Thanks, Isadora!
I'm enjoying my adventure so far - man what a learning curve!
I particularly enjoy the fact that it comes with so many great apps and tools ready to go. I was just playing with the video editing program and it was working flawlessly. Before, using Win8 on this ancient Dell notebook, it was impossible to have any video editing software open for more than 5 minutes without major lagging, freezing, crashing. The laptop couldn't handle it.
Now it's like I have a new laptop. Freaking magic!
Hey Morgano, appreciate the link and suggestion. I was putting it off because it seemed too complicated to root my phone, but now it seems like it's imperative for my sanity and safety. I have a backup samsung to try with before doing anything to my main phone, so... here goes.