Top Note 5 Tips

[apolloa]

WHEN I get my Note 5, which is lost between wherever eglobal ship it from and my home! The couriers are apparently investigating where it is, I ordered it over 2 weeks ago! Sorry for that little moan, kinda fed up with it. Just as well I paid for insured shipping!!

What are the top tips for it? What to set up and change on it? I'll have a look at the launchers and TouchWiz.

I am struggling with my little Nexus 5, it seems to be rather hampered with the latest updates they've put on it?

 

[MRU]

EGlobal send it normally to a European hub in a bulk shipment and the once it arrives in Europe it is then repackaged and sent within Europe to you (this is how it manages to circumvent getting import duties). (Though you're screwed once Brexit kicks in).

I generally find it takes 2-3 weeks to get my orders from them, so I wouldn't panic after 2 weeks tbh. I've never had a lost parcel with them and I've ordered a load of stuff including expensive cameras and lenses too.


Anyway,

----

Other than make sure your firmware is up to date (if you decide to stick to the firmware it ships with - just use the regular OTA update before you set up your device. (Skip through the initial setup, the get the updated firmware and install it. Once installed, do a quick factory reset and then proceed to setup your phone restoring applications from playstore etc.

Next thing would be download a theme, material themes are there if you
want to give your device a more stock appearance.

Other than that, just enjoy. I know others will recommend package disabler pro, but I wouldn't bother myself. I just disable / uninstall ...


If it's the SM-N9200 from HongKong it was updated on the 7 October 2016 - so there should be a new firmware update for it 🙂

 

[apolloa]

EGlobal send it normally to a European hub in a bulk shipment and the once it arrives in Europe it is then repackaged and sent within Europe to you (this is how it manages to circumvent getting import duties). (Though you're screwed once Brexit kicks in).

I generally find it takes 2-3 weeks to get my orders from them, so I wouldn't panic after 2 weeks tbh. I've never had a lost parcel with them and I've ordered a load of stuff including expensive cameras and lenses too.


Anyway,

----

Other than make sure your firmware is up to date (if you decide to stick to the firmware it ships with - just use the regular OTA update before you set up your device. (Skip through the initial setup, the get the updated firmware and install it. Once installed, do a quick factory reset and then proceed to setup your phone restoring applications from playstore etc.

Next thing would be download a theme, material themes are there if you
want to give your device a more stock appearance.

Other than that, just enjoy. I know others will recommend package disabler pro, but I wouldn't bother myself. I just disable / uninstall ...


If it's the SM-N9200 from HongKong it was updated on the 7 October 2016 - so there should be a new firmware update for it 🙂

Yeah hopefully it'll arrive next week, eglobal are usually good but they haven't located it yet haha.
Anyway I forgot about the updating, it's the N920C as it's the on.y one they had which works with all carriers and specifically Tesco Mobile / O2. What version of Android does it get updated too? 5 or 6?

 

[MRU]

Yeah hopefully it'll arrive next week, eglobal are usually good but they haven't located it yet haha.
Anyway I forgot about the updating, it's the N920C as it's the on.y one they had which works with all carriers and specifically Tesco Mobile / O2. What version of Android does it get updated too? 5 or 6?

You should get 6.0.1 with the October (or September) google security patch so it brings you as up to date as it can 🙂

Latest update for 920C was 30.09.2016

 

[mclld]

Dont use Chrome! I recently switched to the Samsung browser and it is better, I am using the international version N5

 

[apolloa]

Dont use Chrome! I recently switched to the Samsung browser and it is better, I am using the international version N5

oh yes, thanks for reminding me about that, I believe I can add an app to block advertising for it? And I can use the finger print scanner to log into websites with it, if I remember from when I last had the Note 5.

 

[mclld]

I don't use a lock/ scanner but you can use an ad blocker

 

[Fernandez21]

What I do is first do all the updates, then download a theme (currently using material dark), then go into the app drawer, click edit and delete/disable all the apps I don't use. In settings, I change the display mode to "photo", font size to tiny, display scaling to "condensed, and choose my wallpapers. Then I download Google Now launcher, then start downloading my apps.

Coming from the Note 7, performance wise there isn't that big of a hit. Where I notice it more is in the design/look (the 5 just looks and feels so clunky and heavy in comparison), battery life, and waterproofing. Honorable mention to the iris scanner.

 

[apolloa]

What I do is first do all the updates, then download a theme (currently using material dark), then go into the app drawer, click edit and delete/disable all the apps I don't use. In settings, I change the display mode to "photo", font size to tiny, display scaling to "condensed, and choose my wallpapers. Then I download Google Now launcher, then start downloading my apps.

