. Oh... it looks amazing also.
Ok, they are having some trouble getting this thing out of the factories to the stores... but when they do... people will forget the frustration. It is superb.

Beautiful, lag free, awesome speakers - nuff said.

How is the overall UI experience? is it TRULY smooth/lag free? not smooth like people claim EVERY Android phone is (ok thats a stretch). I have yet to own a 100% lag free Android phone. Some pretty close, some smooth in many places, but not a single one would I call "lag free". That includes the Nexus 4, Note II, S3, etc... AOSP/TW/didnt matter.
Aosp on Note II was probably the closest but it had its bugs .

Had mine for a week now, I am a heavy user (not games, but lots of music /Internet/twitter /texts.
No lag at all yet.
I have had the nexus 4 and it even beats that and that was quick.
As someone said earlier, this is the nearest to the ios lag free feeling from any android phone. (even ios lags sometimes)
For me the only thing is the camera which I have not made my mind up about yet, I have had some amazing results but also some poor (probably more good than bad though) I need more time with the camera but overall I think it will be acceptable.
I have had a lot of phones and I have to say this is in the top 3 and I think it will be my number 1 but need more time with it before it gains that honour

crawlgsx said:
How is the overall UI experience? is it TRULY smooth/lag free? not smooth like people claim EVERY Android phone is (ok thats a stretch). I have yet to own a 100% lag free Android phone. Some pretty close, some smooth in many places, but not a single one would I call "lag free". That includes the Nexus 4, Note II, S3, etc... AOSP/TW/didnt matter.
Aosp on Note II was probably the closest but it had its bugs .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The One is smooth. But lack of smoothness is Google issue as the first version of Butter was better but they changed for some reason. It is also faster than the Note 2.
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda premium

This phone marks the end of the race in terms of screen quality. The camera is excellent if you have the time to make a quick couple of adjustments before you shoot. Blinkfeed is a consumer orientated gimmik aimed at users who have never heard of flip board. Lag is a thing of the past. Battery life is about what you expect from a top end smart phone, you'll see the day out with average use.
Speakers are the best of any device yet, just don't expect HiFi. Sense and indeed the initial stock and custom ROMs are very embryonic. I.e. when paranoid android breaks for this device it will open up a whole new world.
From a phone enthusiast who started with a Phillips savvy and one day traded a sony Z for a HTC canary.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

As a One X owner who intended to keep his phone for the full 2 years, I originally didn't have much interest in this phone...but the build quality is striking, and my One X is definitely feeling the limitations of its 1 GB of RAM.
Really looking forward to trying this out when it finally gets released in the US.

Here's my review after five days of ownership. Please remember where I make a statement below like 'x is better than y' it is purely my subjective opinion and i understand and realise others will not echo my thoughts. This is a reworked and updated review from the one I posted on Phandroid a few days ago.
This is my first HTC phone, having currently got an iPhone 5 and a Samsung Galaxy S2 which has been replaced by the HTC. I did have a Galaxy S3 but thought it was a POS.
Battery
Wow, i'm impressed. I ran it alongside my iPhone 5 and both had emails pushed to it at the same time. I received and replied to about five sms messages on the iPhone and about fifteen on the HTC and had maybe twenty emails to both devices over that time. I took them both off charge on Monday morning at about midday and the iPhone died at 11pm on the Tuesday night. The HTC didn't die until approximately 5pm on the Wednesday although it did have power saver on for the last fifteen percent. I am a light to moderate user of any phone and I am truly impressed that the battery on the HTC is a real stormer. For instance, I took the phone off charge one hour and twenty two minutes ago and it is still sitting on 100%. This battery is way better than my iPhone and that was impressive in itself. I couod not be happier with this result. I don't care what any of the reviews say, for me this battery is brilliant and that's what matters.
Build materials and Build quality
It's spot on. No gaps, no dead pixels, no dents, dings or scratches. Perfect. It feels great in the hand, has a pleasing weight to it; not too light, not too heavy. It looks and feels a million dollars. The aluminium is beautifully designed and the volume buttons sit flush with the side of the phone and have been cut in a concentric circle pattern, which is one of those little touches that shows that someone has really thought about this phone when they designed it. Sometimes I miss the power button with my huge spade-claw hands but that is more to do with me getting used to the power button being on that side (remember, I am an iPhone user so the power button on the top is perfectly natural to me).
Screen
Dear god! The best screen I have ever seen on a smartphone! No ghosting, no bleed, no tears and videos are crisp, clear and extremely high quality. I am very very impressed with the screen. The finger glide action is crystal smooth and the viewing angles are actually very good indeed. At the moment, colours seem vivid. I gather from other reviews that the screen colours look slightly washed out against other phones. If that is the case, you will not notice unless you are looking for it. For me, they are perfectly fine. Darks are dark and lights are light and all the colours in between seem rich and vivid; so I can't complain.
Beats Audio
Loud or what? Incredibly clear and distortion-free no matter whether you are playing Mussorgsky or Megadeth (I tried). Forget about booting up that phone in a quiet room like a bedroom at night or a library though! Try as I might, I couldn't get it to distort at all, no matter what I played through it.
Sense 5
Very good indeed. Easily better than my experiences with stock Touchwiz on my Samsung S3 and S2. Very smooth scrolling and the icons look sharp and have obviously had a rework for the new high-def screen. I thought I would dislike the vertically scrolling App drawer but it feels fine to use. I wish I could put more icons on my homescreen though but that will require a launcher. Maybe i'll do that in the not too distant future. Blinkfeed was interesting for a while but I found it very cluttered so I have removed all feeds from it. I will try it out again in a few days once the initial small-child-at-Christmas feeling has subsided a bit. As I mentioned in another post somewhere, Blinkfeed would be miles better if we could add in our own feeds or mail accounts. I would have no issues in having that as my home screen then. Until that time, it has been relegated to another screen and emptied of feeds.
The stock UI has some great touches and the various inbuilt apps are lovely and uncluttered to use. there isn't the sense that HTC have tried to cram as much in whether it will fit or not. Again, to me it looks like real thought has been given to the apps they have in the UI and they haven't tried to dazzle users with a function that looks cool but will never practically be used by 95% of the populace (i'm looking at you Samsung 'Popup Play' feature).
Camera
I am not David Bailey, so I don't care if my photos are not the best in the world. I have an expensive DSLR if I want to take exceptional quality pictures anyway. The camera on the HTC is perfectly adequate for my needs. It's not the best out there for a smartphone, sure, but it is perfectly serviceable and it is far from the worst. Low light photos are great and they easily capture more light than my naked eye can see. Zoe is fun to use and I have already found it useful for capturing 'that perfect shot' and discarding the rest. The time from tapping the camera app icon to taking an auto-focus shot is approximately one second, which is astonishing and way quicker than I was expecting.
Afterthoughts: - HTC Sync Manager
I'm new to the HTC and found this to be a very crappy piece of software that tries to be smart and immediately started trying to add in over twelve terabytes of movies and music (yes you read right). I imagine I would probably have had to come back sometime late next week once it had finished. I dislike the way it tries to intelligently scan for all your media. I have a lot of media across my RAID and NAS and so I have had to manually delete everything from HTC Sync Manager as there was no easy way that I could find to do it en masse. It does however allow you to port an iPhone backup straight to your HTC which for me was an absolute godsend.

