I have 1st gen iPad mini. I'd like to sell it and buy note 8.0, but i have some doubts:
1) I would mainly use it for learning: reading, marking the books. Note's resolution is not the best, but i quess it won't hurt my eyes as much as iPad does, right?
2) What battery life can i expect if i am willing to use greenify, debloater and other stuff of that nature?
3) Won't tablet be quite boring if i already have exellent android phone that can run all the apps/ games i can imagine?
4) Any other thoughts? Would you do that?
1. If you have the original iPad Mini, it's resolution is as crappy as the Note 8. If that one hurts your eyes, so will this one. I suspect it's not resolution but just looking at an LCD screen for a long time does not work well for you
2. None of that crap will do anything for your battery life, don't even bother. Battery life is actually OK, but nothing like the iPad Mini retina or the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 for example. The Note 8 is running like 2+ year old hardware after all. It's not the fault of Android or what Samsung did with it regarding the relatively poor battery life, but the simple fact that older hardware is less efficient. Nothing you can do in software will make an appreciable difference.
3. Nobody can tell you whether or not you'll be bored. But I am assuming that you are an adult and are considering buying this tab because you need it for marking up books, etc, based on your post. If you are looking for something to play games, I can't help you there. Although I would wonder why you care about these things on a device that you know is very old and was never intended as a fun device but as a productivity device.
4. Let me start out by saying that I have both the Note 8 and the iPad mini retina. I bought the Note 8 when it first came out for the same reason as you, something to mark up books and take note in medical school. My issues with the Note are that it really doesn't make good use of the pen due to poor apps. The S-Note app is pretty terrible and unfortunately there is nothing better out there. The pen is also not very accurate, especially with the latest update. As a tablet though, it is a good tablet, and due to having 2 GB of RAM, it actually runs better in some respects that my iPad. But battery life is nowhere near close. If the app Notability was available on Android, the Note 8 would be the perfect tablet. I am now in residency, and the hospital bought all of us the iPads. My Note has been a glorified alarm clock since then. That is not to say that the iPad is perfect by any means, I am actually very unimpressed with it, but unless a decent app such as Notability comes to Android, the Note 8 isn't very useful beyond just as an Android tablet. I am actually very impressed at how bad S-Note is and little effort Samsung put into actually making use of the pen in this tab.
In conclusion, if you decide to sell your iPad mini for Android tablet, I would pass on the Note 8. Personally, I would go with the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 or the iPad Mini Retina.