Coming from the Note 7, performance wise there isn't that big of a hit. Where I notice it more is in the design/look (the 5 just looks and feels so clunky and heavy in comparison), battery life, and waterproofing. Honorable mention to the iris scanner.

I don't doubt the Note 5 is as fast in real life us as the Note 7, they can't make them noticeably faster every year, but thanks for the confirmation.
Hmm I'll have to play with the font and screen settings, and have a look at the launchers. I do like Google Now though, up there with 3D Touch as a useful feature I think.

 

[apolloa]

What's a good photo sync cloud based system to use? To replace iCloud, does Samsung do its own or is the paid for Google Photos any good and cross platform? I have used One Drive but they seen to degrade the photo quality slightly.

 

[MRU]

What's a good photo sync cloud based system to use? To replace iCloud, does Samsung do its own or is the paid for Google Photos any good and cross platform? I have used One Drive but they seen to degrade the photo quality slightly.

Google Photos.

Without a shadow of doubt the best cross platform solution and you can even sync your photos on your home computer mac or PC, iPads, and others.

The unlimited free account for images up to 16mp in size does have some compression but it isn't much as I've experimented with both the paid and free storage and the difference is negligible.

But 4K video backup would require the full paid storage if you don't want that to be compressed.

Honestly I use google photos on iOS and Android on all my devices. It's fantastic and can't recommend it highly enough.

You will also be able to view any of your backed up photos on photos.google.com via web browser on any computer (just sign into your google account).

 

[Fernandez21]

What's a good photo sync cloud based system to use? To replace iCloud, does Samsung do its own or is the paid for Google Photos any good and cross platform? I have used One Drive but they seen to degrade the photo quality slightly.

I use google photos and it works great. Another I used before was Dropbox, but I prefer google photos. They're both cross platform.

Also, FYI, if you have "optimize" storage space turned on in your iPhone, it takes a while to upload to google photos. Basically, first your phone has to download the photo before it can upload it to google photos. And on top of that, if your short on memory, it then has to delete those photos from memory before it starts to download more. Best bet is use your computer to upload if your photos are available there.

 

[apolloa]

Thanks. I'll give that a go then. And yes I have to work out how to get a ton of photos off iCloud and into Google Photos, I pay for the iCloud storage and will stop it after, I have about 130GB of One Drive free for any documents but I don't really put those in the cloud bar emails. I'll have to experiment with the free one and paid one.

No idea how to use my computer to get them and upload them, hmm will have to take a look as I have OSX and what ever the photos app is called these days.

 

[Fernandez21]

Thanks. I'll give that a go then. And yes I have to work out how to get a ton of photos off iCloud and into Google Photos, I pay for the iCloud storage and will stop it after, I have about 130GB of One Drive free for any documents but I don't really put those in the cloud bar emails. I'll have to experiment with the free one and paid one.

No idea how to use my computer to get them and upload them, hmm will have to take a look as I have OSX and what ever the photos app is called these days.

You'll have to make sure you have enough free space on your mac to download all the photos first. Then go into the photos app and go into preferences and set it to keep the originals on your mac. Then wait for it to completely download everything, which will take a while, it will first download smaller versions to show in your library, and then it will download the full version and replace it, I have around 80gb including videos. After all the full versions have been downloaded, the go to the google photos website and start uploading. I generally load them up in batches so I don't have to wait for hours to load, but you should be able to just select them all and leave it if you want, I just don't trust these automated actions too much and like to keep an eye on it to make sure it works right.

 

[apolloa]

This Thursday will be 4 weeks since I placed my order and still no phone. How long should I give them? I can buy the same model Note 5 on Amazon albeit 80 pounds more expensive. I'm kinda stuck weather to give them a bit longer or get PayPal to get my money back and buy it off Amazon?

 

[MRU]

This Thursday will be 4 weeks since I placed my order and still no phone. How long should I give them? I can buy the same model Note 5 on Amazon albeit 80 pounds more expensive. I'm kinda stuck weather to give them a bit longer or get PayPal to get my money back and buy it off Amazon?

Have they said it's shipped ? Normally I would expect a phone or other items I've bought in the past around 10 days after they said they have shipped them. (Few items came quicker, few a couple days longer).

A month seems a very long time in fairness.

 

[apolloa]

Have they said it's shipped ? Normally I would expect a phone or other items I've bought in the past around 10 days after they said they have shipped them. (Few items came quicker, few a couple days longer).

A month seems a very long time in fairness.

This was there first reply to me on October 5th:


We have shipped your order to you on 28/9.

At this time your parcel is in transit to the UK.

As soon as the courier claims your parcel, the tracking will be updated.

Once dispatched, delivery takes 6 to 8 working days.