constructorx said:
Speed: It's fast. Yep.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it faster than pure android though?. Looking at N4, that also seems instant & fast imho.

I give it 500 out of 10 it's awesome
Only let down my video recording has hissing on it new phone from 3 coming today
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

Scootmien said:
Here's my review after five days of ownership. Please remember where I make a statement below like 'x is better than y' it is purely my subjective opinion and i understand and realise others will not echo my thoughts. This is a reworked and updated review from the one I posted on Phandroid a few days ago.
This is my first HTC phone, having currently got an iPhone 5 and a Samsung Galaxy S2 which has been replaced by the HTC. I did have a Galaxy S3 but thought it was a POS.
Battery
Wow, i'm impressed. I ran it alongside my iPhone 5 and both had emails pushed to it at the same time. I received and replied to about five sms messages on the iPhone and about fifteen on the HTC and had maybe twenty emails to both devices over that time. I took them both off charge on Monday morning at about midday and the iPhone died at 11pm on the Tuesday night. The HTC didn't die until approximately 5pm on the Wednesday although it did have power saver on for the last fifteen percent. I am a light to moderate user of any phone and I am truly impressed that the battery on the HTC is a real stormer. For instance, I took the phone off charge one hour and twenty two minutes ago and it is still sitting on 100%. This battery is way better than my iPhone and that was impressive in itself. I couod not be happier with this result. I don't care what any of the reviews say, for me this battery is brilliant and that's what matters.
Build materials and Build quality
It's spot on. No gaps, no dead pixels, no dents, dings or scratches. Perfect. It feels great in the hand, has a pleasing weight to it; not too light, not too heavy. It looks and feels a million dollars. The aluminium is beautifully designed and the volume buttons sit flush with the side of the phone and have been cut in a concentric circle pattern, which is one of those little touches that shows that someone has really thought about this phone when they designed it. Sometimes I miss the power button with my huge spade-claw hands but that is more to do with me getting used to the power button being on that side (remember, I am an iPhone user so the power button on the top is perfectly natural to me).
Screen
Dear god! The best screen I have ever seen on a smartphone! No ghosting, no bleed, no tears and videos are crisp, clear and extremely high quality. I am very very impressed with the screen. The finger glide action is crystal smooth and the viewing angles are actually very good indeed. At the moment, colours seem vivid. I gather from other reviews that the screen colours look slightly washed out against other phones. If that is the case, you will not notice unless you are looking for it. For me, they are perfectly fine. Darks are dark and lights are light and all the colours in between seem rich and vivid; so I can't complain.
Beats Audio
Loud or what? Incredibly clear and distortion-free no matter whether you are playing Mussorgsky or Megadeth (I tried). Forget about booting up that phone in a quiet room like a bedroom at night or a library though! Try as I might, I couldn't get it to distort at all, no matter what I played through it.
Sense 5
Very good indeed. Easily better than my experiences with stock Touchwiz on my Samsung S3 and S2. Very smooth scrolling and the icons look sharp and have obviously had a rework for the new high-def screen. I thought I would dislike the vertically scrolling App drawer but it feels fine to use. I wish I could put more icons on my homescreen though but that will require a launcher. Maybe i'll do that in the not too distant future. Blinkfeed was interesting for a while but I found it very cluttered so I have removed all feeds from it. I will try it out again in a few days once the initial small-child-at-Christmas feeling has subsided a bit. As I mentioned in another post somewhere, Blinkfeed would be miles better if we could add in our own feeds or mail accounts. I would have no issues in having that as my home screen then. Until that time, it has been relegated to another screen and emptied of feeds.
The stock UI has some great touches and the various inbuilt apps are lovely and uncluttered to use. there isn't the sense that HTC have tried to cram as much in whether it will fit or not. Again, to me it looks like real thought has been given to the apps they have in the UI and they haven't tried to dazzle users with a function that looks cool but will never practically be used by 95% of the populace (i'm looking at you Samsung 'Popup Play' feature).
Camera
I am not David Bailey, so I don't care if my photos are not the best in the world. I have an expensive DSLR if I want to take exceptional quality pictures anyway. The camera on the HTC is perfectly adequate for my needs. It's not the best out there for a smartphone, sure, but it is perfectly serviceable and it is far from the worst. Low light photos are great and they easily capture more light than my naked eye can see. Zoe is fun to use and I have already found it useful for capturing 'that perfect shot' and discarding the rest. The time from tapping the camera app icon to taking an auto-focus shot is approximately one second, which is astonishing and way quicker than I was expecting.
Afterthoughts: - HTC Sync Manager
I'm new to the HTC and found this to be a very crappy piece of software that tries to be smart and immediately started trying to add in over twelve terabytes of movies and music (yes you read right). I imagine I would probably have had to come back sometime late next week once it had finished. I dislike the way it tries to intelligently scan for all your media. I have a lot of media across my RAID and NAS and so I have had to manually delete everything from HTC Sync Manager as there was no easy way that I could find to do it en masse. It does however allow you to port an iPhone backup straight to your HTC which for me was an absolute godsend.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any lag with live wallpaper?

