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Phones Samsung Galaxy S8
- Thread starter Surf Donkey
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*crickets* lol
Haha right? "We can't argue?...dueces"
But for me, tonight is the last night to decide. Tomorrow is my 14th day with the Galaxy S8. It flew by and I'm still so undecided. I'm firmly ingrained in the Apple ecosystem and i could easily get out except for iMessage. But I know that I'll be kicking myself when WWDC hits in less than a month and i won't have my iphone 7 for iOS 11. I'm so torn and i was hoping the 14 days of ownership would make it easier to decide, not harder.
Yeah the choice isn't easy at all. Both excellent devices in their own ways. It's how I accidentally ended up with 7+ and S8+. Wife isn't as amuzed me with me as I am the two devices though
Some pics out hiking in the AZ desert by the lower Salt River.
I have the 7+ and the S8+. I always rotate my usage between Android and iPhone weeks at a time.
The 7+ is basically 99% worry free from every angle. That's from years of Apple's slow progression and keeping everything very familiar and streamlined. I never have any doubts when getting the latest iPhone. The iCloud and continuity integration is top notch.
The S8+ is basically the top of the line in design, display, customization, and features. Fortunately, the S8+ has also been 99% worry free so far. But with Samsung and any other Android phone manufacturer, their next model could be for better or worst, as history shows. Samsung's record of improvement has been stellar since the S6, with the exception of the Note 7 battery incident.
I'm extremely excited on what the next iPhone's most premium model and the Note 8 will offer. And I'm curious how much Apple will bridge the gap, and how Samsung will further widen the gap.
[doublepost=1494210475][/doublepost]
Some pics out hiking in the AZ desert by the lower Salt River.
Hills have eyes?
Lol it's is an old well from a long time ago. Someone blew out the bottom. Here is the view from the top.....I have the 7+ and the S8+. I always rotate my usage between Android and iPhone weeks at a time.
The 7+ is basically 99% worry free from every angle. That's from years of Apple's slow progression and keeping everything very familiar and streamlined. I never have any doubts when getting the latest iPhone. The iCloud and continuity integration is top notch.
The S8+ is basically the top of the line in design, display, customization, and features. Fortunately, the S8+ has also been 99% worry free so far. But with Samsung and any other Android phone manufacturer, their next model could be for better or worst, as history shows. Samsung's record of improvement has been stellar since the S6, with the exception of the Note 7 battery incident.
I'm extremely excited on what the next iPhone's most premium model and the Note 8 will offer. And I'm curious how much Apple will bridge the gap, and how Samsung will further widen the gap.
[doublepost=1494210475][/doublepost]
Hills have eyes?
Yeah now I've got both in my Arsenal and that probably wasn't the best planning on my part but I'm enjoying my S8 and Gear S3 Frontier.
As a fitness guy I'm learning daily that Samsung Health walks all over Apple's Health kit.
Side not. After experimenting a couple of days I can officially say you get a huge bump in battery life when you drop the resolution. I've been off the charger since 6am today, heavy use, including games, YouTube, chrome casting, web surfing and lots of pics with kids and wife and I'm at 35% as of 9:30pm. Not bad at all for Wall to Wall usage.
Lets hope it doesn't get to a point where we can't debate or question misinformation. Those new to Galaxy S8 and Android can benefit from understanding the differences in multitasking. Even those that stay with iOS can better understand their OS and not mistake things like app state preservation to and restoration from storage as multitasking.
https://www.raywenderlich.com/117471/state-restoration-tutorial
https://www.raywenderlich.com/117471/state-restoration-tutorial
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hmmm...so the conclusion is, apps in Android are general better and more functional than Iphone (and not the other way around like what we were led to believe by apple fans).
iOS vs Android?
What's next? My father is stronger then yours?
Guys, grow up. Please. And then stick with the topic. I really love reading about phones, and I follow almost every major topic on this sub forum. But iOS vs Android is not something people enjoy reading. It's an argument no side can win. Get it?
What's next? My father is stronger then yours?
Guys, grow up. Please. And then stick with the topic. I really love reading about phones, and I follow almost every major topic on this sub forum. But iOS vs Android is not something people enjoy reading. It's an argument no side can win. Get it?
So after a full weekend with this black S8 phone... I love it!
INITIAL THOUGHTS:
At first I wasn't sure it was much of a step up from S7 Edge. But actually the form factor is much more manageable on S8 with a similar enough screen size (essentially same height due to on-screen buttons but narrower).
Transferring from S7 Edge to S8 was very good - between Smart Switch and Google's own service, it did a fine job, I'd score it around 8/10. Although it does take ages to log back into each app etc (not sure how iOS handles this nowadays?).
Battery life has been good but not really had a chance to test that properly, I also switched resolution back up to max so will test that over coming weeks too. Camera seems like a more reliable version of S7 Edge but there are lots more cool features to play around with, gonna test it properly this week. Loving USB-C (finally reversible and much more solid!). Having 64GB confused me, love that as standard!
