Note 8 or ipad pro 10.5?

[Chocu1a]

Received my Note 8 yesterday. Touchwiz is beyond useful now. I mean, this is the first time I don't feel the need to use Nova Launcher. I love the Samsung Browser with all its extensions, email is great(but imo, has been great for a long time), the new calculator is awesome. I love all the added conversion stuff. Screen is fantastic. Only thing I am not sold on is the removal of Action Memo. I used that function daily. Hopefully if enough people complain they will bring it back in an update. Also, no home button takes a while to get used to.

 

[mnewsham]

I got used to the force touch home button after a few days, I really like it now.

 

[MarkizSchnitzel]

Here is this year's XDA article on the same subject

https://www.xda-developers.com/note-8-real-world-performance-analysis/

I did say they seem to have fixed it with Note8 finally. They sure took their time

 

[Red Storm]

Received my Note 8 yesterday. Touchwiz is beyond useful now. I mean, this is the first time I don't feel the need to use Nova Launcher. I love the Samsung Browser with all its extensions, email is great(but imo, has been great for a long time), the new calculator is awesome. I love all the added conversion stuff. Screen is fantastic. Only thing I am not sold on is the removal of Action Memo. I used that function daily. Hopefully if enough people complain they will bring it back in an update. Also, no home button takes a while to get used to.

The day Google/Samsung/LG/etc. add in the ability to bring down the notification shade with a simple swipe down on any part of empty screen is the day I finally start to consider not auto installing Nova Launcher. Seriously, why is this not a standard feature by now?

 

[Zaap]

Zaap, I feel we are looking at this from different perspectives.

OP has not declared that he is working in such a profession where drawing and note taking is a must. So I took a stand from a regular/power user CONSUMER POV.

Well, he said that he does tend to use a pen when available. I just think judging the usefulness of something- based on those who don't actually use it- is silly.

The iPad Pro has an option to use the Pencil. Would I make a judgement about the usefulness of the Apple Pencil based on people who have absolutely no clue how to use it, and didn't buy the iPad for that? That would seem pretty silly.

 

[lopri]

The day Google/Samsung/LG/etc. add in the ability to bring down the notification shade with a simple swipe down on any part of empty screen is the day I finally start to consider not auto installing Nova Launcher. Seriously, why is this not a standard feature by now?

It is a standard feature on Touchwiz. Though it was not turned on by default.

 

[Chocu1a]

It is a standard feature on Touchwiz. Though it was not turned on by default.

That is not an option on mine.

 

[lopri]

?!@#&?% Not sure why that is so.

 

[Chocu1a]

?!@#&?% Not sure why that is so.

Nevermind. There was an update for Touchwiz. Just installed it and it's there now. Herpa derp.....

 

[Harry_Wild]

Just purchased a 10.5" iPad Pro Space Gray 512GB with cellular option. I will be using this as a media consumption device for surfing the intenet, watching Netflix, Hulu, DirecTVNow, YouTube!, etc... I use it mostly during the night time in my bed and during the day in a lounge chair. It is very fast and pleasing to use!

But still love using my Dell 27" 4K PC monitor and ethernet connection on a Windows 10 Lenovo Workstation that I purchased just last month! It is so fast too! LOL!

I have not been using my 4K UHD HDR 75" TV for the past 3 months!

 

[Zaap]

It's funny how we all have gigantor-screen TVs... and end up watching stuff on 10" and lesser screens!

 

[Red Storm]

It's funny how we all have gigantor-screen TVs... and end up watching stuff on 10" and lesser screens!

I actually prefer it. To me it is similar to books, I like to hold what I'm reading in my hands rather than on something projected far away, even if it is large. I used to think it was strange too, but watching stuff on a screen right in front of you just feels more personal, more "intimate" so to speak. When watching a quality show or movie that really holds your attention (i.e. Stranger Things), I find it more enjoyable to have that content right in front of me, with a good pair of headphones on. iPads are perfect for this, but my Chromebook Plus is great too especially since the keyboard is effectively a kickstand for the display.

I do think it's dependent on the content being watched. For sports or shows/movies that you can talk over/during with friends, give me that bigger screen. But for stuff with engrossing stories where you want to catch every detail, I prefer to watch that on a tablet/phablet.