msterner123 said:
Any lag with live wallpaper?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm happy to report that no, there is no lag on my device with live wallpaper enabled.

Wow! So this phone basically sounds about as amazing as I keep reading online. But the one thing I keep hearing about is the camera.. I'm going from an EVO 4G LTE (so basically a One X)... Is the camera quality going to be better or worse? From what I hear it's hit or miss but on average would you say it's an improvement?
I mean I really only use my camera for Instagram pics so I'm not really expecting 100% professional quality but I just want to make sure it's not a decrease in quality from my phone.
I just want a release date for Sprint now

[Q] Note 3 / HTC One / Nexus 5

So I happen to have all of these devices right now either in person or on order and am really having trouble deciding which to keep. I use AT&T for all of them. I was wondering, I haven't seen any direct comparisons of these three in particular - so here are the pros of each that I've noted:
Note 3:
Sick screen size
Stylus
Battery life
HTC One:
Best build quality of any phone
Amazing screen
Incredible audio
Nexus 5:
Easiest to mod
Cool feel
Cheap?
Note 3 in particular has massive flaws like all the samsung garbage on it - and I have not yet been able to figure out how to safely mod the stupid AT&T version, which is crap. What are your thoughts on this and which would you stick with?

The Note 3 is easy to remove, so you can get rid of the bloatware. The only thing that sucks is that the bootloader is locked.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

Pandawg said:
The Note 3 is easy to remove, so you can get rid of the bloatware. The only thing that sucks is that the bootloader is locked.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has been hugely frustrating to me. As much as I like the phone it's a feature that's driving me nuts. I've even though about the Lumia 1520 just to get a sick size/quality screen. If only Windows phone was more competent...

asvalgard said:
This has been hugely frustrating to me. As much as I like the phone it's a feature that's driving me nuts. I've even though about the Lumia 1520 just to get a sick size/quality screen. If only Windows phone was more competent...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The locked bootloader? It's bad, but I've come to like the stock firmware on the phone. There's no law at all, and I just removed the bloatware I don't like with root. J just hope that the bootloader will be unlocked by someone down the road. The battery life and beautiful screen make up for the locked bootloader for me.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

This is exactly what I'm struggling with. If I hadn't gotten to taste 4.4 on my One and Nexus 5 I probably wouldn't care as much but I KitKat. To make things worse, I got my brother a Note 3 from Christmas so if I get rid of mine he'll be constantly reminding me of it and shaming me. Might have to stick with it though and I'm sure eventually someone will unlock the Bootloader anyway.

Note 3 is superior of the three right now. Bloatware is removable with Titanium Backup and root. Have multiview, gorilla glass 3, sd card slot (up to 64gb), and removable battery. Only thing wrong with it is, it doesn't feel natural in the hand, or you have to use two hands. Maybe its just me.
HTC One has great sound, yes but thats about it, but most of it seems like a gimmick because you have to enable the beats audio. I had one and had to be very careful with it because the phone was painted with anodized aluminium. Regardless of how careful i was, the screen had one little scratch and the paint chipped off. Sold it two days after I got it. Also, some application lagged for some reason.
Nexus 5 was my choice, because of stock and kitkat, but looking at the flaws made me decide to get a note 3. Flaws were, battery, camera, no sd card slot, no removable battery.
Besides, i mod my note 3 to look exactly like a Neuxs 5 with KitKat, with launchers, icons, fonts, status bar, etc.
http://i43.tinypic.com/23udks1.png

Note 3/ HTC One owner. It's a matter of preference and there will be trade offs with any device.
The more lag/stutter free experience - HTC One ( Sense and the One is by far and away the better experience as far as this goes)
Unique software features- Note 3, again by far,over the One and any other phone/phablet
Screen- Toss up, both are exceptional
Build- The One obviously feels sturdy, but I replaced a few of them due to the speakers relentlessly blowing. Still, Samsung puts fake chrome trim on the phones which chips, cracks and dents. The One is better here.
Updates- Both stink. They are trying to make money, plain and simple. That said, neither company will rush to update your phone to the latest and greatest.
Dev support/tinker ability- Samsung and at&t = locked bootloader, this alone is why I just signed with at&t when the Note came out, but will be leaving in a few months. It's unacceptable. One crushes here.
Sound- obviously the One but the speakers are such garbage that I prefer the Note. I use headphones when I wanna hear music anyway
Battery life- The note 3 would win, but there are a lot of people (myself included) that are suffering some sort of wakelock on unrooted notes. Something is crushing my battery and Android OS stays awake 4-5 hours causing my battery to die in 10-11 hours of almost no use. HTC One wins here. It is simply unacceptable to still have apps and bloat causing wakelocks.
Bloat- I was with Sprint on the One so I'll do a combo here. Sprint/One is by far the better choice than Samsung/at&t. Samsung and at&t have forced so much bloat, apps taking up space, things running causing wakelocks..there is just a mess of crap on this phone that does god knows what.
Camera- both are great, both are annoying as well. They take too long to take good pictures. They both have issues focusing at times. When they both work correctly, it's even as far as quality, but Samsung smokes the One in the features category
All that being said. I prefer my Note and sold the HTC One, partly due to the fact that I've rolled with HTC since the Hero but have grown tired of the issues they're having, partly due to the unique software features the Note has. They both have glaring issues. It's a matter of which ones you choose to accept.

