After two years with my EVO 4G (OG) it was starting to have some hiccups here and there. Mostly because of the power surges that came into my house and fried out 11 250 joule surge protectors, an LED TV, 2 FiOS STB's, the FiOS D-Mark, and a microwave. Charging my phone during the last strike from my local electric company had caused it to start running strangely. Or at least that is my theory.
Well, I decided I needed a new phone. I was lucky enough that I was due for an upgrade, so off to Best Buy I went. I was seriously toying with the idea of getting an SG3. My brother in law has one, as well as my wife's cousins. I thought it was a great phone and light years ahead of the EVO. Don't get me wrong, my EVO has served me phenomenally, but I wanted something nicer. I have 2 Epic 4Gs in my house, wife and son, plus I have had the Fascinate, the Moment and the Transform, so I know Samsung makes some great devices.
I walk into the Mobile center in Best Buy and gravitate towards the Sprint table and started looking at the SG3. There was nothing that really jumped out at me and there were no more HTC phones in the lineup. Sad, but never a deal breaker. Then I see it, the Galaxy Note II. I pick it up and it feels very comfortable in my hand. I am a big guy so I feel like an iPhone get's lost in my hand and this was the Goldilocks phone. Now for the moment of truth. Do they have the Titanium in stock? My EVO is white and so is my iPhone. The Note in white was just too much white. And not the cool Stormtrooper white with black accents like my EVO has, but pure stark white. That wouldn't do. The sales person approached and asked me if I needed help. I told him I wanted the GN2 in Titanium and he gave me an ashen look. He mentioned that they were on national back order, but he would look anyway. Lo and behold, he pulls out, according to him, the last Titanium GN2 in the country.
Everything goes swimmingly. They have the phone advertised for $299 for an upgrade, but I had seen it in Radio Shack for $199. I never thought to take a picture of the ad before I went to BB, but oh well. I told the new salesperson that was helping I would come back to get the $100 credit. She said she had a lot of luck beating Amazon Wireless' prices. She pulled up the site and I was able to get the Note for $199. Score! She got me up and activated in about 10 mins and I was out the door with my new toy.
Now, I swore to myself that I would test drive it for a week or two before rooting at and throwing a custom ROM. Too bad that lasted about 5 mins. I was able to root it even after doing the MA7 update. I am currently a lab rat because I actually like the stock TouchWiz. That may change but for the moment I like the Team Nocturnal ROM (great job guys!!) Battery life on this is insane!!! I charged it to full last night and took it off at about 10PM. I use it as a white noise generator and forgot to set the sleep timer, so it was going from midnight until I woke up at 7AM and I still had 90% battery. Awesome!!
I will probably spend most of my work day playing and tweaking it.
Well, I decided I needed a new phone. I was lucky enough that I was due for an upgrade, so off to Best Buy I went. I was seriously toying with the idea of getting an SG3. My brother in law has one, as well as my wife's cousins. I thought it was a great phone and light years ahead of the EVO. Don't get me wrong, my EVO has served me phenomenally, but I wanted something nicer. I have 2 Epic 4Gs in my house, wife and son, plus I have had the Fascinate, the Moment and the Transform, so I know Samsung makes some great devices.
I walk into the Mobile center in Best Buy and gravitate towards the Sprint table and started looking at the SG3. There was nothing that really jumped out at me and there were no more HTC phones in the lineup. Sad, but never a deal breaker. Then I see it, the Galaxy Note II. I pick it up and it feels very comfortable in my hand. I am a big guy so I feel like an iPhone get's lost in my hand and this was the Goldilocks phone. Now for the moment of truth. Do they have the Titanium in stock? My EVO is white and so is my iPhone. The Note in white was just too much white. And not the cool Stormtrooper white with black accents like my EVO has, but pure stark white. That wouldn't do. The sales person approached and asked me if I needed help. I told him I wanted the GN2 in Titanium and he gave me an ashen look. He mentioned that they were on national back order, but he would look anyway. Lo and behold, he pulls out, according to him, the last Titanium GN2 in the country.
Everything goes swimmingly. They have the phone advertised for $299 for an upgrade, but I had seen it in Radio Shack for $199. I never thought to take a picture of the ad before I went to BB, but oh well. I told the new salesperson that was helping I would come back to get the $100 credit. She said she had a lot of luck beating Amazon Wireless' prices. She pulled up the site and I was able to get the Note for $199. Score! She got me up and activated in about 10 mins and I was out the door with my new toy.
Now, I swore to myself that I would test drive it for a week or two before rooting at and throwing a custom ROM. Too bad that lasted about 5 mins. I was able to root it even after doing the MA7 update. I am currently a lab rat because I actually like the stock TouchWiz. That may change but for the moment I like the Team Nocturnal ROM (great job guys!!) Battery life on this is insane!!! I charged it to full last night and took it off at about 10PM. I use it as a white noise generator and forgot to set the sleep timer, so it was going from midnight until I woke up at 7AM and I still had 90% battery. Awesome!!
I will probably spend most of my work day playing and tweaking it.