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Consumer Reports recommends Galaxy S7 over iPhone 8
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I really like my S7 sometimes. Waterproof. The OLED screen is gorgeous. The camera is fantastic and has OIS, and the expandable memory is welcome. I love having dedicated buttons, android software buttons don't take up screen real estate, front fingerprint reader/home button a la the iPhone, and the heart rate sensor which is very accurate. Oh, and a headphone jack. A sweet, sweet headphone jack. Wireless charging. NFC.
I just have hiccups galore on my device that make me pine for iOS again. it's not all the time, but sometimes it's just slow as balls. I'll click to text someone, and it can take 3-5 seconds for a keyboard to come up. It also gets very warm when playing a game or charging. I got a security update of the OS the other week and my device froze during the process and scared the crap out of me. A hard reset fixed everything, but I thought for a moment it was bricked.
I saw a weird DOS like command prompt on the device while the update was running. It reminded me of everything I hate in windows.
I just have hiccups galore on my device that make me pine for iOS again. it's not all the time, but sometimes it's just slow as balls. I'll click to text someone, and it can take 3-5 seconds for a keyboard to come up. It also gets very warm when playing a game or charging. I got a security update of the OS the other week and my device froze during the process and scared the crap out of me. A hard reset fixed everything, but I thought for a moment it was bricked.
I saw a weird DOS like command prompt on the device while the update was running. It reminded me of everything I hate in windows.
This to me is my perfect Android smartphone -
RS988 variant
Silver (hides fingerprints well)
Marshmallow 6.0.1 > Nougat 7.0
Removable battery
MicroSD slot w/ 128gb
IR blaster
FM radio (but locked)
Fast and fluid
More compact than my V20
Louder speakers than my V20
No bootloops
No GPS issues ever
^ V20 is technically a better phone for having a smudge better battery life, display, and camera especially for video recording. I also accidentally dropped my Sprint G5 and it created a ding on top. It was inside its holster case. Feels cheaper. While my V20 was dropped on tile by accidentally getting pulled by my laptop, and no blemishes at all. Not even on its paint. Military-grade drop tested indeed.
My G5 camera app also is worse as it doesn't let me lower the MP. Each photo is like 7mb using the main cam. Good thing that Google Photos is unlimited and makes the files smaller when uploaded. Planning to keep the last LG flagships which offered removable battery and IR blaster. Only weaknesses from both is image retention that pops up after three months. Need to use black or white backgrounds.
I think CR is trolling Apple users. The 1.5 year old S7 edge is NOT better than an iPhone 8 released a month ago. My LGs are made in South Korea. My S7 edge was made in Vietnam. The S7e was extremely overrated af just for its beautiful design. It's like the M7 in being overrated. Not saying it is bad but reviewers are shallow hipsters and would rank the pretty ones the highest.
S7e has a slower fingerprint scanner. The back and recent apps are reversed. The home button is archaic. No double tap to wake or sleep. No removable battery or IR blaster. My S7e would freeze sometimes if it got too hot. Made in Vietnam, yup. Close to the perfect Android smartphone ever, my butt.
Samsung sold out to hipsters in 2015. LG unfortunately followed suit THIS year.
Grace UX = FAKE ANDROID experience
It's imminent lag gives all Androids users a bad reputation of jank software.
This is the typical Samsung software experience -
Day 1 - Fast and fluid
Day 90 - Slow
Day 365 - Slow
Day 730 - Buy another phone because you just updated too much and it lags like a Gingerbread phone and battery is 60+% worse.
This is the typical Nexus/Pixel software experience -
Day 1 - Fast and fluid
Day 730 - Still fast and fluid
Compare the speed of a Nexus 5 from 2013 to a Samsung Galaxy S5 from 2014 in fluidity. It's not even close.
LG's UX skin is barely any better but LG backup is good and its tolerable enough and not so cartoony like Samsung and iOS are. Nova Prime and 0.5x also helps.