Roy073096 said:
Note 3 is superior of the three right now. Bloatware is removable with Titanium Backup and root. Have multiview, gorilla glass 3, sd card slot (up to 64gb), and removable battery. Only thing wrong with it is, it doesn't feel natural in the hand, or you have to use two hands. Maybe its just me.
HTC One has great sound, yes but thats about it, but most of it seems like a gimmick because you have to enable the beats audio. I had one and had to be very careful with it because the phone was painted with anodized aluminium. Regardless of how careful i was, the screen had one little scratch and the paint chipped off. Sold it two days after I got it. Also, some application lagged for some reason.
Nexus 5 was my choice, because of stock and kitkat, but looking at the flaws made me decide to get a note 3. Flaws were, battery, camera, no sd card slot, no removable battery.
Besides, i mod my note 3 to look exactly like a Neuxs 5 with KitKat, with launchers, icons, fonts, status bar, etc.
http://i43.tinypic.com/23udks1.png
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All that being said. It's not just Samsung phones that at&t is locking the bootloader on. The one x had a locked bootloader and I'm pretty sure their htc one does as well as it would follow suite
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using xda app-developers app

It's funny I should stumble across this thread. I'm looking at my Nexus 5 right now, struggling to find a reason not to send it back. I just switched back to my Note 3 and it has been freezing on me for no reason. And I have seriously been considering buying another HTC One because I really liked that phone and regret selling it.
For me, it's like this:
Note 3
Apps/Accessories/Hardware compatibility is best - My fitbit, all new app updates, cases, etc.
Fast
Camera takes great photos and has great features
S Pen
Multi Window
Awkward to use one-handed
HTC One
Speakers are the bomb
Wonderful screen
Fast and fluid all the time
Love Sense as a skin
Camera is fast and has some great features, though not as robust as the Note 3
Good size for one-handed use
Camera does not produce great detail
Slow to charge
Nexus 5
Kitkat
Unlocked Bootloader
Fast and fluid
Great bargain
Camera is iffy. Camera app his horrendous. And I can't find a replacement app that I like.
Battery life has been disappointing
Screen is slightly washed out, especially compared to AMOLED screens and LCD screens like the G2 and HTC One
Speaker is pathetic
My current obsession is a phone that takes fast pictures. The Nexus 5 takes so long to focus and has such a slow shutter that every single picture I take of my dogs is blurry (they're always moving). The Note 3 doesn't have this issue and the HTC One snaps super fast photos as well. Also, the burst mode on the Note and One is great, second only to the iPhone 5s, in my opinion.
I have pretty much decided to send my Nexus 5 back to Google. I was set on replacing it with my Note 3, but then I started to get the random freezes and can't seem to pinpoint the cause. The One is looking mighty tempting right now, especially since I can land one in like-new condition for $300. I never had any problems with my One. I just wasn't thrilled by the photo quality (detail) and newer phones came out that caught my attention. I'm starting to think that I was hasty selling it.

Note 4 - Best Phone Ever (having dumped my iPhone)

Just got my not note yesterday. I've been playing and setting it all up today. All the scare tactics of people re: lagging, gaggape etc seem to have 0 merit.
It was fairly simple to transfer data from iTunes (not everything transferred smoothly but I didn't lose any photos etc). Amazingly easy to set up email etc.
I realised all this talk about Note Vs iPhone is BS. The Note is so much better than my iPhone 5 or my wife's 5S. It's incredible how good the screen and camera are. I tweaked it a little after watching some videos so its running even quicker than it was and I was very happy to begin with. There's 0 gap (Samsung must have fixed that issue it looks like they've filled the space with resin possibly? There's 0 lag.
I can't get my one-handed mode to work but everything else is running fine. Even the fingerprint scanner is working perfectly.
I haven't even begun to explore the business possibilities as a Jeweller the Spen is going to be very very handy during design consultations as I can use my note rather than my tablet now (as it's big enough).
Just thought I'd leave my thoughts.

Well surely it is better than last gen iPhones but calling it the best is kinda an overkill. I'm a hardcore samsung fan myself and I love my device but there are things to improve on hopefully Note 5.

Its the best for now even next year the note 4 will still hold its own right up till the n5

quadlt said:
Well surely it is better than last gen iPhones but calling it the best is kinda an overkill. I'm a hardcore samsung fan myself and I love my device but there are things to improve on hopefully Note 5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The iPhone 6's are just bigger, faster versions of the 5. I've tried them. They don't have a stylus or a 2k screen or 16mp camera.
Sure, there's phones that have individual better features than the Note (ie the Sony Z3 Camera) but overall I think it's the best phone out right now. There's no phones out right now with better screens or more powerful processors.

The best way to get the most out of your Note is learning how to use its features in your day to day.
Samsung has a nice 'key feature' app you can get on galaxy app store.
Anyways the phone's only going to get better with the release of lollipop.

ciscostud said:
The best way to get the most out of your Note is learning how to use its features in your day to day.
Samsung has a nice 'key feature' app you can get on galaxy app store.
Anyways the phone's only going to get better with the release of lollipop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you recommend any in particular?
Do we have to redownload apps after the Lollipop update (sorry newbie question)?

