Last year i carried an iPhone 5 for my personal phone and had an iPhone 6 for my work phone. When my personal phone became upgrade eligible, I went for the Note 7. All of my family are iOS users, so my work phone allowed me to keep the advantages of iOS.
I really liked the Note 7, the screen, stylus, etc made it a really good personal device. Then we know what happened with the Note 7, I had two of them plus a S7 Edge, which was a major pain. I went to the iPhone 7 Plus. Fast forward to last January and I was laid off from my job and started my own business. As a result, I purchased a 128G iPhone 7 Plus for my work phone. It is a great phone.
However as a former Note 7 owner, Verizon offered me a really good trade in on the 7 Plus. Considering Verizon allows (as I suspect most carriers do) a 14 return I thought I’d give it a go.
The Note 8 arrived Thursday evening and I worked in transitioning to Android for much of Friday afternoon and during college football games yesterday. Samsung does a good job helping transition to the Note 8, and I had it up and running quickly.
The phone itself is amazing, especially the screen. I felt like I was watching 4K TV. The camera is also very good, although I didn’t find it any better than the 7 Plus. I really liked the ability to use an SD Card, as I had a 256 card available.
The big issue for me was finding similar apps to iMessage and Find Your Friends. Life 360 seemed to be very good, so that wasn’t an issue. I used textly , which made it feel like iMessage, but not the same. I tried WhatsApp, but I’m using the iOS 11 beta on my iPad, taking away my ability to easily use my iPad for texting. So that meant while watching TV with my iPad in my lap, I also had to have my phone next to me. I know there are other options, but my lovely bride of 34 years as well as my kids are all deeply intwined in the iOS world, so it’s easier to just stay with it.
After a couple of days, I’m glad I am back in iOS.
Things I miss from the Note 8:
The Screen! It’s amazing; the infinity display is so cool
Ability to add storage with an SD card
The Sylus. Yep, I liked it. Not to doodle or write notes, but to be precise with apps, web browsing, etc.
Being able to select the apps I wanted to use rather than stock apps (ie. Life 360 vs Find Your Friends)
Google Assisant is slightly better than Siri in my option
What I missed:
The simplicity and clean interface of iOS. It is just a more crisp and clean experience
The ease of use for iMessage across devices; I realize I was also once attached to BlackBerry Messenger, so I thought I could overcome it. Wrong
My Apple Watch; I was planning on trading for a Galaxy Gear Frontier, which I think looks so much better, but I found I missed the interaction of my Apple Watch.
So my flirtation with the Note 8 is over. I truly gave the Note 8 a fair shot. I hope some of it’s features show up in the iPhone 8/X/Pro (whatever it’s called). But at the end of the day, iOS simply is a better ecosystem and the fact my entire family is also part of it, so it just makes sense to return to the 7Plus.
It was a good exercise and it made me appreciate the ease of use of the iPhone 7 Plus as well as the features I hope to see during the Sept 12 keynote.
I don’t post often, but I really appreciate the tips and info I get from iMore and the forums.
I really liked the Note 7, the screen, stylus, etc made it a really good personal device. Then we know what happened with the Note 7, I had two of them plus a S7 Edge, which was a major pain. I went to the iPhone 7 Plus. Fast forward to last January and I was laid off from my job and started my own business. As a result, I purchased a 128G iPhone 7 Plus for my work phone. It is a great phone.
However as a former Note 7 owner, Verizon offered me a really good trade in on the 7 Plus. Considering Verizon allows (as I suspect most carriers do) a 14 return I thought I’d give it a go.
The Note 8 arrived Thursday evening and I worked in transitioning to Android for much of Friday afternoon and during college football games yesterday. Samsung does a good job helping transition to the Note 8, and I had it up and running quickly.
The phone itself is amazing, especially the screen. I felt like I was watching 4K TV. The camera is also very good, although I didn’t find it any better than the 7 Plus. I really liked the ability to use an SD Card, as I had a 256 card available.
The big issue for me was finding similar apps to iMessage and Find Your Friends. Life 360 seemed to be very good, so that wasn’t an issue. I used textly , which made it feel like iMessage, but not the same. I tried WhatsApp, but I’m using the iOS 11 beta on my iPad, taking away my ability to easily use my iPad for texting. So that meant while watching TV with my iPad in my lap, I also had to have my phone next to me. I know there are other options, but my lovely bride of 34 years as well as my kids are all deeply intwined in the iOS world, so it’s easier to just stay with it.
After a couple of days, I’m glad I am back in iOS.
Things I miss from the Note 8:
The Screen! It’s amazing; the infinity display is so cool
Ability to add storage with an SD card
The Sylus. Yep, I liked it. Not to doodle or write notes, but to be precise with apps, web browsing, etc.
Being able to select the apps I wanted to use rather than stock apps (ie. Life 360 vs Find Your Friends)
Google Assisant is slightly better than Siri in my option
What I missed:
The simplicity and clean interface of iOS. It is just a more crisp and clean experience
The ease of use for iMessage across devices; I realize I was also once attached to BlackBerry Messenger, so I thought I could overcome it. Wrong
My Apple Watch; I was planning on trading for a Galaxy Gear Frontier, which I think looks so much better, but I found I missed the interaction of my Apple Watch.
So my flirtation with the Note 8 is over. I truly gave the Note 8 a fair shot. I hope some of it’s features show up in the iPhone 8/X/Pro (whatever it’s called). But at the end of the day, iOS simply is a better ecosystem and the fact my entire family is also part of it, so it just makes sense to return to the 7Plus.
It was a good exercise and it made me appreciate the ease of use of the iPhone 7 Plus as well as the features I hope to see during the Sept 12 keynote.
I don’t post often, but I really appreciate the tips and info I get from iMore and the forums.
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