RS988 variant
Silver (hides fingerprints well)
Marshmallow 6.0.1 > Nougat 7.0
Removable battery
MicroSD slot w/ 128gb
IR blaster
FM radio (but locked)
Fast and fluid
More compact than my V20
Louder speakers than my V20
No bootloops
No GPS issues ever
^ V20 is technically a better phone for having a smudge better battery life, display, and camera especially for video recording. I also accidentally dropped my Sprint G5 and it created a ding on top. It was inside its holster case. Feels cheaper. While my V20 was dropped on tile by accidentally getting pulled by my laptop, and no blemishes at all. Not even on its paint. Military-grade drop tested indeed.
My G5 camera app also is worse as it doesn't let me lower the MP. Each photo is like 7mb using the main cam. Good thing that Google Photos is unlimited and makes the files smaller when uploaded. Planning to keep the last LG flagships which offered removable battery and IR blaster. Only weaknesses from both is image retention that pops up after three months. Need to use black or white backgrounds.
I think CR is trolling Apple users. The 1.5 year old S7 edge is NOT better than an iPhone 8 released a month ago. My LGs are made in South Korea. My S7 edge was made in Vietnam. The S7e was extremely overrated af just for its beautiful design. It's like the M7 in being overrated. Not saying it is bad but reviewers are shallow hipsters and would rank the pretty ones the highest.
S7e has a slower fingerprint scanner. The back and recent apps are reversed. The home button is archaic. No double tap to wake or sleep. No removable battery or IR blaster. My S7e would freeze sometimes if it got too hot. Made in Vietnam, yup. Close to the perfect Android smartphone ever, my butt.
Samsung sold out to hipsters in 2015. LG unfortunately followed suit THIS year.
Grace UX = FAKE ANDROID experience
It's imminent lag gives all Androids users a bad reputation of jank software.
This is the typical Samsung software experience -
Day 1 - Fast and fluid
Day 90 - Slow
Day 365 - Slow
Day 730 - Buy another phone because you just updated too much and it lags like a Gingerbread phone and battery is 60+% worse.
This is the typical Nexus/Pixel software experience -
Day 1 - Fast and fluid
Day 730 - Still fast and fluid
Compare the speed of a Nexus 5 from 2013 to a Samsung Galaxy S5 from 2014 in fluidity. It's not even close.
LG's UX skin is barely any better but LG backup is good and its tolerable enough and not so cartoony like Samsung and iOS are. Nova Prime and 0.5x also helps.
I don't believe CR said anywhere that the S7 was "better". They said they "recommended" it over the other choices. Besides which "better" is going to have various meanings. If you are all in on the Apple ecosystem, then any iPhone is likely "better" than any non-iPhone.
This to me is my perfect Android smartphone -
RS988 variant
Silver (hides fingerprints well)
Marshmallow 6.0.1 > Nougat 7.0
Removable battery
MicroSD slot w/ 128gb
IR blaster
FM radio (but locked)
Fast and fluid
More compact than my V20
Louder speakers than my V20
No bootloops
No GPS issues ever
^ V20 is technically a better phone for having a smudge better battery life, display, and camera especially for video recording. I also accidentally dropped my Sprint G5 and it created a ding on top. It was inside its holster case. Feels cheaper. While my V20 was dropped on tile by accidentally getting pulled by my laptop, and no blemishes at all. Not even on its paint. Military-grade drop tested indeed.
My G5 camera app also is worse as it doesn't let me lower the MP. Each photo is like 7mb using the main cam. Good thing that Google Photos is unlimited and makes the files smaller when uploaded. Planning to keep the last LG flagships which offered removable battery and IR blaster. Only weaknesses from both is image retention that pops up after three months. Need to use black or white backgrounds.
I think CR is trolling Apple users. The 1.5 year old S7 edge is NOT better than an iPhone 8 released a month ago. My LGs are made in South Korea. My S7 edge was made in Vietnam. The S7e was extremely overrated af just for its beautiful design. It's like the M7 in being overrated. Not saying it is bad but reviewers are shallow hipsters and would rank the pretty ones the highest.
