[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 General] Johev:
My thoughts on upgrading

Hi all, I would like to add my 2 Euro cents to this discussion. First of all I only own the Original Note (N7000), which is why I can't comment specificity on the Note 2 (N7100) but I would like to say something that might not have been brought up before.

With the holidays season coming, and with some frustration with the battery of my Note 1 (not claiming it is not good, as it is better than any smartphone I had before it), but still when reading a lot or taking notes I find that I get a bit worried when I am in a train or at a long meeting if it will last. It usually does, but still the extra peace of mind would do wonders for me. The only thing that I turn off (because I never use it) is bluetooth the rest is ON 99% of the time (my use pattern).

I bought my Note because of the possibility to take notes during meetings, but I find the device to be average at it. With the ICS upgrade it became much better (smoother) but still it is not as good as I would like it to be.

That is why I would like to know if the Note 2 has improved in this matter. If anyone that has tried them both could let me know, I would appreciate it.

Now for what I consider before I upgrade.

1) Is the device still supported and how long will it still be supported (officially, but most importantly by the XDA community)?

- in this the original Note had some problems due to the brick bug, which I blame for many good developers moving to a different device (it has been solved with the safe Kernels, but the harm has already been done).

2) Does it perform well in everyday tasks? Are there any tasks which I would find useful that it can't perform?

- So far the original Note has done a very well job at it. I can't think of anything that I could not do with it. Maybe the NFC chip would have been a nice addition as my mother's Galaxy S2 has one. But the important question for me is how much did the S Pen function improve from the N7000 to N7100 (feel free to come back with your thoughts)

3) Market value. (buying now Vs waiting for something else to come).

- Well maybe because I studied Management I always think of how much it is worth (2nd hand value) and compare it to the price of the next generation one.

As I am not rich (middle class income) I can't go and buy them as soon as they are released. That is why patience and good price searching are essential. As I look at it, Galaxy Note 2 is now priced new for 499 EUR. This is quite a drop from the 650-700 EUR I have seen it 3 months ago.

The original Note can still be sold for about 310-330 EUR (in a very good physical condition), all the original accessories and maybe a protective case and some screen protects, so I am seeing the upgrade would now cost me about 150-170 EUR depending on the selling price. That is not bad, in my perspective.

The real question is what will happen to the price of the original Note with the constant release of new devices by the competition. You have the Galaxy Note 2, but also the Nexus 4, HTC, LG and others are also launching bigger and better devices.

We can no longer claim it has the biggest screen and even normal smartphones (not phablets) are coming close the 5 inches. We can't claim the best battery life, as even the Galaxy S3 with its 2100 mah battery has better mileage (of course smaller screen, lower resolution and more efficient components have an impact).

And many of the good developers have already moved to the Note II, or if they did not move, they own one already and are actively developing on it.

All this makes me wonder if sticking with the original Note will makes sence, or if it will loose so much value that when something really cool comes (let's say that the Note 3 will be a huge upgrade) it will hurt my wallet almost as much as it did when I bought this one. :D

Sorry for the long post but these are my thoughts, feel free to come and bring your points of view on this topic.:cool: