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Phones Samsung Galaxy S8
- Thread starter Surf Donkey
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The Mrs has just left the hotel to go to UK so I quickly hooked up the DeX
Was surprised it worked easily and has a built in onscreen KB so at a pinch you can make it work but would become tiresome a BT KB will be better and it can't be used in power saving mode
Just quickly loaded up a spreadsheet and MR, moving the desktop around is easy, will play a bit more tonight but for travelling seems a good range of uses even if you just want a second screen for work with your laptop
BTW Hotel screen is some cheap LG 32" a bit stingy of them
Was surprised it worked easily and has a built in onscreen KB so at a pinch you can make it work but would become tiresome a BT KB will be better and it can't be used in power saving mode
Just quickly loaded up a spreadsheet and MR, moving the desktop around is easy, will play a bit more tonight but for travelling seems a good range of uses even if you just want a second screen for work with your laptop
BTW Hotel screen is some cheap LG 32" a bit stingy of them
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Thank you. That's kind of you to say.
At least with the phone it's not my only phone, so I'm better off than someone dealing with problems on their one and only phone. I've given up discussing the pink problem. I am not going to convince anyone who can't see it in person that there is something odd going on and it's annoying reading me going on about it. Its like I have joined the cult of the pink phone people.
In the meantime does anyone have a good news aggregator app they like that is similar to the Apple News App?
And has anyone tried what there is to try of Bixby? I chickened out of signing away my last tattered shreds of privacy to try it when it's not even fully provisioned yet. My husband said there were cards to it but he didn't dig into it much either.
One more question for the night. Anyone else find the version of autocorrect that comes with the stock keyboard to be a bit nutty? It's actually trying to force my misspellings on me!
I kind of like it Bixby so far. I'm able to pin the cards I like to the top. Like the S-Health heart rate and activity. Schedule, Reminders, Alarms, and etc.
I keep the news feeds on as well, because so far Bixby is smooth, not laggy like FlipBoard/Briefing which was on the previous Samsung phones and disabled right away.
Bixby on the camera is nice. I like it more for the Barcode and QR code scanning which it does very well. The photo search is nothing more than image search through Pinrest, which is hit or miss. You'll actually have much better matching results tapping on the Shopping button which is powered by Amazon. It you point it at a wine bottle or anything that resembles a wine bottle, a Wine icon will appear and do a search. Bixby also has Translate and Grab Text built in the Camera. It's good to have those features in the main camera itself instead of installing separate apps that do such.
It the Bixby settings menu, it does show all the supported apps so far. And according to Samsung, once Voice is enabled, we should have FULL control of those apps with our voice. Hopefully they are not some BS, cause that sounds great.
One more question for the night. Anyone else find the version of autocorrect that comes with the stock keyboard to be a bit nutty? It's actually trying to force my misspellings on me!
Samsung keyboard always had terrible auto correct. I use Swiftkey.
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I think it's patents and CDMA. Ideally it would be Exynos across the globe.
Though the Qualcomm 835 performs well and doesn't fall into crapdragon status like the 810 in 2015, which is the last time Samsung did Exynos globally.
Wow i really hate this finger print scanner. It just never works. I was trying to pay for my Google Play subscription this morning and it took about 5 attempts before it registered. Such an awkward placement.
Even facial recognition is a bit hit and miss. Sometimes it surprises me with how well it works, other times it doesn't. Haven't tried iris yet, that's being set up tonight though, see if it fares any better!
Even facial recognition is a bit hit and miss. Sometimes it surprises me with how well it works, other times it doesn't. Haven't tried iris yet, that's being set up tonight though, see if it fares any better!
really don't know why they didn't put it in the middle
They opted for aesthetic symmetry (with camera sensor & flash/hr sensor) over practicality ...
Because that's where the wireless charge pad is. Put the sensor there and it gets fried.
having it in the middle should no matter when it comes to wireless charging. Works fine with LG G6
No ....
The leaked prototype with the dual camera setup in a vertical alignment with the heart rate sensor below it clearly show they could have put the FP scanner if they wanted to below what is currently the camera sensor. However in doing so had they kept the HR/Flash as it currently is, there would have been a messy aesthetic on the back. It's clear they chose the alignment to make everything coherent.
If they tried putting the HR/Flash below the camera as originally envisioned on the leak and then the Finger Print scanner below that, there would be no real division between the two and it would have been equally as awkward when using either FP or HR sensor.
If they had opted to move the HR/Flash above the camera vertically to create division between the FP & HR then the HR sensor would be too high and cause issues for those that use it.
So when you just look at the whole thing from a designers perspective of wanting to keep aesthetic coherency and symmetry, it's the best they could do given the constraints.
But it clearly was not ideal and was a conscessionary solution.
Here is a quick mock up I put together to illustrate ....
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I heard they placed it there due to the battery, a design constraint rather than aesthetic decision.
That would go against the leak of the vertical dual camera array setup which would have had the HR sensor used same space as putting the FP below the camera on the current model.
It's a bit tight in there but maybe they could have put it sideways under the camera?
What I read was a Samsung Rep told a tech site that was the reason for the scanner placement.
What I read was a Samsung Rep told a tech site that was the reason for the scanner placement.
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It's a bit tight in there but maybe they could have put it sideways under the camera?