No you don't have to redownload

I'm digging it. I traded in twice to get to where I am now, and went through customer service hell the last time I went into the Sprint store. So basically I paid $70 extra in restock fees to get this phone, but it's worth it. My LG G3 was suffering mild problems that I didn't want to deal with considering how much I spent on a brand new phone, and I didn't want to be locked into something I'm not perfectly satisfied with. The only thing I wish is that my phone is was black instead of white. They were out of black models, and said they didn't know when they were getting more in stock. Figured I'd suck it up and take it. I put the black flip case over it - it almost looks like an ice cream sandwich. I'm sure once I root it, I'll be in love with it. Still, I'm not sure how necessary it is for me to root it. I can remove or turn off almost all the bloat without rooting it, and there's really nothing much I feel like I'm missing out on.
The only thing is I'm not sure if I could ever actually use the S-Pen in real world situations to benefit me. I'd like to be able to take notes with it in school, but I'm just not sure how feasible it would be - and is it worth wasting the battery life instead of just using the good ol pen n paper? I tried playing some drawing multiplayer games, but they all seem desolate and empty as it takes forever to find any opponents who are actually trying to play the game. I'm not much of an artist, and I were, I'm not sure how often I'd find it practical to use the S-Pen instead of something else. I just installed the Lollipop keyboard - maybe if I try the new gesture typing with it, I'll dig typing with the pen.
Also, the screen is amazing. The difference between the G3 and Note 4 is night and day. It's great to see a 1440P phone screen not plagued by oversharpening. Games look amazing. The blacks are inky in their darkness. Screen goes 5x brighter than I'd ever need it to. The only thing I have to complain about is no cool 1440P videos preinstalled
ciscostud said:
The best way to get the most out of your Note is learning how to use its features in your day to day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have any real world examples of what you mean by this?

I got my Note 4 yesterday so here are a couple things i disagree with, 1- you dont have to buy the fast charging adapter in came with it. 2-using the s pen to write is faster that using the keyboard especially if you have fat fingers like me.

Glad you said this as I have a G3 I'm looking to upgrade to a note 4.
I'll be sure to copy the LG pre installed videos. Those look amazing on the G3. Can't imagine how they'll look on the note 4 ?
t1337dude said:
I'm digging it. I traded in twice to get to where I am now, and went through customer service hell the last time I went into the Sprint store. So basically I paid $70 extra in restock fees to get this phone, but it's worth it. My LG G3 was suffering mild problems that I didn't want to deal with considering how much I spent on a brand new phone, and I didn't want to be locked into something I'm not perfectly satisfied with. The only thing I wish is that my phone is was black instead of white. They were out of black models, and said they didn't know when they were getting more in stock. Figured I'd suck it up and take it. I put the black flip case over it - it almost looks like an ice cream sandwich. I'm sure once I root it, I'll be in love with it. Still, I'm not sure how necessary it is for me to root it. I can remove or turn off almost all the bloat without rooting it, and there's really nothing much I feel like I'm missing out on.
The only thing is I'm not sure if I could ever actually use the S-Pen in real world situations to benefit me. I'd like to be able to take notes with it in school, but I'm just not sure how feasible it would be - and is it worth wasting the battery life instead of just using the good ol pen n paper? I tried playing some drawing multiplayer games, but they all seem desolate and empty as it takes forever to find any opponents who are actually trying to play the game. I'm not much of an artist, and I were, I'm not sure how often I'd find it practical to use the S-Pen instead of something else. I just installed the Lollipop keyboard - maybe if I try the new gesture typing with it, I'll dig typing with the pen.
Also, the screen is amazing. The difference between the G3 and Note 4 is night and day. It's great to see a 1440P phone screen not plagued by oversharpening. Games look amazing. The blacks are inky in their darkness. Screen goes 5x brighter than I'd ever need it to. The only thing I have to complain about is no cool 1440P videos preinstalled
Have any real world examples of what you mean by this?
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Click to collapse

Worth going to S8 from S7 Edge?

I hate the s7. Slow and laggy. Not to mention locked boorloadet. S8 any better?

I made the jump and this device is unbelievably better. Smoothest sndroid phone I've owned since the HTC One X, which was my favorite android phone of all time. After one week of pretty heavy use, no lag. Hate to say it like this but the UI is as smooth as iPhone, minimal if ever stutters. I recommend making the jump. Also the display is as incredible as all the reviews say
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

F9zSlavik said:
I hate the s7. Slow and laggy. Not to mention locked boorloadet. S8 any better?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had S7, S7e, HTC 10, and iPhone 7Plus in last year. Jumped to the S8 (standard, not plus). Absolutely happy with my decision. Easily the best phone I've had. UI smooth as butter with no lags, Camera is fast enough that I sometimes take 2-3 pictures before I actually realize the first press of shutter actually took one (quality top notch as well), Screen is gorgeous, storage is abundant, battery life is good (avg 4hr screen time and 28hr per charge for me), iris scanner works through sunglasses and is great extra security.
Only weird thing is fingerprint location...works best of you're holding phone left handed. I just use the iris scanner anyway. My only concern is protecting the beautiful screen...nearly no truly protective or fully effective tempered glass protectors, but I'll take my chances.
I don't think you'll regret it one bit if you go with it.

If you have the money to blow sure, performance wise you are not going to notice anything. The camera is basically the same, front I believe is 8 instead of 5 mp. It is a larger screen, but the aspect ratio is a little weird. But with larger screen at Max resolution your battery is going to die a lot faster. I think you would be better off waiting till the note 8. If I could go back I would have stuck with my S7 edge and waited for the note 8. Still a great phone, but nothing ground breaking.

