OmG WHAT DOES THAT MEEEAAANNNN?
The first has the emphasis on the 4, the second the G.
I find the Pixel really ugly with massive bezels, but I like stock Android. From what I hear the S8 has toned down TouchWiz to the level that it’s fine, and skins can bring it the rest of the way. I need to see one in person to decide whether to upgrade to the S8+ now or wait for the Pixel 2 in December or possibly later in Canada. My Nexus 6 is still great except that waiting for poor camera responsiveness is driving me crazy with two small kids.
Sorry, no 4G/LTE only 3G I meant to type.
So it seems like if you want to get an Android phone with the longest lasting battery you need to go with… Blackberry??
3505mAh battery combined with a powersipping 625 Snapdragon CPU. And it sounds like the rest of the phone is actually pretty awesome too if it doesn’t bother you that it has a keyboard and a 3:2 screen. I’ve always sort of wished to own a Blackberry going way back to the mid-2000s. If you’re into that sort of phone then it seems like Blackberry has knocked it out of the park. Of course, if you’re not then something like a Oneplus 3T would definitely be better. Too bad it’s $550. That’s not unreasonable but if it had been $400 I would have been all over it.
Just picked up a Samsung Galaxy S8 yesterday so today is my first full day with it going through my daily routine. Overall I’m really enjoying it.
As everybody in the multitude of forum threads and reviews across the internet has said already the device itself is beautiful. The screen is the star of the show of course, but the overall feel of the entire package is very solid. My biggest gripe about the look and feel of the hardware so far is that the back of the phone is very prone to gathering fingerprints.
My previous daily driver was an original Nexus 6. Having fairly large hands, the old whale of a phone that is the Nexus 6 was actually perfectly manageable for one handed use 95% of the time. That other 5% was just enough to make me question how large of a phone I wanted for this upgrade so I decided on the regular S8 instead of the S8+. As pretty as the larger screen is, I didn’t see it being worth another $100 on top of an already crazy expensive device for the extra screen real estate and a somewhat larger battery. So far I’m really liking the size of the regular S8. It fits in my hand much easier than my old phone and I miss the larger screen much less than I thought I would. The placement of the fingerprint scanner is obviously not optimal, but I find it easy enough to reach with either my index or middle finger so it’s not a deal breaker for me at all. I have yet to try the iris scanning feature so no clue if that is worth the time and effort to setup and use or not. I’ll like give it a try later tonight.
On the software side of the equation I was much less impressed. Being used to the pure Android experience from the Nexus 6, it is taking me a bit to get used to the Samsung additions and changes. However after installing some of the Google apps that I’m used to such as GBoard and the Google Now launcher on top of fussing with the options to set up some different default apps and flipping the main navigation buttons around, the adjustment is going much smoother. Bixby strikes me as largely useless in its current form and most of the other changes from stock Android seem to be changes for nothing but the sake of change being neither better nor worse than the Google version.
Overall I’m happy enough with my upgrade that I think I’ll keep it. I still have the old phone to compare directly to and the positive differences in features, performance and form factor outweigh my annoyance at some of the more questionable Samsung software choices.
Mentioned this elsewhere, so I won’t belabor the point, but I find my wife’s S8 waaaaay too thin. It is like a TV remote. And the rounded edges make it feel even thinner. I’m so crotchety that I can’t even be envious of my wife’s superior new phone (I have an LG G3 and LOVE IT. If it dies, I’m screwed cause I’ve yet to find anything that I’d replace it with… that works on Verizon :( )
I believe I’ve located the source of your problem.
Thanks for the post as I still have a Nexus 6 and am considering an upgrade. Main beef with the 6 is the time to launch the camera, focus and take a picture.
I have a Nexus 5X and while it’s much faster to that than the 5 was, it’s still pretty shit compared to Apple phones. Don’t tell Kommandant Atwood.
Indeed, I don’t deny this. Wife set up the plan, and with 4 of us on it, it is now damn near impossible to extricate ourselves.
Thought about snarking a link with no context, but really, switching to Fi or Ting or whatever really isn’t as bad or difficult as you think. Not in my experience, anyway.
I agree that if the S8 were a little bit wider that it would likely be an improvement for the ergonomics, but I think making it any taller at the same time would be detrimental unless the person using it has really large hands.
No problem. The N6 camera always annoyed me too. The camera on the S8 is much much faster to launch than the N6 (not a high bar there as you well know). In my completely scientific and ultra-precise testing the S8 camera takes a little less time to launch as it takes for me to say “one thousand one” out loud. Switching between the front and rear cameras takes a similar short duration of time. I’m not much of a picture person so I can’t say much about the other features of the camera.
As long as you aren’t interested in using your phone as a phone or having data anywhere, I can happily suggest T-Mobile.
I am a happy Project Fi customer at the moment, although if you use a lot of mobile data it’s hard to recommend on price grounds. As far as signal goes, I’ve had coverage in a bunch of places I never did with T-Mobile.
Yeah, my main reason for going with TMO a few years ago was how much I use data. Routinely pulling 20GB months, and I’m not even tethering a PC. So the “true” unlimited was a major selling point for me. Which sucks, cuz it basically invalidates options like Fi for me :(
Yeah, Fi is fantastic and I’m quite happy with it - but I just concluded a billing cycle with 0.5GB used, so nyah.
Fi sounds great, but requires new phones all around if we switched. Will keep it in mind when the Pixel 2 surfaces though. T-Mobile sadly isn’t available around here, so that’s right out.
Anyone have opinions on MintSIM?
After reading the review, I wish I could upgrade my Moto X Play to a OnePlus 5:
We’re slowly getting closer to flagship phone pricing territory though. Decisions…
Edited to add a counterpoint: The review on The Verge is a lot less enthusiastic, though not on the performance side: