Up grade or not

[omairangel]

Hi everyone, I have a question, I would like to pick your brains about something: I have the Note 8 and I am thinking about upgrading to the Note 10+, mainly for the screen real estate. I don't make a lot of calls, I don't really use the stylus a lot, I take pictures and videos, but not a lot. I do watch a lot, A LOT of movies and videos. I want to upgrade to the Note 10+ 512 GB. I want to get anybody's opinion. Is it worth getting the Note 10+, 512 GB? Will it perform better that the Note 8? If I trade it in, I will only get about $100 or $300 for it. I have T-Mobile. I believe they are having a promotion now. Any input would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[olbriar]

With the Amoled screen and it's size on the the Note 10+ I would think watching videos would just be outstanding. I'm not up on the specs of the Note 8 but I'm sure you are getting a faster processor as well. I have the S8+ and it's pale in comparison to the Note 10+

 

[ocnbrze]

i currently have the note 8 and i love it. but i'm parting ways with it to get the note 10+ 5G 256 gb. everything in this new device will be a much better upgrade then the note 8. the screen with its tinniest bezel is so immersive especially when watching a video....so i think for you would seal the deal. that screen is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i can't wait to play around with the camera as well some of the AR features it has.

as far as trade in goes it will depend. i'm not sure what the deal with t-mobile is, but best buy will give you $300 for the note 8. i just switched to verizon just for this phone. they are giving me $450 plus an additional $50 credit...basically $500 in credit that will be applied to my monthly bill.

i would go to best buy and check out the phone for yourself and see how you like the screen, i did not like the smaller note 10. the 10+ is almost the same size as the note 8. you just have more screen real estate and less bezel then the note 8.

 

[omairangel]

Alirght, thank you people! You have sold me! To ocnbrze, did you go to Samsung Dept at Best Buy?

 

[ocnbrze]

Alirght, thank you people! You have sold me! To ocnbrze, did you go to Samsung Dept at Best Buy?

no just the mobile dept. you can go and inquire about the phone with sammy rep, but he will ultimately take you to one of the guys in the mobile dept........so i just skipped the sammy dude cuz i already knew what i wanted.

 

[omairangel]

Thank you, I will do that!! Will it be unlocked! I am going to T-Mobile...

 

[ocnbrze]

Thank you, I will do that!! Will it be unlocked! I am going to T-Mobile...

i'm sure they will have unlocked versions....didn't really ask as i knew i wanted to switch to verizon. they had the best deal for me.

 

[omairangel]

Hi thank you, now I want to ask should I order the Note 10+ through Samsung Financing directly or through T-Mobile financing? I again I would appreciate any suggestion or help. Thank you again.

 

[mikedt]

"financing"? I guess you choose the one that has the best terms, and doesn't charge you a high interest rate? I've not bought a phone on the never-never myself.

 

[ocnbrze]

Hi thank you, now I want to ask should I order the Note 10+ through Samsung Financing directly or through T-Mobile financing? I again I would appreciate any suggestion or help. Thank you again.

i like to talk to people who know better about plans. best buy was the one that steered me to verizon for their trade in special which turned out a much better deal then best buy. they saved me an extra $200!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[CmdrBond]

I don't know about the US, but in the UK, if you order online through Sammy, you can get 0% interest through PayPal credit for up to 2 years.

In my local Experience Store they use a different credit agency, but still offer 2 years 0%.

Then there's always the upgrade program, but I'm a little wary of that. And it seems to operate differently in different countries.

 

[buckeye50]

I have S9 plus now. Should I up grade to the new note ?

 

[ocnbrze]

I have S9 plus now. Should I up grade to the new note ?

that's up to you. are you looking to upgrade? are you happy with your phone now? the specs for the note 10 is not as impressive and is along the same lines as the s9 series...... the note 10+ is definitely a step up from the s9 IMO.

but that is for you to decide.

 

[marctronixx]

go into a store that carries the phone. see if it offers anything new that could improve your user experience that your current phone does not have. if it doesn't, then its not for you. dont feel pressured to have the latest and greatest.