F9zSlavik said:
I hate the s7. Slow and laggy. Not to mention locked boorloader. S8 any better?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the note 3 then note 5 and now the S8. I can say the only reason that i would have stayed on my prior phone is because root. There is no root method on here yet and you should stay with S7 until we have root and ROMs to choose from. Here's something that may make your phone snappier:
1. Go to settings
2. Click on Developer tab
3. Scroll to Windows animation scale change it to 0.5
4. Go to transition animation scale change it to 0.5
5. Go to Animator duration scale change it to 0.5
Good luck!

F9zSlavik said:
I hate the s7. Slow and laggy. Not to mention locked boorloadet. S8 any better?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not own an S7, however I will say the S8 is an amazing device. It's fast as can be, and very smooth. No lag. I put a black Spigen thin fit case on it.
It's everything it's cracked up to be. I'm delighted about how great this device is. The only issue I had was deciding to get the S8 or plus, and I'm very happy I got the regular SO because I didn't realize how much bigger the screen actually is on the regular one. It takes a little while to get used to but the screen is really big.
The S8 is a monster jump, not an incremental one. Every device, except possibly the S7 edge (due to the screen shape) was an incremental change. Small improvements that were debateable in terms of being worth spending your hard earned money. This device is absolutely worth the jump, and I'm totally satisfied spending my money on this. Honestly I have no idea what they can improve, and what could make me buy another phone. This device has it all. Even the battery life is great.
The only "complaints" people have are annoyances. Yeah, the fingerprint scanner is annoying but you get used to it. Yeah the clock on the always on display is weird and annoying. Bixby is kind of useless. But those are, at best, annoyances. The phone itself is just incredible. For 800 dollars, it better be. It truly is worth the money and it puts a smile on my face every time i pick it up.
Buy one.

wil318466 said:
The only "complaints" people have are annoyances. Yeah, the fingerprint scanner is annoying but you get used to it. Yeah the clock on the always on display is weird and annoying. Bixby is kind of useless. But those are, at best, annoyances. The phone itself is just incredible. For 800 dollars, it better be. It truly is worth the money and it puts a smile on my face every time i pick it up.
Buy one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to find something to complain about with a phone of this magnitude, and of course people will always latch onto them. I have no doubt that within a few months these will fade away in light of the greater changes on the phone. I'm upgrading from an S4, so it's a monumental change for me... and even with Bixby, there is no way I'm not going to be shell-shocked and impressed.

If you're switching from an S4 the change would be jaw dropping.
This phone (S8) is the best upgrade I've ever had in any single electronics device that wasnt revolutionary, like the PC or first iPhone.
Everything is better, and I'm not just saying that. Opening web pages is faster, switching apps is instant, opening navigation is instant, watching a YouTube video, switching to mail, reading that email, switching back to YouTube is just astonishing how quickly it all happens. Just opening this website and typing on the keyboard is flawless and enjoyable, my old phone was laggy and a pain to do a long response on a message board. Not anymore.
It really is amazing how awesome this phone is. Every single experience when it comes to the phone itself is improved. Again, i don't see how they can make this device better unless new technology is needed (such as Bluetooth 15.0). Could it possibly have better speakers? Of course. But I'm worried about things like speed, response, performance and the screen. I just can't see how they can make a phone faster, or the screen bigger. It's almost edge to edge top to bottom and the only way to get a bigger screen is to get a bigger phone, and I don't want that. It fits perfectly in my hand and I have the font tiny and I can read everything clearly. This phone delivers on everything and I just couldn't be happier (the screen is really something to behold, you'll see). It even looks good in the sunlight and it's pretty much water proof! (I wouldn't swim with it but I wouldn't be worried at all to take a picture while it's raining).
They'd have to invent a phone that does my dishes for me to want to upgrade again, that's how good this thing is. It does everything and it does everything​ well. I give it a 10/10 because I won't hold something like the fingerprint scanner against them, i consider that personal preference.
Don't believe anyone who says this thing isn't incredible. Walk into a store and check out the display model for yourself. It's well worth the money.

I think the question from the OP is *IF* the jump to the S8 from the S7/S7E is worth it. No one is debating if the S8/S8+ is a terrific device, I think we can all agree that it is. (even though I personally do not own one). I have used the S8+ at length, and yes I think its amazing... however, that being said - I choose NOT to upgrade from my S7E at this time. I think I will hold off until the Note 8 and decide then. I think that might help answer the original posters question without offending anyone who does have the S8/S8+

Since owning the s4 i jumped ship to nexus phones. Because touchwiz lag as hell. I sold the nexus 6p and tried s7 edge. And touchwiz lag still there on the s7 edge. Sold the s7 edge and got the regular s8 and i can tell s8 is smooth like nexus phones. And im glad i tried the s8 again. Hhappy camper here
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