And this is the last message to me from last Friday:

With regard to your order ********, we would like to update you that we have not yet received feedback from the courier.

As this order was placed with the insured shipping method and as advised in the previous email, we have already raised a case with CTN-DPD.

Currently we are waiting for them to update us in the outcome of their investigation.


Actually I might fire an email to DPD, but as the parcel tracking website hasn't changed since it was first made active, I doubt they have seen the parcel and have just received the delivery information as they do before they get the parcel. Kinda running out of patience now...

 

[MRU]

This was there first reply to me on October 5th:


We have shipped your order to you on 28/9.

At this time your parcel is in transit to the UK.

As soon as the courier claims your parcel, the tracking will be updated.

Once dispatched, delivery takes 6 to 8 working days.


And this is the last message to me from last Friday:

With regard to your order ********, we would like to update you that we have not yet received feedback from the courier.

As this order was placed with the insured shipping method and as advised in the previous email, we have already raised a case with CTN-DPD.

Currently we are waiting for them to update us in the outcome of their investigation.


Actually I might fire an email to DPD, but as the parcel tracking website hasn't changed since it was first made active, I doubt they have seen the parcel and have just received the delivery information as they do before they get the parcel. Kinda running out of patience now...

Yeah their usual shipping is that you get that first email and then it is within about a week you will then suddenly get an updated email or your account will be updated with a tracking number once it gets to the European Hub. Then it's just a matter of a few days to get your delivery from DPD or whoever delivers for you.

It does sound in this case that they are having difficulty locating the device (given they supply them in a big bulk shipment of goods to the west, your item won't be the only item lost if it has been).

It could also be that they have shipped it literally by 'ship' in a palette and it's taking longer to travel to the hub.

Either way I would try chasing up with them again and if all else fails get onto your CC company and report it as an order not arrived, you will get refunded one way or the other but yeah that's quite a pain in the bum.

Has your order info changed at all on their website ?

 

[apolloa]

This is all DPD say:

We've received your order details, and we're expecting your parcel shortly


It's been like that for a while. I replied to my support ticket asking for an update on Friday and last night but have not had a reply yet.

 

[MRU]

This is all DPD say:

We've received your order details, and we're expecting your parcel shortly


It's been like that for a while. I replied to my support ticket on asking for an update on Friday and last night but have not had a reply yet.

Frustrating .... 🙁 I'd give it till end of the week and if you haven't received updated info or your phone I would get onto the CC company and get them to do a traceback and refund you.

 

[apolloa]

Frustrating .... 🙁 I'd give it till end of the week and if you haven't received updated info or your phone I would get onto the CC company and get them to do a traceback and refund you.

I paid with PayPal so I can always put in a claim. I'll give it a while yet. It would be nice to have a reasonably priced Android flagship on my cheap Tesco Mobile contract 😀

 

[apolloa]

Hmm I thought about it and gave up, still no response from eglobal and DPD tracking is still exactly the same, so I've bought the same model of Amazon and have requested for a cancellation of my order and full refund by the support ticket and a PayPal dispute. They have a few days to respond now. So far it's been at least 4 working days for them to actually find out where the phone physically is!!! And they still haven't told me.
I want a full refund too, I don't see why I should pay a restocking fee if I've waited 4 weeks for delivery and still nothing. When they say it should be 6 to 8 working days.

 

[apolloa]

Right, anyone got any advice for me, I'm in the UK so am protected under the UK distance selling regulations. Basically eGlobal refuse to let me cancel because they are waiting for the courier to 'investigate' where the phone is, rather conveniently until the courier apparently tells them it's lost, I cannot cancel or re-order the phone or anything. They apparently asked the courier to investigate LAST WEEK! And They still have not heard anything from them, apparently.

So I have escalated the dispute in PayPal and STRONGLY requested a FULL refund and the order be cancelled, but they are now going to allow eGlobal until the 30th to respond! So ten MORE DAYS FOR A PHONE THAT'S TAKEN FOUR WEEKS TO ARRIVE SO FAR!!

This is the latest from eGlobal:


eGlobal Central (UK) - FloraToday at 09:54


Dear Mark,

Thank you for your message.

We are sorry to inform you that we cannot cancel your order as it has been shipped.

As we have not received any update from the courier, we cannot take any action.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Should you have further questions, please do contact us.

Best Regards,
eGlobal Central (UK) - Flora



I refuse to accept this, I want a full refund and to have all my money back, where can I go with this? I am being played like a fiddle by PayPal and eGlobal just so they get there money. What can I do??

If they fob me off until the phone arrives, they STILL have my money, if I refuse to accept delivery they still have my money, if I accept it they will no doubt make ME pay for it's return to Hong Kong AND pay a large restocking fee. I feel like I am under a barrel for ***** sake!!!