 

[CmdrBond]

It all really depends on what you want.

I have an s7 Edge that is still perfectly capable.

However it's starting to get pink streaks in direct sunlight and I've cracked the screen. So I've chosen to upgrade, and gone for the note because I've deep down always wanted one.

But coming from an S9, I'd probably wait for the S11 or Note 11.

The odd numbered phones tend to have the best jumps in specs (or seem to, to me).

 

[Hadron]

What do you think your S9+ is lacking? Does the Note 10 address the lack? Do you feel that the price is worth it for whatever difference it makes?

If you can answer those questions, chances are you've answered your question as well.

The odd numbered phones tend to have the best jumps in specs (or seem to, to me).

Interesting - I'd have said the opposite if anything:
* S2 was a big jump from the lacklustre Galaxy S.
* S3's screen hurt my eyes and many of the early ones had a terminal hardware fault, so I didn't pay much attention to it.
* S4 was a decent phone
* S5 was widely slated as a boring iteration of the S4.
* S6 was flawed (that was the year that Samsung tried removing SD slots), but it was a new design, and introduced the double curved-edge screen (even if the S6 Edge's flat back made it an ergonomic disaster).
* S7 basically fixed those faults in the S6
* S8 introduced the longer display, smaller bezels approach
* S9 was an iteration of the S8, and barely distinguishable from the front (from the back you could tell if you looked for the fingerprint scanner)
* S10 is another iteration, but more distinct than the S9 (including under-display FP scanner, even if the S10e's power button one works better)

I've said little about specs, but that's because they've all been in line with flagships of their respective year, and so to my mind there's nothing much to say about them. For most usage software is more important than specs anyway.

 

[CmdrBond]

Maybe it's because I started with the Galaxy Nexus, then went SIII, S5, S7 Edge...

He makes some interesting arguments. It looks like the S10+ is much better value than the standard Note 10!

 

[ocnbrze]

He makes some interesting arguments. It looks like the S10+ is much better value than the standard Note 10!

i agree. that's why i am slightly disappointed. for people who wantthe latest and greatest like me, they force you into getting the more expensive model.

 

[Hadron]

i agree. that's why i am slightly disappointed. for people who wantthe latest and greatest like me, they force you into getting the more expensive model.

That's been their strategy for a couple of years.
Two years ago the S8 came in 2 models which, apart from screen size and battery, had the same specifications. You could simply choose whichever model suited you best. Very customer-friendly.

Since then they've increasingly kept features back for the larger and more expensive model. There's no technical reason to do so, it's just to push people towards the more expensive phone. Very corporate-friendly, but not in customers' interests.

To be honest, the names "Note 10" and "Note 10+" are misleading: it would have been more accurate if, in keeping with the naming convention of the S series, they had called them "Note 10e" and "Note 10" respectively. Do note that the S10e is my favourite of the Galaxy S10 range, I'm just saying this because really the 10+ is the successor to the Note 9, while the 10 is a cut-down model.

 

[marctronixx]

You can get the note 10 plus for 600 dollars give or take tax if you have a note 9. How is that not a great value alone?

The note 10 is a new direction in the series.. no headset jack, “hole punch”, smaller note 10 has no sd card... so naturally there will be growing pains, but the phone is selling like hotcakes despite this. Hell I picked up 3!!!

These “influencers” have to go against the grain just a little bit and are always looking for nit picky things to complain about.

This is why i dont watch these types of videos because thats one persons opinion. I’m a grown man and can read the specs and decide for myself if a product is worth an upgrade or not.

The above is MY opinion and my “good points”..

 

[Hadron]

I don't watch these videos, or any video reviews of anything, because I don't have the patience for them. I can read faster than they can talk, skim or skip stuff I'm less interested in much quicker and more accurately, look in detail at anything that needs it rather than pausing, painfully reframing, then not being able to look closely because of the low resolution of the video. So if they want to make a video to accompany an article, fine (and I'll just ignore it). If they just make a video then I'll ignore them.

