Note 20 Ultra ordered

I will be exchanging my Note 8 for the Ultra to get the $250 credit from Samsung. I have been relatively pleased with the camera on my Note 8, enough so that my Canon P&S has not left the house since I bough this phone. All the indications are that the Note 20 Ultra camera set up will be even better - the reviews I've seen are good, with a true optical 5X zoom (even if the f3 aperture on the zoom is a little slow).

The phone should arrive around the 21st, and I'll comment about the cameras once I've had some time to play.

My one concern is that, having chosen the unlocked version, I may have issues with WiFi calling. I was never able to get WiFi calling to work on my unlocked Note 8, with Verizon blaming it on Samsung, and Samsung blaming it on Verizon. I hope that the situation will be different with the newer phone - especially because it will accept OS 11, while the Note is limited to OS 9.

One big negative that I have discovered - which applies to any 5G-capable phone: Verizon and AT&T will add a $10 a month surcharge for a 5G phone, even if you don't have 5G service.

Samsung jumped from 10 to 20 with both the S series phones and the Note.

I know that I basically have to expect it to take a day of work to set up the phone, and then a while to learn all the key new features. I'll be going from a Note 8.

What is your current phone? If it is a Samsung, Samsung have an app that makes the transfer easy. If not a Samsung, there may still be a way to get the app to work. Even without that, you apps should all be backed up on your Google account "on "The Cloud" and get pulled over when you set up your Google account on the new phone.

The tricky thing will be any downloads, photos, videos, or texts - they will come over using one of the apps, but not if the restore is done via online methods.

I could recommend that you connect your old phone to a computer and copy over EVERYTHING - much of it will not be of any value, but this way you can be sure to have all your downloads, photos, and videos.

CAcreeks wrote:

Transition to a new phone is much easier when you can move the microSD card from the old phone. If your phone has a card...

True, but even then some things you think are on the card are actually in the phone's storage so best to back it all up. For example, my Note 8 is set to save photos on the SD card but it saves screen shots to the main memory.

When you first turn on the phone, it will give you the option of transferring over everything from your old phone via USB cable or WiFi.

You can also backup your old phone to a PC or SD card using Samsung Smart Switch.  That backup can be restored to your new phone.

Search YouTube for Smart Switch or setting up a new Samsung phone and you'll find plenty of videos on the process.

I used Smartswitch when I received a warranty replacement for my Note 8 (the USB-C port on the old phone would not hold the charging connection securely) and it was fairly easy. The one problem I had was that I had to install the app a couple of times on one of the phones before they two recognized each other.

I bought the phone directly from Samsung, and paid the $12 a month for an extended warranty (zero deductible) - the phone was nearly 3 years old when the connector became too loose.

The issue with the transfer software was on the old phone - I think that the version I had on it was not compatible with the version on the new phone.

Some of it ties to the phone operating system (firmware), which itself is partially limited by hardware (the phone must be capable of running the newer OS) and partially limited by the phone manufacturer (they must make a custom version of the OS available for your specific model). Up until now, Samsung only support two generations of upgrade, at best, so my Note 8 is stuck at OS9. Apps must then be upgraded to be compatible with the new OS, and often the changes in the app will support new features in the OS so that they are not backward-compatible with older OSs. A good app developer will keep older versions available and install the newest app version compatible with the user's OS, but sometimes they make changes that won't work with an older OS.

FYI Samsung have said that starting with the S20 and Note 20 they will make their phones compatible with three additional OS versions, so my Note 20 will ship with OS10 and be compatible with OS versions up to (and including) OS13.

I received a notice today that the new phone has shipped and will get here on the release date (Wednesday the 19) and not on Friday, so that's nice.  The case and USB-C headphone adapter will get her on the 18th, so I'll be ready.

I ordered an ESR clear case, with integrated kickstand from Amazon for $17. It has raised edges to protect the screen and on the back to protect the lenses. I wanted one with an built in stand. It must protect the phone and all cord-free charging.

I'll let you know.

Case change. The ESR case was supposed to arrive yesterday. It didn't, and this morning the delivery date changed to next week. I canceled that and placed a new order for an equivalent one by Spigen - my current "kick stand" case is a Spigen. This new case should arrive tomorrow.

With the newest version of Smart Switch on both phones (Note 8 and the Note 20 Ultra) the process is going quite smoothly, I did have to enter my unlock code a few times on the old phone to confirm approval (a good security feature), but it is copying all my apps, settings, accounts, photos, etc., it even gave me the option to copy the contents from my old microSD card (in the old phone) to the new microSD card (in the new phone). I have about 50 minutes to go for it to complete, based on the countdown that is showing.

Quick review of the Spigen case that I bought - the Spigen Ultra Hybrid S, clear. This has an integrated stand extends a millimeter beyond the front screen at the top and bottom, and the same distance beyond the camera lenses at the back.

I chose clear to show off the color of the phone, because everyone was raving about the bronze color. In reality, to me the color is more pink than bronze, and not that exciting, so the clear case in the end isn't important.

Unlike the case I originally looked at, the stand on this one only helps with the phone horizontal, but is works fine in that orientation. One negative of the stand is that it extends beyond the flat surface, which makes the use of some wireless chargers an issue (it is fine with two of mine, but makes a bad angle for a third). On the other hand it balances out the extending cameras so the phone can sit flat.