wil318466 said:
If you're switching from an S4 the change would be jaw dropping.
This phone (S8) is the best upgrade I've ever had in any single electronics device that wasnt revolutionary, like the PC or first iPhone.
Everything is better, and I'm not just saying that. Opening web pages is faster, switching apps is instant, opening navigation is instant, watching a YouTube video, switching to mail, reading that email, switching back to YouTube is just astonishing how quickly it all happens. Just opening this website and typing on the keyboard is flawless and enjoyable, my old phone was laggy and a pain to do a long response on a message board. Not anymore.
It really is amazing how awesome this phone is. Every single experience when it comes to the phone itself is improved. Again, i don't see how they can make this device better unless new technology is needed (such as Bluetooth 15.0). Could it possibly have better speakers? Of course. But I'm worried about things like speed, response, performance and the screen. I just can't see how they can make a phone faster, or the screen bigger. It's almost edge to edge top to bottom and the only way to get a bigger screen is to get a bigger phone, and I don't want that. It fits perfectly in my hand and I have the font tiny and I can read everything clearly. This phone delivers on everything and I just couldn't be happier (the screen is really something to behold, you'll see). It even looks good in the sunlight and it's pretty much water proof! (I wouldn't swim with it but I wouldn't be worried at all to take a picture while it's raining).
They'd have to invent a phone that does my dishes for me to want to upgrade again, that's how good this thing is. It does everything and it does everything​ well. I give it a 10/10 because I won't hold something like the fingerprint scanner against them, i consider that personal preference.
Don't believe anyone who says this thing isn't incredible. Walk into a store and check out the display model for yourself. It's well worth the money.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh hell yes, I've already jumped ship with the S8. Unfortunately I am studying abroad and won't be able to get back home for a few more weeks -- then I can finally meet my new S8. And yes, coming from an S4 (which poorly survived an ocean drop), I'm practically salivating at the prospect. The camera could have better, sure. They didn't need to include the atrocious Bixby, definitely. But it's such a great prospect upgrading after 4 years... and I'm hoping that it will be good for me for another 4 years at least, if not more. Meanwhile, my friend with a Nexus 6P is already itching to upgrade to a OP5 when it comes out... heh.

Short answer - Yes
Long answer - Jumped from S7 Edge to S8. Have to say this is the best phone I have ever had. I was a huge fan of the physical home button but I rarely miss it at all. The only problem is me hitting the snooze in the morning on my alarm not as easily as with a button. Fingerprint scanner in the back is super quick and not bad at all. That's how I naturally hold my phone for the most part anyways and I have big hands so there is no real struggle. I've always been wanting to play emulated games on my phone and this thing can handle Gamecube games for Dog's sake! I have a Madcatz controller that is great for gaming with phones and makes the torture that is the MBTA go by like nothing. My brother got one shortly after I got mine and he also says it's the best phone he's ever had. He came from a dying S5 Edge I think. We also got both our phones for $0 down and just restarted payments on a new device. Battery life is way better than S7 at this point and I'm about 40% when I leave work usually. As opposed to S7 where I would have to re-charge at about 3pm if I didn't want it to die on the way home. But as with all Androids the early battery life is way better in the beginning as opposed to 6 months to a year later. Time will tell though.
Edit - Forgot to mention the display. I wasn't a display snob by any means but this phone has now made me one. Incredible, especially when gaming. Completely immersive with the minimal bezels and edge to edge display. It's like a floating screen that encompasses your entire field of vision. Twilight Princess, Smash Bros, and FF7 never looked so good.

Yes, noticeable improvement in performance. That weird S7E lag thing is gone and battery is noticeably better. I think back to the first few months with my S7E, it might have been closer but after a year, the degregation in battery life makes the new s8 seem significantly better. That alone is worth it to me.

Overall love

Yes, yes, it's possible to love a phone. Heck, you sleep next to it, don't you? Rate this thread to indicate your love for the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

Samsung galaxy note 20 ultra
Yes this is great phone i already using it great company

So far I have to say this phone is on its way to becoming the New GOAT. Build quality is stellar, i don't mind the camera bump, small sacrifice for a better shooter. Plus I always rest my finger against it. But that being said, it's pretty much the perfect phone IMO.
The display, the smoothness, the cameras. If I can get 6h + SOT on top of that it'll definitely become my GOAT Samsung phone. Dethroning the Note 7 who dethroned the Galaxy S4 Google play edition but I digress.
I don't see myself moving to another phone any time soon.
Sent from my SM-N986W using XDA Labs

Initial thoughts after final setup:
Going from a A20 ultra to a Note 20 ultra, I think this phone just looks and might even perform better. The feel in the hand, the fingerprint reader, everything seems to run smoother. I'm loving it so far.
My main concern is the battery life with heavy use. I've tweaked the settings a bit, so I guess I will have a better idea after a few days of use. But so far so good! :good:

I just received and configured my Note 20 Ultra. It's so similiar to Note 10+ but faster. Software looks almost the same. I already have 1 software update with security patch from 1st of August
edit: what is annoying is that pen is from the other side it's inconviniet if you are using right hand to operate and hold your phon in your left hand

It's an incredible phone. So much smaller than my first mobile phone 35 years ago. How far we have come since Palm first put a PDA and mobile into the same unit. Luv, Luv, Luv.
PS. The Beans are wonderful. So nice to not have a bud sticking into my ear canal.
PPS. Now I have to wait all over again for my Tab S7+.

advocate2 said:
It's an incredible phone. So much smaller than my first mobile phone 35 years ago. How far we have come since Palm first put a PDA and mobile into the same unit. Luv, Luv, Luv.
PS. The Beans are wonderful. So nice to not have a bud sticking into my ear canal.
PPS. Now I have to wait all over again for my Tab S7+.
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Click to collapse
Lol, I remember those. My first phone was a brick phone with a battery that lasted an hour if you were lucky, and a hand calculator sized screen. Times have changed indeed. It's amazing.

a Lefty's dream!
duchian said:
I just received and configured my Note 20 Ultra. It's so similiar to Note 10+ but faster. Software looks almost the same. I already have 1 software update with security patch from 1st of August
edit: what is annoying is that pen is from the other side it's inconviniet if you are using right hand to operate and hold your phon in your left hand
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have waited on the Note series for a while. What finally took my commitment was finding out the s pen is on the left. As a lefty, this is the most convenient placement I can imagine.
Anticipate that the placement will change back to the right in the next iteration after feedback from rightys.

