Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - Android 5.0 Mini Review

Well a full day with the Polish version of Android 5.0, and here is my first impressions:

• Phone is amazingly snappy now, I really am surprised as to how snappy it is
• Camera draw is soooooo much faster and is better utilising my high speed SDcard, it lays to waste my previous 4.4.3 install
• Camera is operating like a gazillion times better, though it does not handle exposure as well as previous versions, but its processing time and focusing ability is amazingly better
• GPS works much better than previous version which was a BTU install instead of the Australian International version, it does take a little longer to get a lock, but it gets it and it holds it
• Battery usage is good and it is settling down and I think it will surpass my previous install which was amazingly good, being that I could get 1.5 days to 2 days with light to medium usage
• Radio control is much better, but it still does not like the Optus network much, it struggles to move from 2100MHz to U900 properly, though I do suspect that this is more of an Optus issue rather a phone issue
• Bluetooth is massively improved, I only had 1 skip/break in connectivity during an hour and 15 minute drive, normally I would get 2-4 of them during each song
• If I loose mobile reception it has a less disruption effect on the Bluetooth now, where as before BT was totaly screwed when I lost mobile reception, now they dont seem to be so tightly bound
• I noticed that they have implemented the same audio normality on the DSP as they did with the Note 4, it is not as loud as it was with all previous versions/releases but I can handle it as long as my BT works better.
• Notification system works much different but I am getting used it, there is logic with the way it is done and it is just a matter of getting used to it for now :)
• Loving....LOVING this cut down version of TouchWiz, and actually I don't mind this slightly toned down Material Design either, kudos to Samsung for getting this right

What I don't like:

• They removed blocking mode and they replaced it with a functionality called "Interruption" which is buried in an area that doesn't really make sense, and they have stripped away the functionality that I once had with blocking mode... Disappointed Samsung, Disappointed :(
• Still the same problem with loosing Bluetooth devices out of the list, if you connect and disconnect in multiple successions (Like today twice) you will lose that device from the list, did it with the car stereo, thought it might have been back luck so tried it with the Gear S and it did it with that as well, so a little disappointed that this problem still exists :(
• It gets very hot now when charging, I have not seen it do this before, on previous versions it might get a little warm, now it gets exceptional hot when charging, not sure if I should be worried, though I feel as though it is also charging quicker though this could be a placebo effect maybe?
• When shooting on auto with the camera, it is way off in the aperture and bringing light into the shot, just taking a shot under a car shade sail today, it did an OK shot with the images in the background, but made the person in the image 2 meters away from me like they were in pitch dark, I have not seen this before and it did it on about half the shots from today on the beach.
• Folder design is crap, seriously when you implement such a good version of TouchWiz and a great iteration of material design, they could have taken a leaf out of the mod community and implemented a much better version of folders, this is just lazy in my opinion.

What I did to get a clean install:

• Backed up my call logs, SMS, MMS and other things using the inbuild Samsung cloud backup, if it fails a few times then do one item at a time until it is 100% backed up
• Wiped Cache Partition
• Formatted system
• Wiped Cache Partition again (Not required but this method has never failed me)
• Unzipped the Polish Edition of the Firmware
• Loaded up Odin 3.09 (NOT 3.10 which gave me grief)
• Loaded up firmware into Odin and make sure re-partition was UNTICKED
• As soon as the upload was successful I rebooted back into recovery again by taking the battery out after the began rebooting, and did a factory reset again (Again not required but this method has never every failed me)
• Setup the phone as normal and do the Google restore first and then sign into your Samsung account and do that one (Android 5.0 just works way quicker than previous versions)

Now to see how the Note 4 performs when it gets its upgrade, I am looking forward to it getting the taste flavour :)

Cheers,

David.