I've had a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 for a few months now, and I absolutely love it.
My previous phone was a Galaxy S3, so I'm quite familiar with it's features and already had an attachment to Samsung technology.
I am particularly fond of the larger screen, especially since I edit a lot of pictures on my phone and enjoy the expanded space. Also, the HD screen is to die for if you take advantage of it, I've used it to view a few high definition photos and videos and they are quite impressive~ but I will say for photos that aren't in HD, the screen can warp the colours and contrast a bit on them;; But it's kind of something you get used to after awhile.
I 'm not sure if it's Note 4 specific or other smart devices have the same features, but I really appreciate you can have multiple windows open at once, and you can crop and resize each window to your liking too and at the same time you can scroll, type and click on item within those windows while they're resized and/or cropped. It makes life a lot easier~ Or, me lazier? Something like that.
Also, the quick view button that shows all active windows makes flipping though open apps or pages really convenient. I actually take advantage of that option quite a lot, more so than having multiple windows open on my screen at once.
I also noticed that the battery retention of the note is a lot longer than my S3, which is pretty great.
Last but not least, I can't forget the stylus. I LOVE having a stylus, it makes typing with long nails a thing of the past, and it makes editing photos super easy.
So, onto my apps.
Above, is my main screen and lock screen, I went with a Daisy Duck theme to match my case, which I'll cover at the end of this post. I used a Dodol Launcher theme for my phone's main layout, and a Style Locker theme for my lock screen. Since I was set on a Daisy wallpaper to match my phone, I created my own on Meitu~
All the apps I use are free, unless I mention a price in it's description.
Customization:
It's a Korea based app, but it's pretty easy to navigate because the main features are translated to English. The app and most all the themes are free and if you want a paid theme, which are few and far between, you buy beans which are a steal, and you get a lot of beans for your buck~ You can download full packages, or search for your needs; icons, widgets, lock screens, keyboard themes, wall papers, SMS themes and contact themes. If you're unsure if you have the required launcher for a theme you want, PhoneThemeShop will link you directly to the app you need to download and makes the whole customization process extremely easy.
To customize my keyboard, I used to use
Phone Theme shop's keyboard but since I needed a Kan/Hira keyboard besides English, I upgraded to
Simeji keyboard which I customized with my own Meitu creation that matches my theme.
Chat:
I actually use
LINE over the standard SMS, since the program is so easy to run and the themes are so clean, pretty and there's a good few to pick from. I also really enjoy the group chat functions and you can create basically your own facebook type feed for the members of your chat where you can store and share photos and files. Also, the Line stickers are addictive and extremely emotive and custom for your personality. I have and use a TON of them in my chats, so I take a great deal of advantage of them. I like them over standard emojis any day.
Camera/Photo Editing:
I replaced the phone's standard camera with
Camera360, because I have an addiction to their Sweet filter and I need to use it on everything.
To photoshop my photos, I use
Meitu BeautyCam app, instructions on how I use it are in my blog post [
here]
After everything, and if I feel I want to add stickers to a photo, up the clarity or create a collage, I use
LINEcamera. It's the perfect camera and photo app because it can do anything and everything and has a huge assortment of filters, stickers, photo editing tools and basically, anything you can think of~ If anything, this would be my go-to camera application.
Misc Apps:
I have the above applications on my phone:
Waze- A much more fun and interesting social based version of Google Maps/GPS [if you use it, you should totally use the Boy Band voice for navigation, it's the most entertaining thing to my friends and I.]
Eat24- making ordering delivery or take out a breeze, and without any social interaction, because who needs that.
Snapchat- kind of like intagram? but you can control how long a friend can see a photo and it dissapears, and the receiving company can't save a photo and if they print screen you are notified of the fact. If you want to follow me, my sn is CarisseIris.
TsumTsum- a cute Disney game where you connect like items and compete against your friends.
Yelp- my most used app when I'm with friends, you can look up and leave reviews of cafes, shops and even parks and beaches. It's a great app if you don't know where to go or are curious about places near and around you.
Hulu/
Netflix- monthly paid apps I use to watch tv shows and videos on my device
I also bought a wonderfully cute Daisy Duck phone case on eBay. I buy all my phone cases on eBay because there's a huge assortment to pick from. My phone cause is pretty bulky but I got used to it very quickly. The whole case is silicon and pretty sturdy and because of the bulk, it is a great case that keeps my phone safe when I drop it, which is embarrassingly quite a lot. The case also came with a chain and hole to attach said chain if you want to use the case as a purse to carry around your phone, great for days when you don't want to carry a purse or wallet. On those days, I actually just stick my credit card or a $20 bill behind my phone and tucked in the case for safe keeping.
But there you have it, my apps I use and what I think is a pretty good overview on my phone.
Hope you found it useful!
<3CarisseIris