If the s-pen was on the right, it would be perfect. Fingerprint scanner is brilliant now, screen is unreal, battery life is phenomenal, speed is beyond belief... Perfection. Good luck topping this, Samsung

Love this phone! It's definitely my favorite phone ever. It just barely beats my love for the OnePlus 8 Pro. I like the form factor of this phone better with less display curves. Plus all the tons of software features. However the colors and brightness on the OnePlus 8 Pro are better.

AndroidPurity said:
Love this phone! It's definitely my favorite phone ever. It just barely beats my love for the OnePlus 8 Pro. I like the form factor of this phone better with less display curves. Plus all the tons of software features. However the colors and brightness on the OnePlus 8 Pro are better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you elaborate further on the brightness? Everything I've read says the Note 20 Ultra has a brighter screen than the OnePlus 8 Pro, and the rated nits value is quite a bit higher. It might only go up to highest brightness in adaptive mode and being outside? IDK, but you're the first person I've seen say this.

Roland Deschain said:
Can you elaborate further on the brightness? Everything I've read says the Note 20 Ultra has a brighter screen than the OnePlus 8 Pro, and the rated nits value is quite a bit higher. It might only go up to highest brightness in adaptive mode and being outside? IDK, but you're the first person I've seen say this.
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Click to collapse
==========================
This is the best way I have of describing my N20U screen brightness.
On a no cloud sunny day, I can take my phone out and see the screen perfectly. No more having to turn to use my body for shade and my hand to see the screen.
I am 69 with mild Adult onset Macular Degeneration. This phone is fantastic for me with auto brightness enabled.
I hope that helps.

duchian said:
edit: what is annoying is that pen is from the other side it's inconviniet if you are using right hand to operate and hold your phon in your left hand
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Click to collapse
Couldn't agree more. After owning note 2,3,4,7,8, and 9 with the pen on the right it will take some getting used to.
Battery life is also a bit meh coming from a Poco F2 Pro but it's good enough to get me to the end of the day so I can live with it.
Apart from those two factors I love this thing. Even at 60hz the screen is very bright and vibrant. It's very responsive, plenty quick enough for day to day tasks, and I've got the inferior Exynos model since that's all my country gets.
Camera is also beast. Low light isn't quite as good as my P30 Pro but it's still pretty impressive compared to a lot of smart phones out there. One thing it does have over the p30 is that it's much faster to grab focus so much better for quick snaps.

great phone, super screen, great that the diagonal has become larger, very convenient !!!

I bought note 20 ultra it is most bs phone i ever use it

No complaint in the overall experience

I've had Note 1, Note 3, S7, S10+ and now N20U from HK with Snapdragon. I've only had it two days, but I'm very happy with the phone. Big £ savings vs UK Exynos are icing and a cherry on top of the cake.

Having pre ordered the phone and having used Notes 3,4,7, 8 and now the 20 Utra 5G with 512gb internal storage; I wanted to wait to make a judgement call but I can say while there are things I like about the phone, I don't think it is what I expected and I am done with Samsung products.
I mean they have tried un-successfully to get rid of the micro sd card slot so then they go after the head phone jack. They skimp on the 120Hz display at full resolution. I mean there are a number of things for a flag ship $1549 phone that just say crap. I was interested in a watch and a tab s7 also. but that isn't going to happen.

I've owned a number of Samsung devices in the past, including Notes 8 and 9 as well as an S10e provided by my company. The Note 9 is, to me, an icon and the last no holds barred, everything but the kitchen sink, no compromises, Note. I do a lot of mobile photography and have always gravitated toward devices that had impressive camera/audio/video capabilities as well as feature-filled in other areas. I wanted to get my hands on the Note 20 Ultra but wasn't willing to relinquish my still pristine Note 9 for the pre-order trade in discount. So I waited for the software problems to get sorted out and the prices to come down. I regularly scanned the Offer Up and Swappa websites until I was able to a factory unlocked 512GB model from a good seller at a great price. This device is a juggernaut of power, form, function, features and fun. I found it not to be too much larger than my Note 9 which fits oh so nicely in hand in its Caseoloy Paraxell case. The camera and video set up is a mobile photographer's dream. I've utilized Google Pixel software apks (GCam) on all of my devices going back to my LG V20 and the stock cameras work so well that I have found no need to port one this time out. This is just overall a top notch piece of tech that does so many things and does them well. It is a quality, powerful, feature-filled piece of technology that will fulfill your needs, whether it's mobile photography, work productivity or content consumption/creation and everything in between. I'm glad I added it to my lineup.

Hardware is great ! With a few greed related exceptions, ( Like Non-Removable Battery, No Audio Port,etc... ) Scamsung's Locked Bluetooth codec really burns my ars !
It could Do/Be so much more/better if they would just fix the Hardware/Firmware lockdown BS.
Coming from a Rooted Note3, this is a really bad experience trying to do anything with this thing, Nothing works without agreeing to some sort of sketchy user agreement. No one is making any usable apps any more, Most of the Best Developers have quit bothering with Android. Even simple widgets don't even work anymore
I DO NOT OWN this over priced phone, They Do ! And they do/steal what ever they want to/from it !
They forced Assdroid 11 in the middle of the night with a corrupt image, I was forced to send it back to them to get it re-flashed. Now None of the apps I was using on version 10 will work on ver. 11.
I will NEVER buy another assdroid, scamsung again. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone either.
Sad that almost all the hardware/software makers are using these creepy/greedy tactics to spy,steal & dictate what you should do. No other choices out there any more ...
Soon you will have to log in just to wipe your ass ! & they Will be counting your turds.