[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Guides, News, & Discussion] NamelessFragger:
Like a lot of people here, I started off on the likes of Palm OS and Windows Mobile, albeit in phoneless PDA form. Getting custom ROMs for the Dell Axim X50v and HP iPAQ hx4700 is what led me to this site a decade ago, back when "XDA" meant some kind of O2-rebranded, HTC-built WinMo smartphone. I recall wanting an HTC Universal at one point, then the Touch Pro2, but was simply not allowed to own a smartphone due to high costs and one ornery stepfather.

Then Samsung announced this Galaxy Note thing, which was a godsend after Steve Jobs' "if you see a stylus, they blew it" statement that set today's smartphone trend in motion... but that was no mere stylus. That was a Wacom EMR pen, the choice of digital artists and Tablet PC note-takers everywhere, seamlessly paired with capacitive multi-touch for the ultimate dual-digitizer experience. The PDA was BACK, baby!

But it would have to wait; ornery stepfathers aside, we were on Sprint. CDMA. No SIM cards.

The next year, something real interesting happened; my mother was tempted by a holiday Sprint BOGO promotion. Buy one Samsung Galaxy, get one free! ...excluding the Note 2 that was just released, so I had to make do with an S3 for two years. Can't complain about my first smartphone that I didn't pay for, I suppose.

Fast forward two years, Christmas 2014, and I got my big ticket wish... sorta. Just an IOU for the Galaxy Note 4, which I got about two or three days later, and that's when I finally got my first Note.

I couldn't have picked a better time. The Note 4 was class-leading in just about every aspect and had every feature I could ask for short of USB 3.0, it debuted the Gear VR to whet my appetite for the upcoming Oculus Rift CV1, and like everyone else, I couldn't predict Samsung removing so much functionality from the Note 5. I kept my beloved Note 4.

Then the Note 7 came; we got microSD back, but the battery was still sealed and they forced those edge curves on the screen, still not winning me away from the Note 4. Hey, maybe if the battery was removable, they wouldn't need to recall the entire phone! Twice!

But after that, a funny thing happened about two years later than planned: my parents finally heeded my advice and dumped Sprint for T-Mobile. This would require new phones for everyone, but with the Note 7 being an explosive topic, talks of Note 4 eMMC failure and the Note 5 being both out of stock and a betrayal of the Note series principles, I did something crazy.

I paid up for a GalaxyTools/idoneapps SIM unlock on that Note 4 to bide my time until the Note 8, knowing full well that Sprint and Samsung gimped the LTE band support. I wanted that pen, dammit. Not even the LG V20 could win me over without it.

But in recent months, I started losing 3G reception, only EDGE. Some of my voice calls would turn to crap, too. I couldn't tolerate this for very long, so I wound up pre-ordering the Note 8 ASAP.

Well, I got it back on Tuesday, and with double the promised microSD storage, to boot. Feels good to have a phone that can properly leverage T-Mobile's network for the first time, 600 MHz aside (and that's not even rolled out in the Atlanta area yet).

Yeah, I'm still none too fond of the sealed battery or curved screen edges and corners, but I have to admit: this is a solid piece of kit, and it has considerably improved pen input over the Note 4, too, no custom kernel to fix pen jitter/vectoring on first contact necessary. Heck, Samsung's customizations have improved considerably in general, lack of Action memo aside (and you can sideload APKs for that).

I just hope the battery holds out for three years. My Note 4 could do it; I expect no less out of the Note 8, especially if Samsung continues to set MSRP records with each new generation.