Changed my mind.....

[jaj324]

I decided that the Note 4 would be my next phone on the day that it was announced. I have now changed my mind based on my experience with my new Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4. I picked it up yesterday at Best Buy and have really enjoyed the first 24 hours with this device. It is well worth the $279 that I paid for it, BUT, the amount of bloatware on it has caused me to change my mind about the Note 4. The amount of bloatware that Samsung puts on their tablets and phones is ridiculous and AT&T makes it even worse on the versions they carry. I bought the 8.4 to replace a Nexus 7 2013 that has a cracked screen and I just sold a Nexus 5 to make room for the new Note but that's no longer the case. I'll be waiting on the Nexus 6 instead of buying the Note 4. Yeah, I know you can root the phone and either uninstall or freeze the bloat but you shouldn't have to. I've had iPhones and WP's that allow you to uninstall all of the bloatware as soon as you turn on the device, no questions asked. Samsung and AT&t really screw up the android experience with all the stupid bloatware. I rooted my G2 and froze all the BS but I'm no longer going to be forced to root and freeze just to make the phone like I like it. I'll just buy a Nexus 6.

 

[rushmore]

Samsung leadership genuinely think that their customers LOVE the bloat. Seriously. Comes with the territory of a management bubble. Nobody wants to be a naysayer on the corporate ladder.

I root and freeze the bloat with Titanium and disable all sensors.

 

[jaj324]

Samsung leadership genuinely think that their customers LOVE the bloat. Seriously. Comes with the territory of a management bubble. Nobody wants to be a naysayer on the corporate ladder.

I root and freeze the bloat with Titanium and disable all sensors.

My LG G2 was fantastic after I rooted and froze everything. I'm just tired of messing with a phone like that. I enjoyed my Nexus 5 and 7 more than any other android except for the G2. Being able to just set up, disable a few things and go is the way it should be. Just like with iOS and WP. Based on recent leaks the Nexus 6 is going to be exactly what I'm looking for. qHD, SD 805, 3GB RAM, 3200mah battery and Android L out of the box. Oh, and zero bloatware!!!!!

 

[jaj324]

My LG G2 was fantastic after I rooted and froze everything. I'm just tired of messing with a phone like that. I enjoyed my Nexus 5 and 7 more than any other android except for the G2. Being able to just set up, disable a few things and go is the way it should be. Just like with iOS and WP. Based on recent leaks the Nexus 6 is going to be exactly what I'm looking for. qHD, SD 805, 3GB RAM, 3200mah battery and Android L out of the box. Oh, and zero bloatware!!!!!

AND the Nexus 6 doesn't bend in your pocket.

 

[rushmore]

If only Nexus products had a micro sd. Out of principle I would not buy one. I have an Air, but 128GB and not my phone.

 

[bonerp]

I've never had a problem caused by the bloat. I'm amazed it upsets so many of you. There's enough power in these phones just to ignore it.
The nexus series aren't perfect. My n5 and n7 both have poorer displays which aren't as sensitive.
Saying that my tab s was a lag monster! I returned it under warranty to see if it's faulty as opposed to lag being caused by bloat. So many users say they have no issues but mine was a dog. Poorly optimised IMHO.

 

[jaj324]

I've never had a problem caused by the bloat. I'm amazed it upsets so many of you. There's enough power in these phones just to ignore it.
The nexus series aren't perfect. My n5 and n7 both have poorer displays which aren't as sensitive.
Saying that my tab s was a lag monster! I returned it under warranty to see if it's faulty as opposed to lag being caused by bloat. So many users say they have no issues but mine was a dog. Poorly optimised IMHO.

I don't know how much bloat your carrier adds but at&t loads it up. If I pay at&t $825 + tax for a device I want to be able to add or delete any app I choose, I don't want all of their crap stuck on my phone, Samsung's either. They don't do it with Apple or Nokia so they shouldn't do it with the Android OEM's either.