What I read was a Samsung Rep told a tech sure that was the reason for the scanner placement.
Could be, though indeed there does look to be some room under the camera if they moved parts around the camera sensor you could get the FP connection (the square to the right of the sensor) to the below it reasonably comfortably.
... we will likely never truly know. But I bet it will be moved on the N8 even if they can not get it into the screen with the N8, it will be a safe bet it will still be in a different location on the back. It's been the most universally criticised aspect, they will surely look to address that critiscim.
Either way with all the complaining about it from all over the place they will probably change it
I've had my S8 since Thursday and haven't found the rear touch ID to be an issue (apart from the odd muscle memory lapse of pressing the home button when authenticating an app)
It could be because I haven't had to use it to unlock the phone at all - the Iris scanner has been brilliant (hard press on the home button when looking at the phone and it goes straight into my home screen in under a second) and when it's on a stand (and therefore too far away), having my Garmin watch set as a smart lock trusted device means a press and a swipe is all I need to get to the home screen.
Because of this, the only time I've used the fingerprint scanner is within app authentication and (apart from the aforementioned muscle memory issue) it's been fast and accurate with that.
I have tried using the fingerprint scanner to unlock and it's not a major issue (just touching it unlocks the phone to the home screen), but find it easier to use the iris scanner
As an aside, setting up the Garmin to work as a trusted device was a bit weird because if you pair from the Garmin app it doesn't get registered as a bluetooth device that can be used as a smart lock option. There was a support article that says you can use the "Upgrade Connection" option to switch to standard pairing but that didn't work so what I did was add it via bluetooth options then pair it in the Garmin App
It could be because I haven't had to use it to unlock the phone at all - the Iris scanner has been brilliant (hard press on the home button when looking at the phone and it goes straight into my home screen in under a second) and when it's on a stand (and therefore too far away), having my Garmin watch set as a smart lock trusted device means a press and a swipe is all I need to get to the home screen.
Because of this, the only time I've used the fingerprint scanner is within app authentication and (apart from the aforementioned muscle memory issue) it's been fast and accurate with that.
I have tried using the fingerprint scanner to unlock and it's not a major issue (just touching it unlocks the phone to the home screen), but find it easier to use the iris scanner
As an aside, setting up the Garmin to work as a trusted device was a bit weird because if you pair from the Garmin app it doesn't get registered as a bluetooth device that can be used as a smart lock option. There was a support article that says you can use the "Upgrade Connection" option to switch to standard pairing but that didn't work so what I did was add it via bluetooth options then pair it in the Garmin App
There are folks on Android Central forum that say the latest update pushed to the phones messed up facial recognition.
The fingerprint scanner is hit or miss for me, too. I actually have an easy time finding it with my right index finger. It just sometimes doesn't accept my print.
So far what I like about this phone is it has been running a lot cooler than I'm used to an Android phone running. My HTC 10 runs pretty hot and so does my S7 at times. At most it's only gotten slightly warm. Even my iPhone has run hot at times during set up.
I hope to play with the camera a bit more. I really hope Samsung tweaks the software a bit to tone down the tendency to overexpose and burn out highlights. If they don't, at least there is a pretty robust manual mode. But for now a lot of my stills and videos suffer a bit from the camera taking in too much light to get those incredible near total darkness shots the Galaxy flagship models are famous for.
It's another heavily overcast day here. I'm under indoor lighting again. So I am still stuck evaluating camera and display under the same conditions I've been stuck with for most of the time I have had the phone.
The pink halo does look like it's spreading on the bottom right of the display. When I first got the phone set up it seemed at times to not respond to touch, as if I had a heavy screen protector on. At first I thought I had a defective screen in that way. But typing on this forum, I've noted the screen is very sensitive and seems to be in good working order. I do recall my first Note 7 being the same way. I wonder what that's all about.
The house is finally quiet so I'm looking forward to testing all aspects of audio. So far in my limited experience it's been good.
They wanted it in the display on the front where the home button is now. But the tech wasn't ready so they put it where it is as a last minute change. Agree with everyone else that it is not the best spot but I am getting used to it and use facial recognition and iris scanning when I can.It's a bit tight in there but maybe they could have put it sideways under the camera?
What I read was a Samsung Rep told a tech site that was the reason for the scanner placement.
I think the Note 8 will have it under the glass on the front display.
Okay I finally had some peace and quiet to catch up on all the posts properly and get Screen Test. Running my various display settings through this app, I was pleasantly surprised to see that pinkness is not spreading. On Adaptive display, the pink is confined to the extreme edges as I would expect to be caused by ordinary refraction. On the other display settings in Screen Test, like Basic, the pink is spread in just a little bit more but not nearly so bad as it is when I'm on white pages on apps or in this forum.
Unfortunately that doesn't solve my problem of the display still being unpleasant for web surfing and using this forum, but I think at the very least it puts to rest my notion that the pink is spreading like a creeping fungus.
Thank you for recommending it. My apologies (to you and the forum at large) for not seeing and applying your suggestion sooner.
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I can attest to the facial recognition. It used to be instant, but now you have to hold it at a certain angle and distance. I am assuming it's because of the complaint of using the person's photo to unlock the phone so this was done as an extra security measure -- that's just what I've heard.