 

[Zaap]

I don't think its strange at all- I was merely pointing it out because it's ironic. We've wanted bigger and bigger and bigger screens, yet a lot of us prefer smaller now. I never watched a movie or show on a screen smaller than about 12" in my entire life up to about six years ago when it became possible on a small device. I never thought I'd even want to before it was possible, now it's a preference a lot of the time.

I love having a ton of movies in my pocket. Sitting on an airplane (for example) watching my own in-flight movie of whatever I feel like is an awesome thing.

I'm the same way- social watching, I perfer the big screen. Stuff I enjoy more in-depth and to myself, I watch on a tablet or my phone.

 

[Raduque]

But, TouchWiz has very, very little in the way of extra software that's actually useful. it's just pure garbage and bloat. Which is why it's universally hated by geeks. Like me. Samsung just does not do good software. They don't know how to do it.
Why would they be making their own calendar, browsers and mail apps when we already have gmail, google calendar and chrome?

Okay, so you are actually stuck in the past with your thinking on this. Maybe back during Android 5 days was the TouchWiz interface not very good. Now though, it's lightning fast, it looks gorgeous compared to Google's flat boring bleh and packs tons of features that are way more useful than most everything in Google's fork of Android.

Samsung's calendar and mail apps are both light years ahead of Google's. Chrome is junk. Seriously. Samsung Internet/Browser has native ad blocking and with Knox on every device since the S6, you can use an app called Disconnect Pro (or it's IMO lesser free counterpart, adhell2) to rootlessly block ads system-wide.

Please educate yourself before spewing this ancient nonsense. Thanks.

 

[MarkizSchnitzel]

Raduque,
I will not concede on this. We give pain to windows OEMs and MS for putting a removable store shortcut for Candy Crush, but when Samsung puts unremovable apps that's a good thing?

I have now compared side by side S8+ and my now old OP3, and the performance on the galaxy is just atrocious. For example, Galaxy, for some reason, purges phonebook from RAM, so periodically, it keeps loading it from the start. it's not a big delay, but more than enough to be annoying.

The performance is just not good or worthy of the pricetag.
Subjectively, touchwiz is ugly as well.


What browser do you use on PC? How does Samsung browser sync with it? IMHO, chrome on android is pretty great. fast, reliable, and there actually is an adblock of the sorts, netguard,which works pretty well. I have no problems with adds at all.

 

[Raduque]

I don't give Windows pain or hell for anything. I know how business work. They sell ad space, and some of that includes things like "value added" software. A simple link to a few popular games isn't even on the radar when it comes to offensive things companies do. Samsung bundles their apps as base parts of the OS. I wouldn't want to remove them even if I could. Samsung's software apps are vastly superior to Google's - many of which are functionally lacking. Gmail, Maps, Wear, Store and YouTube are the only Google apps I use on my phone. Everything else is a Samsung app, because I enjoy the way they look and feel and perform.

As for the poor performance on the S8+, how long have you had it? Galaxy phones are learning devices - they need time to learn how you use the phone. If you have only had it a few weeks, it may not perform up to your standards yet. I bought an S8 a little less than a month after it came out and for the first 3 weeks, performance and battery life was not the best, and then the phone learned how I used it most and I was getting 5+ hours of SoT over 20 hours of battery life (from 100 to 15-18%) and never had Messages, Phone or Gmail unloaded from ram except after a reboot. I'm on a Note8 now and for the first two weeks I had it, I was getting around 5-hour battery life with 1 or 2 hours of SoT, but now I can go almost a whole 24 hours with around 5 hours of SoT AND tethering to 3 devices for 10 hours. I never have an app unloaded from ram either.

I use Edge. I don't sync. Don't have a need for it.

 

[wilds]

Personally, I find Android to be a far more independent operating system than iOS. I would argue the Note 8 is capable of doing far more than the iPad can, but the iPad will provide an easier user experience.

Firefox for Android has the most Addons of any browser by far. I recommend it over any browser on any platform.

I would get both, but the Note first.

 

[Raduque]

Firefox for Android is too heavy. I would never use it.

 

[wilds]

Firefox for Android is too heavy. I would never use it.

It has all the Desktop addons now. I don't find it heavy at all except for its massive memory footprint.

 

[Raduque]

It has all the Desktop addons now. I don't find it heavy at all except for its massive memory footprint.

Yeah that' what I mean by heavy. I haven't used Firefox in years on esktop, either.