 

[KupKrazy]

I don't disagree with you - I think people should have the option to delete it. However, I am less concerned with the bloat slowing my device down than I am with the space it takes up since I'm always so memory conscious. To be honest, I never really seem to experience (or at least I don't notice) any lag that is created because of the bloatware. Sometimes I feel that that is a little overrated. I have a GS4 that is rooted with no AT&T or Samsung bloat and frankly, I notice no performance difference than before the root.

I also have a Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and with all the Samsung bloatware on it - it doesn't feel sluggish at all. I just wish I had the option to reclaim the space those apps take.

I do have a Nexus 7 (2013) and yes it's nice that there is no bloat... but there ARE a few Samsung apps that I wouldn't mind having on it, though.

 

[Risley]

I don't know how much bloat your carrier adds but at&t loads it up. If I pay at&t $825 + tax for a device I want to be able to add or delete any app I choose, I don't want all of their crap stuck on my phone, Samsung's either. They don't do it with Apple or Nokia so they shouldn't do it with the Android OEM's either.

There is a kiosk in the Aventura Mall in North Miami called World Phone. They currently sell all the Samsung phones like S4/5, dual SIM phones, many versions of the Note 3 and soon the Note 4 in both processor choices and ALL of the phones they sell are completely free of any bloatware and are unlocked of course.

I'll see if I can find their number. I travel from NC to FL for work often and World Phone is where I'm buying my next phone from.

 

[Risley]

O also just read somewhere that there is a bill going through congress that would require manufacturers and carriers to make all bloatware 100% removable not just disabled.

 

[Risley]

World Phone in Aventura Mall 786-200-3899

 

[Bearcats]

I don't know how much bloat your carrier adds but at&t loads it up. If I pay at&t $825 + tax for a device I want to be able to add or delete any app I choose, I don't want all of their crap stuck on my phone, Samsung's either

This. I paid for the phone. I am not hacking it or doing anything illegal by wanting to remove that garbage.

 

[hawkwind212]

This. I paid for the phone. I am not hacking it or doing anything illegal by wanting to remove that garbage.

In another word, you don't want to break the warranty. Nothing wrong with that way of thinking IMO. One reason that I dislike the apps that come with the phone is in order to remove them, you have to breach the warranty by rooting the phone. Another reason is that half of the apps that come with the phone are really just the ad wares, and you have to pay more money if you want the full apps.

 

[rivera02]

Just a heads up many of the boat apps can be disabled in the app manager without rooting the phone...first thing I do on a new device

 

[jaj324]

There is a kiosk in the Aventura Mall in North Miami called World Phone. They currently sell all the Samsung phones like S4/5, dual SIM phones, many versions of the Note 3 and soon the Note 4 in both processor choices and ALL of the phones they sell are completely free of any bloatware and are unlocked of course.

I'll see if I can find their number. I travel from NC to FL for work often and World Phone is where I'm buying my next phone from.

That would be AWESOME!! As long as an unlocked version works with AT&T LTE I'm in!!

 

[jaj324]

Just a heads up many of the boat apps can be disabled in the app manager without rooting the phone...first thing I do on a new device

Many can but some can't. One of the worst examples of at&t bloat is AT&T Address Book. On some phones not only can it not be disabled but it runs all the time and pops up constantly.

 

[jaj324]

In another word, you don't want to break the warranty. Nothing wrong with that way of thinking IMO. One reason that I dislike the apps that come with the phone is in order to remove them, you have to breach the warranty by rooting the phone. Another reason is that half of the apps that come with the phone are really just the ad wares, and you have to pay more money if you want the full apps.

I'm glad I'm not the only person who feels this way.

 

[Risley]

That would be AWESOME!! As long as an unlocked version works with AT&T LTE I'm in!!

Yep they work. Just make sure you buy the 805 version from them and not the international version, they sell both. The international version will work on AT&T but it won't receive LTE unless you buy the non international version, it will work perfectly on any US GSM LTE carrier.