Is the only way out to return the phone I've bought off Amazon? And wait God knows how much longer for eGlobal's container ship to arrive in Rotterdam?

 

[MRU]

Right, anyone got any advice for me, I'm in the UK so am protected under the UK distance selling regulations. Basically eGlobal refuse to let me cancel because they are waiting for the courier to 'investigate' where the phone is, rather conveniently until the courier apparently tells them it's lost, I cannot cancel or re-order the phone or anything. They apparently asked the courier to investigate LAST WEEK! And They still have not heard anything from them, apparently.

So I have escalated the dispute in PayPal and STRONGLY requested a FULL refund and the order be cancelled, but they are now going to allow eGlobal until the 30th to respond! So ten MORE DAYS FOR A PHONE THAT'S TAKEN FOUR WEEKS TO ARRIVE SO FAR!!

This is the latest from eGlobal:


eGlobal Central (UK) - FloraToday at 09:54


Dear Mark,

Thank you for your message.

We are sorry to inform you that we cannot cancel your order as it has been shipped.

As we have not received any update from the courier, we cannot take any action.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Should you have further questions, please do contact us.

Best Regards,
eGlobal Central (UK) - Flora



I refuse to accept this, I want a full refund and to have all my money back, where can I go with this? I am being played like a fiddle by PayPal and eGlobal just so they get there money. What can I do??

If they fob me off until the phone arrives, they STILL have my money, if I refuse to accept delivery they still have my money, if I accept it they will no doubt make ME pay for it's return to Hong Kong AND pay a large restocking fee. I feel like I am under a barrel for ***** sake!!!

Is the only way out to return the phone I've bought off Amazon? And wait God knows how much longer for eGlobal's container ship to arrive in Rotterdam?

Honestly at this stage I'd wait the 10 days out for 30th. You've already waited this long.

Did you go ahead and re-order from Amazon and has that order shipped ? If not I would hold tight and perhaps cancel that order.

Wait till the 30th, and if it hasn't arrived proceed with the Paypal resolution.

As you say, if in those 10 days it does turn up, if you have already bought another device your going to have issue of dealing with a return headache.

It's a crappy catch 22 situation and you will either get the phone or a refund but you will have to deal with the unknowing frustration for the next ten days ...

If you've already got shipping from Amazon, then you will have to choose whether to return that or the eGlobal one if it turns up. Though I would be surprised if it turns up at this stage myself, it's Sod's law that you get the re-ordered one and the eglobal one on the same day.

 

[Fernandez21]

Right, anyone got any advice for me, I'm in the UK so am protected under the UK distance selling regulations. Basically eGlobal refuse to let me cancel because they are waiting for the courier to 'investigate' where the phone is, rather conveniently until the courier apparently tells them it's lost, I cannot cancel or re-order the phone or anything. They apparently asked the courier to investigate LAST WEEK! And They still have not heard anything from them, apparently.

So I have escalated the dispute in PayPal and STRONGLY requested a FULL refund and the order be cancelled, but they are now going to allow eGlobal until the 30th to respond! So ten MORE DAYS FOR A PHONE THAT'S TAKEN FOUR WEEKS TO ARRIVE SO FAR!!

This is the latest from eGlobal:


eGlobal Central (UK) - FloraToday at 09:54


Dear Mark,

Thank you for your message.

We are sorry to inform you that we cannot cancel your order as it has been shipped.

As we have not received any update from the courier, we cannot take any action.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Should you have further questions, please do contact us.

Best Regards,
eGlobal Central (UK) - Flora



I refuse to accept this, I want a full refund and to have all my money back, where can I go with this? I am being played like a fiddle by PayPal and eGlobal just so they get there money. What can I do??

If they fob me off until the phone arrives, they STILL have my money, if I refuse to accept delivery they still have my money, if I accept it they will no doubt make ME pay for it's return to Hong Kong AND pay a large restocking fee. I feel like I am under a barrel for ***** sake!!!

Is the only way out to return the phone I've bought off Amazon? And wait God knows how much longer for eGlobal's container ship to arrive in Rotterdam?

That really sucks. If you can cancel the amazon order, you should do that and wait out for PayPal to return your money, then order it again. If it's already shipped, open a return ticket with amazon to ship the phone back and see how long you have to return. Here in the US, we usually get 14-30 days from date received. Then when you get your amazon order, don't open it, get it ready for return, but hold on to it. If for some reason your original order is found, then send your amazon order back. If not and paypal returns your money, then cancel the amazon return and open your package.

That's what I would recommend, I am in the US though, so my train of thought is with the options we have here, not sure if you get those same options where you are or if you might have a better option.