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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2024
I've only owned every version of the Note series (now Ultra) since Note 4 (did not own the bendy screen one, just regular). So this is old hat, you either love this phone for its S Pen or just go with something else. I use my phone and the pen to make grocery lists, to do lists, draw, edit photos, etc.
Pros:
-FLAT SCREEN IS BACK. HOLY COW, how I've hated those stupid curved edges, glad that flat is back. Just bring back MicroSD expansion as well. I would say bring back headphones but apparently Android 10 or later killed external mic support via the combo jack. So, that's useless. This was the MAJOR reason why I upgraded my S23 Ultra, no joke, now I can put actual screen protectors on it, don't have to worry about optical glue-on glass that you then cure with UV.
Cons:
-Love that you can't turn off really annoying unnecessary notifications like the DAILYWELLNESS nonsense, weekly usage reports, "hey we turned these apps off since you're not using them".
-Love that the galaxy store now has push notification ads that you can't turn off in settings or in app. That's super cool. Save that crap for your GALAXY A lines that are budget oriented, not your professional S lines.
-New S Pen, now most of the time, the S-Pens that come with these are SERVICEABLE at best, but for whatever reason, this year's is painful to use, could be old age kicking in at 36 or just a bad design. It's too thin and too square. Last year's was slightly wider. NEVER MIND, just compared them, they're basically the same, it's the fact that last years had a rubberized texture on it, where this year's is just plastic, that's why it hurts to use.
Meh:
-A lot of this is more the same incremental improvements; cpu is beefier, display is brighter and more betterer, s pen is faster, touch is faster, etc. THE BORING STUFF.
Overall:
You always take a gamble with Amazon's "USED" stuff, and was worried that I was going to get a bad one. I bought, USED VERY GOOD, which usually means cosmetic damage somewhere on the device, and then it was "USED VERY GOOD, potentially without box". Mine looked pristine, slapped a screen protector and case on it right away to keep it that way, and it came with a box. You buy this phone if Samsung and styluses are your jam. OTHERWISE there's no real reason to get this. When there are a lot of companies with the 8 Gen 3 out there for a lot cheaper and in smaller more manageable body sizes. Like the S23 Plus or S23 standard. The Titanium Gray color has a slight champagne/earthen quality to the gray that I kind of dig that's subtle and sort of classy.
Pros:
-FLAT SCREEN IS BACK. HOLY COW, how I've hated those stupid curved edges, glad that flat is back. Just bring back MicroSD expansion as well. I would say bring back headphones but apparently Android 10 or later killed external mic support via the combo jack. So, that's useless. This was the MAJOR reason why I upgraded my S23 Ultra, no joke, now I can put actual screen protectors on it, don't have to worry about optical glue-on glass that you then cure with UV.
Cons:
-Love that you can't turn off really annoying unnecessary notifications like the DAILYWELLNESS nonsense, weekly usage reports, "hey we turned these apps off since you're not using them".
-Love that the galaxy store now has push notification ads that you can't turn off in settings or in app. That's super cool. Save that crap for your GALAXY A lines that are budget oriented, not your professional S lines.
-New S Pen, now most of the time, the S-Pens that come with these are SERVICEABLE at best, but for whatever reason, this year's is painful to use, could be old age kicking in at 36 or just a bad design. It's too thin and too square. Last year's was slightly wider. NEVER MIND, just compared them, they're basically the same, it's the fact that last years had a rubberized texture on it, where this year's is just plastic, that's why it hurts to use.
Meh:
-A lot of this is more the same incremental improvements; cpu is beefier, display is brighter and more betterer, s pen is faster, touch is faster, etc. THE BORING STUFF.
Overall:
You always take a gamble with Amazon's "USED" stuff, and was worried that I was going to get a bad one. I bought, USED VERY GOOD, which usually means cosmetic damage somewhere on the device, and then it was "USED VERY GOOD, potentially without box". Mine looked pristine, slapped a screen protector and case on it right away to keep it that way, and it came with a box. You buy this phone if Samsung and styluses are your jam. OTHERWISE there's no real reason to get this. When there are a lot of companies with the 8 Gen 3 out there for a lot cheaper and in smaller more manageable body sizes. Like the S23 Plus or S23 standard. The Titanium Gray color has a slight champagne/earthen quality to the gray that I kind of dig that's subtle and sort of classy.