 

[The_Chief]

I'm glad I'm not the only person who feels this way.

Good thing that we can also UNROOT devices if they need warranty work. Just don't trip KNOX and you should be fine

Well folks, I was all about the Note Edge but articles are becoming more & more prevalent that the Edge will be a hard-to-find proof of concept phone and not a full production model. Which means (to me, anyway) that ROM development for it will be almost non-existent. So... here I am, back at the Note 4 forums, planning to pre-order tomorrow

 

[Teegunn]

True app + data backup is the most important reason I root. Freezing bloat is second. There are several other reasons I use root, but I can do without almost all of them. Android has needed a better true app+data auto backup option for a long damn time. You shouldn't have to root to do that Google. It is my biggest complaint about Android/Google.

 

[jaj324]

Good thing that we can also UNROOT devices if they need warranty work. Just don't trip KNOX and you should be fine

Well folks, I was all about the Note Edge but articles are becoming more & more prevalent that the Edge will be a hard-to-find proof of concept phone and not a full production model. Which means (to me, anyway) that ROM development for it will be almost non-existent. So... here I am, back at the Note 4 forums, planning to pre-order tomorrow

Can Knox be removed or disabled?

 

[The_Chief]

Can Knox be removed or disabled?

Knox, AFAIK, cannot be removed. You may never need it... heck, I've never even encountered it on my phone. But it's there, somewhere in the background. And DEEP inside the phone is this thing called the Knox Counter. It can tell Samsung (and you, if you know where to look) if the phone has EVER been rooted. Fortunately we have root exploits that don't trip the Knox Counter.

That's why the Bootstrap program is so important to Note owners: rather than try to unlock the impossibly-locked bootloader, a Bootstrap like Safestrap just isolates the bootloader and Knox Counter. You leave the stock OS in place and run custom ROMs off the microSD card. Works fabulously. And you can always return to stock if something goes wrong.

When I get a new phone, I do like to put it through its paces for 30 days before modding it: usually, if something in the hardware is going to break, it's going to break in the first 30 days. USUALLY.



EDIT: To access the Knox Counter for a little look, turn OFF the Note 3. Then, hold the Volume Down, Home and Power Button all at the same time until the phone vibrates, then let go. You will get a warning screen. Press Volume Up. About the 4th line down in Odin (or download) Mode is "KNOX WARRANTY VOID" and either 0x0 (which you definitely want to see) or 0x1 (Knox Counter has been tripped).

 

[jaj324]

Now that i have had a chance to get more familiar with my tab pro i see that knox is not actually on the tablet. When you tap the icon it goes to a screen that says you need to download the app. It can't be disabled in the app manager but if you press and hold the icon it allows you to move it to the disable app option at the top of the screen. It just disables the icon i guess.

 

[AnonGuy]

OEM preload aren't bloat. They're part of the UX and are there from day 0.

You can dislike how much if that is on their phones, but blood takes it a bit too far.

It's not like they took the phone post development and added a bunch of junk like carriers and Windows PA OEMs do. It's part of the package.

LG isn't much better, and really neither is HTC with their 150MB Gallery and 60MB Zoe (Beta) among [many] other things.

It is something to consider when buying the phone, though.

I absolutely dislike how they do not let their apps sync to Cloud Storage like Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox and instead force you to create a Samsung Account (which adds another calendar and task list to the calendar app even if you aren't synching them).

 

[AnonGuy]

Now that i have had a chance to get more familiar with my tab pro i see that knox is not actually on the tablet. When you tap the icon it goes to a screen that says you need to download the app. It can't be disabled in the app manager but if you press and hold the icon it allows you to move it to the disable app option at the top of the screen. It just disables the icon i guess.

Yes many of the apps are just links to installers. Not as bad as it used to be. Carriers can still add a lot to it though and a different phone can't avoid that Verizon holds no punches on their devices...