S7e has a slower fingerprint scanner. The back and recent apps are reversed. The home button is archaic. No double tap to wake or sleep. No removable battery or IR blaster. My S7e would freeze sometimes if it got too hot. Made in Vietnam, yup. Close to the perfect Android smartphone ever, my butt.
Samsung sold out to hipsters in 2015. LG unfortunately followed suit THIS year.
Grace UX = FAKE ANDROID experience
It's imminent lag gives all Androids users a bad reputation of jank software.
This is the typical Samsung software experience -
Day 1 - Fast and fluid
Day 90 - Slow
Day 365 - Slow
Day 730 - Buy another phone because you just updated too much and it lags like a Gingerbread phone and battery is 60+% worse.
This is the typical Nexus/Pixel software experience -
Day 1 - Fast and fluid
Day 730 - Still fast and fluid
Compare the speed of a Nexus 5 from 2013 to a Samsung Galaxy S5 from 2014 in fluidity. It's not even close.
LG's UX skin is barely any better but LG backup is good and its tolerable enough and not so cartoony like Samsung and iOS are. Nova Prime and 0.5x also helps.
My S7 was a year later stil as fast as day 1. Had the exynos one tho.
I think the issue is the iPhone 8 should not be recommended when an iPhone 7 is still sold. The iPhone 8 is only marginally better than the 7 but is more expensive.
Right now, if you're not waiting for the 10, the iPhone to buy is the 7/7 Plus
S7 has a microUSB port, no thanks. Every phone/device I’ve had with a microUSB port has stopped charging after awhile. USB-C or lightning port or no buy in my opinion.
Wasn't Consumer Reports one of the iFans favorite reports up until recently??? I remember particular members of this forum quoting them in years gone by, lol!
I have owned a S7 Edge, my grandmother owns a normal S7 and my little brother also owns a normal S7 and I can thoroughly recommend both handsets depending on what you want.
The regular S7 is so well sized and comfy to use for people who don't want Phablets, I'd recommend the regular S7 for anyone who just wants a brilliant regular smartphone with a simple design, it's a great little gadget and it has features that Apple in their iPhone 8 call newand a whole lot that the iPhones dont have. The S7 is even IP68 protected, better than the "all new" iPhone X's IP67, has Fast Wireless Charging, a WQHD (577ppi) Display etc etc...
You know what??? The new iPhones need to rather be compared to the S7 and S7 Edge.
I seem to remember most Apple fans hating consumer reports ever since they said they couldn’t recommend the iPhone 4 due to antenna gate.
If price is a factor, the iPhone 7 and S7 are great handsets to pick up, heck I thought I saw a story where it was reported the iPhone 7 was outselling the 8.
The iPhone 8 is a terrible purchase. It is essentially a wireless charging iPhone 7 with a few under the hood upgrades and a newer camera while using the same recycled design from three generations ago. I would buy the 7 on Black Friday since I am sure there could be some solid deals for it. However, that being said, I would still go with the S7 over the iPhone 8 or 7 because it simply does more for less and doesn't have you tied into Apple's ridiculous iTunes platform nor you don't need to reply on absurdly slow charging outta the box.
Lol, DVD Quality!
I remember the iFan excuses back then....
They didn't need:
- Video Recording
- GPS with SatNav
- A good camera
- Multitasking
- 3G
- and anything else the iPhone didn't have that year
Going back to comments in this forum from back then would be tech comedy gold.
Eh, get what you want/like and enjoy.
For price point alone, I can see why CR recommended the cheaper Samsung.
For price point alone, I can see why CR recommended the cheaper Samsung.
Honestly, love my S7, especially on Nougat, just slick and smooth and works, battery life is excellent, never had an issue or hiccup since they launched. Didn't feel the need to get an S8. Waiting to see what the S9 is like, and may even wait for the S10.
Sammy just nailed it overall, and first Android I've had where I felt no need to root and rom, that says something b/c as much as I liked my Androids before, I always felt the need to do that and make them run better.... not so with the S7. Never had to reset it to "clear/factory refresh" it up and run fresh again, like I've had to do on Androids and iPhones before.
