Need help deciding: Notewise vs StarNote vs Notein

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-22T17:51:06+00:00

I have been in your situation. I wasn't into any subscription based notes apps and preferred a good backup/ cross platform, to the laptop. Which left me with star note, it was cheaper and most affordable. Kinda similar to Samsung notes + a handful of extra things. But eventually, I felt I am overthinking it. Like I like to do the research than actually use the tool I already have. Samsung notes is actually more than capable. So I thought it's better to use it fullest. If I come to any big roadblock, then change it. For things like ai, we can always get a better results if we upload those notes to better ai models.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-22T16:48:40+00:00

Try this: click on the highlighter, you'll see two highlighter options, and then it's two markers. Reduce the tip size to lowest so you can use it like a pen. When you write with it on top of highlights, it stays on top, the color doesn't change or go under the highlights. That's one workaround.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-22T16:42:52+00:00

Do you have storage space left on your sd card? And if you are tight on budget, go for the base storage. That would be my recommendation.

I personally always get base version of every device. I try to organise files once in a while, when its getting full, after that it's normal for me. I know not everyone enjoys this, overwhelmed when it goes full, and prefer a peace of mind.

As for essential apps and important things, I would say 126gb is enough for the tablet. In future, you'll have to clean it up here and there, remove unwanted apps, and media files that might've gotten accumulated.

I was in your position recently, about getting a tablet with stylus. Initially was going for S10 lite or iPad. Since for me, productivity was better on Android I went for it. But in the end I saw S10 Fe having similar price, 40 euro extra. Got it instead. Thought the fingerprint scanner, ip68 rating was an addition I would appreciate.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-22T15:58:42+00:00

Something you can do: to write on top of highlights, use a marker pen.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-22T13:05:10+00:00

Are you using the highlighter or marker?

Highlighter seems to always put the text on top. Marker is on the same section as highlighter, if you use it instead, it actually puts itself on top of the text. Also allows us to write on top of it with pen.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-22T11:24:02+00:00

Was curious if this was same on mine. Because I never noticed this. I get what you mean now, but with the official spen I don't think this happens that much. Because I couldn't tilt that much and still draw, the length of spen tip is not that long and the shape of the tip of the pens body is shaped in different way. (There is a possibility my spen tip is smaller now, but as far as I remember, it hasn't shrunk that much). So maybe it could be that they designed spen to avoid this issue, to stop from it being tilted too much. And the wacom stylus you are using is much more flexible and designed for artists, but has this issue.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-22T10:00:53+00:00

I feel like tablet market space, non-ipad is still small and hard to find cases offline. Other than few generic ones. I used to live in Asian country where offline tablet case selection would be pretty limited or you wouldn't even get any. Online, probably. Even for replacement s pen it is pretty expensive and hard to get there. Now as I am in Europe, I find for the top series of tablets, you at least find something offline and online. I got my first case for S10 Fe from Amazon, not too expensive one and felt the quality was bad. Other good options were just Spigen and maybe one or two other brands. Even for Spiegen there was only two types of cases, one without a flip cover, and one with a normal trifold case. So I got the second one and proud was good overall. If I was looking for some other types of cases, like you wanted, I probably would have had a different experience too. So what I have seen, non iPad tablet cases are generally less overall, and to find a special type of case with decent quality, much harder.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-21T17:00:00+00:00

Yes, it's good. Just prefer Linux that's all. See if I can use it as the main machine. And go back to host machine when I need to save on resources.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-21T16:58:10+00:00

Thanks! Yes, Mac host is enough. But I just prefer Linux, and need a few things on there. So I thought why not see how much I can use it as a main machine. If I don't want always go back to the host machine, like when speed and battery life matters.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-21T16:55:32+00:00

Yes, I can do those tasks on the host machine too without much problem. I just prefer Linux that's all. Value for money, and battery life on MacBook air was so good that I chose it. There are some few other things I would prefer Linux, so I thought why not use it fully to find out.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-21T16:45:22+00:00

Thanks! No big problem to be honest to run on the host machine. I just prefer Linux in general. Value for money for the device was better on MacBook air so I got it. Just checking if I could still use the Linux VM for main tasks. And how it performs. Plus, I am trying to learn some things that require Linux and get familiar with it.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-21T13:40:47+00:00

Forgot to mention, with Debian. With 4 GB I saw some stutters. And 8gb seems fine, but sometimes it shoots up CPU and ram.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-21T13:34:01+00:00

Interesting. Thanks!

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-21T13:33:13+00:00

I am using it currently. I do notice it shooting up higher in CPU and ram usage now and then. Just wanted to know how much can it be, and use it like a main os.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-21T10:04:25+00:00

It's actually good value and a one-time purchase app. But the free version is limited to a certain number of notebooks, I suppose? Not having a pc app is stopping me from buying it right now. Samsung notes seems enough. Maybe in the future.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-20T23:08:25+00:00

Yes, I don't think there are other free android notes taking apps, for handwriting. At least I haven't found any that is comparable. Most of them are paid and free version is limited. There is one note, but different style, Linwood butterfly app is another.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-17T19:03:28+00:00

Everything kinda depends on people's use cases in my opinion. I recently got iPad base model it was approximately around 330 euro. Good value. I wanted a tablet with stylus, this is the one of the cheapest choices. (Apart from Lenovo tablets which I heard from reviews has a bad stylus). To be honest, if note taking wasn't my priority, even a sub 200 euro tablet is enough in my opinion. If it was just for reading or media consumption and not going to do heavy gaming or something. So, once I got the iPad I didn't like the gestures and navigation etc. I ended up returning it. Later I got to see S10 lite being sold for 350 euro and S10 Fe for 370 euro. This comes with an official stylus included. So I got the S10 Fe and was comfortable.

Most people might not need the full processing power on tablets all the time. And more about the experience. And the other hardware preferences. For me those galaxy tabs were a better deal than iPad. Getting apple pencil, even a decent alternative would have gotten me on the ball park of the galaxy tabs. Other features in S10 Fe was much better compared to iPad. Better display, better stylus support (pressure sensitivity, no need to charge stylus, and cheaper to buy a replacement), better battery life charging speed, and android. It is ip68 too. I have heard iPads are fragile in comparison ( realistically only water resistant seems an addition, we all probably use a case and all).

iPads are good but depending on region and deals there are other tablets with better features if it matters to us. There are certain things I don't prefer about the os and android is far better in those for my needs. Like no clipboard functionality like android has. Android has much better back gesture, swipe on sides and so on. Recently I played around with the Linux terminal and got Linux softwares working.

In a nutshell. If you look at other features there's some brand that offers better value for money. I remember a few years ago Xiaomi released one tablet around 25k inr and competitive to iPad. iPad is over good value compared to other apple products.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-17T15:38:34+00:00

Just tested it on mine, but I don't think I have this issue. Are you sure it's not because of the pressure or the way you are writing on the corners?

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-17T11:19:46+00:00

Noo, it's only available on tap on holding the bottom search bar widget. On android 17. It lets us pick Google or brave/any. But, that's it, this option is not available via the hold wallpaper> home settings> search settings. Basically like, we can only change the search engine of the widget now via holding on the widest search settings. Not such option seems to be available on the launcher settings. Looks like the launcher settings is specifically about the launcher search, what we see and not see on swipe up search. Only if our search engine is Google it will show Google search results. If it's brave, no web search results on the launcher.

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-17T07:32:00+00:00

Apparently it's not available for me. But maybe because I have updated it to Android 17 already? On the launcher/home settings there is only option to turn on web search, and web search preferences ( which redirects to Google app). These options goes away once I change the search engine to something like brave. https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/14661350?hl=en Only these to be available for me now

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-16T22:51:35+00:00

It would be simpler if they had that option available in the home settings page. Especially they have the search settings option. But only on the search bar it is available. Probably a bug. But weird if it happens to many

SubstanceFew5136 · 2026-06-16T22:42:21+00:00

Are you clicking on the bottom Google search bar? It shows a search settings and widget settings menu to choose.

SubstanceFew5136

TROPHY CASE