Am I showing my age?

 

[droidros]

My first couple of smart phones were Motorola and I really liked them. Then I switched to a Samsung S5 (?), then back to Motorola, Moto Z, which has given me a number of problems that I won't go into now. Anyway, I'm back to considering the Samsung, Galaxy 10 series as there is a good sale on at Costco.

The problem is, which one? Apart from phone calls and texting, I mainly use the phone to take and edit pictures, read and write to Facebook, perform searches, and play some casual games. So my main criteria are (apart from clear phone calls, which I think should be a given for a phone) excellent camera (including the selfie), long battery life, and a responsive user interface with easy text input.

The 10 pluses are really large but they seem to be getting very good reviews and have the longest battery life. Since I like using a stylus, I like the idea of the Note 10 with the stylus, but that adds even more to the size and weight. I do have a couple of questions:

I seem to remember I had problems with the icons on my last Samsung. I couldn't lock them down and icons would get moved accidentally and some icons would actually disappear altogether. Also, it was easy to accidentally call someone (butt calling, although I never carry my phone next to my butt ). Do any of these phones have these problems?

I prefer to input text using Swype (or similar) rather than tapping out the keys. Do all these models have this capability and does the Note stylus work well with this method?

Given my concerns about the size, do you think the features and and functionality of the S10+ or Note 10+ outweigh the S10/Note 10?

Thoughts and recommendation from anybody with familiarity with any of these models are appreciated!

 

[Hadron]

Larger phones can fit larger batteries, while the rest of the circuitry stays the same size, which is why they generally give better battery life.

The "can't lock the home screen" problem can always be solved by using a third party launcher (Nova is probably the most popular around here, but there are many others). A "launcher" is the app that provides the home screens and app drawer, and if the one that comes with the phone doesn't do what you want there is no reason at all to put up with it, just use a different one. So you should not have to worry about that issue on any phone.

On the keyboard, again you can always replace that, so once more there is no reason to put up with the manufacturer's choice if it doesn't do what you want. You'll need a Note owner to answer the question about the stylus though.

What are the actual feature advantages of the larger phones? Apart from the battery and display sizes I don't think there's much difference at all between the S10 and the S10+ (dual selfie camera vs single, if that's important to you, but I can't think of much else). The Notes have a lot of fans here, so they'll be better able to answer that one - for me the stylus would be the reason to buy the Note.

To be honest the uses you say you have aren't that demanding, so I suspect any of these would do fine for you. Maybe a bigger screen is useful if you edit photos on a phone (I don't know because I use a computer for that)? Otherwise I'd say it probably comes down to portability vs battery.

 

[Bearsyzf]

My note 9 still works perfectly.

 

[droidros]

Larger phones can fit larger batteries, while the rest of the circuitry stays the same size, which is why they generally give better battery life.

The "can't lock the home screen" problem can always be solved by using a third party launcher (Nova is probably the most popular around here, but there are many others). A "launcher" is the app that provides the home screens and app drawer, and if the one that comes with the phone doesn't do what you want there is no reason at all to put up with it, just use a different one. So you should not have to worry about that issue on any phone.

On the keyboard, again you can always replace that, so once more there is no reason to put up with the manufacturer's choice if it doesn't do what you want. You'll need a Note owner to answer the question about the stylus though.

What are the actual feature advantages of the larger phones? Apart from the battery and display sizes I don't think there's much difference at all between the S10 and the S10+ (dual selfie camera vs single, if that's important to you, but I can't think of much else). The Notes have a lot of fans here, so they'll be better able to answer that one - for me the stylus would be the reason to buy the Note.

To be honest the uses you say you have aren't that demanding, so I suspect any of these would do fine for you. Maybe a bigger screen is useful if you edit photos on a phone (I don't know because I use a computer for that)? Otherwise I'd say it probably comes down to portability vs battery.

Thank you. Which phone do you have and how happy are you with it?