Sammy just nailed it overall, and first Android I've had where I felt no need to root and rom, that says something b/c as much as I liked my Androids before, I always felt the need to do that and make them run better.... not so with the S7. Never had to reset it to "clear/factory refresh" it up and run fresh again, like I've had to do on Androids and iPhones before.
What exactly was so bad about it, that would have you spent $1,000+ on a new phone that is unproven at this point? Serious question.
No problem.
First the good.
1) Email Program is fine for what I do
2) Screen is great
3) Like the size and the edge
4) Fast charging is amazing
Now the bad
1) Battery life is atrocious. Was great for about the first 6 months. I am not a power user. I use email, a few apps, internet, music (a little). I will be below 50% by noon.
2) Internet experience is horrible. Constantly on a few forums and espn and webpages are constantly choppy or missing buttons, or the button simply don't work. There are constant situations where you get the "wait or close option" because the page freezes.
3) Message app is garbage. If I send a video or picture it is downgraded in quality (almost unwatchable).
4) No facetime. Almost every person i would want to facetime with has an iphone but of course I can't do it.
5) Choppy , choppy, choppy. The whole experience is not smooth at all.
6) Many times when I get a phone call and try to swipe answer the swipe does not register. After swiping about the 8th time it finally works.
7) Search function. With apple I can swipe down and search for an app. Very simple.
8) Music app is garbage compared to ios. So much so I don't even use it very often.
9) Getting to visual voicemail is such a pain compared to ios when in the phone app. i.e. Get out of phone app, find the visual voicemail icon and select it compared to having the icon at the bottom of the actual phone app in ios
10) One thing I thought I would love is wireless charging. I have a case on and it works less than 50% of the time. Yes I realize this will be an issue with the X as well.
Let me end by saying I realize there are workarounds for some of these, but I don't want a workaround. I do very basic things and just want to be able to pick up my phone and use it with the default programs.
Really what I am ordering is IOS. Only reason I want the X is the larger screen with a smaller footprint.
First the good.
1) Email Program is fine for what I do
2) Screen is great
3) Like the size and the edge
4) Fast charging is amazing
Now the bad
1) Battery life is atrocious. Was great for about the first 6 months. I am not a power user. I use email, a few apps, internet, music (a little). I will be below 50% by noon.
2) Internet experience is horrible. Constantly on a few forums and espn and webpages are constantly choppy or missing buttons, or the button simply don't work. There are constant situations where you get the "wait or close option" because the page freezes.
3) Message app is garbage. If I send a video or picture it is downgraded in quality (almost unwatchable).
4) No facetime. Almost every person i would want to facetime with has an iphone but of course I can't do it.
5) Choppy , choppy, choppy. The whole experience is not smooth at all.
6) Many times when I get a phone call and try to swipe answer the swipe does not register. After swiping about the 8th time it finally works.
7) Search function. With apple I can swipe down and search for an app. Very simple.
8) Music app is garbage compared to ios. So much so I don't even use it very often.
9) Getting to visual voicemail is such a pain compared to ios when in the phone app. i.e. Get out of phone app, find the visual voicemail icon and select it compared to having the icon at the bottom of the actual phone app in ios
10) One thing I thought I would love is wireless charging. I have a case on and it works less than 50% of the time. Yes I realize this will be an issue with the X as well.
Let me end by saying I realize there are workarounds for some of these, but I don't want a workaround. I do very basic things and just want to be able to pick up my phone and use it with the default programs.
Really what I am ordering is IOS. Only reason I want the X is the larger screen with a smaller footprint.
Sounds like you just like iOS better for the most part, so hope you enjoy your new X! I would say that what you labeled as "workarounds", I would call choices. Apple gives you few choices, so if you like the way they do something that's great. If you don't well then tough. I would personally not by an X until I see it in users hands for some time to get feedback on FaceID. If that doesn't work well, the X experience is going to be bad since Apple removed TouchID. Just my opinion.