Main thing is the software - Samsung have hit it out of the park in terms of what they have included. This thing is a supercomputer, I love it, endless options (in a good way). It's a real step up and I prefer it to iOS at this point. If you are super concerned about "microlags" then the S8 should come with a trigger warning, but for most normal people you'll be fine. I haven't investigated what type of storage because my life is too short. Disabling hardware overlays makes a big difference as it did lag a bit but it's great now.
As for fingerprint sensor, I basically don't miss it much at all. It's there but I'm using Facial Recognition (which is AMAZING and at least 95% accurate even with my ugly mug, when I'm wearing a hat, when I have glasses on occasionally) and when I need something more secure, I'll switch to Iris Scanner (which works well too!). I've also used Bixby a bit, it's more useful than Google Now Launcher used to be, if Samsung stick with it, maybe it could a great thing for lots of people but early days.
I do miss double tap to lock the screen, so I may switch to Nova Launcher for pretty much that reason alone. Otherwise the stock launcher (don't call it TouchWiz!) is PERFECTLY good, it just works and gets out of the way for the most part. Obviously works well with my Gear S3 smartypants watch (which I love).
I don't think I "need" this phone because the S7 Edge is so good. It's more a case of I "want" it and got a ridiculous deal for it. But the surprising thing is I've only hit Bixby by accident 2 times and I do not miss the fingerprint sensor at all, really (even though they clearly botched it up, the thing barely works as it is). The S9 will be insane next year.
Final initial thought: the bravest people in the whole wide world are those who carry around phones without screen protectors or cases. Y'all got some gigantic testosterone and oestrogen canisters to burn. Salute.
I've cut an unused S7 Edge screen protector to size in meantime and blue Samsung Alcantara case arrives tomorrow. My heart is constantly in my mouth!!
INITIAL THOUGHTS:
At first I wasn't sure it was much of a step up from S7 Edge. But actually the form factor is much more manageable on S8 with a similar enough screen size (essentially same height due to on-screen buttons but narrower).
Transferring from S7 Edge to S8 was very good - between Smart Switch and Google's own service, it did a fine job, I'd score it around 8/10. Although it does take ages to log back into each app etc (not sure how iOS handles this nowadays?).
Battery life has been good but not really had a chance to test that properly, I also switched resolution back up to max so will test that over coming weeks too. Camera seems like a more reliable version of S7 Edge but there are lots more cool features to play around with, gonna test it properly this week. Loving USB-C (finally reversible and much more solid!). Having 64GB confused me, love that as standard!
Main thing is the software - Samsung have hit it out of the park in terms of what they have included. This thing is a supercomputer, I love it, endless options (in a good way). It's a real step up and I prefer it to iOS at this point. If you are super concerned about "microlags" then the S8 should come with a trigger warning, but for most normal people you'll be fine. I haven't investigated what type of storage because my life is too short. Disabling hardware overlays makes a big difference as it did lag a bit but it's great now.
As for fingerprint sensor, I basically don't miss it much at all. It's there but I'm using Facial Recognition (which is AMAZING and at least 95% accurate even with my ugly mug, when I'm wearing a hat, when I have glasses on occasionally) and when I need something more secure, I'll switch to Iris Scanner (which works well too!). I've also used Bixby a bit, it's more useful than Google Now Launcher used to be, if Samsung stick with it, maybe it could a great thing for lots of people but early days.
I do miss double tap to lock the screen, so I may switch to Nova Launcher for pretty much that reason alone. Otherwise the stock launcher (don't call it TouchWiz!) is PERFECTLY good, it just works and gets out of the way for the most part. Obviously works well with my Gear S3 smartypants watch (which I love).
I don't think I "need" this phone because the S7 Edge is so good. It's more a case of I "want" it and got a ridiculous deal for it. But the surprising thing is I've only hit Bixby by accident 2 times and I do not miss the fingerprint sensor at all, really (even though they clearly botched it up, the thing barely works as it is). The S9 will be insane next year.
Final initial thought: the bravest people in the whole wide world are those who carry around phones without screen protectors or cases. Y'all got some gigantic testosterone and oestrogen canisters to burn. Salute.
I've cut an unused S7 Edge screen protector to size in meantime and blue Samsung Alcantara case arrives tomorrow. My heart is constantly in my mouth!!
Speaking of the fingerprint sensor, having a case does wonders for guiding your finger to the right placement for quick unlocking.
Though really, that iris sensor is freaking fast and reliable. It's a solid 8.5 on the experience scale for me.
Though really, that iris sensor is freaking fast and reliable. It's a solid 8.5 on the experience scale for me.
Apple's Health kit, IMO at least, is the worst of the lot. It aggregates all your information but doesn't really present it in a user-friendly, informative way. S-Health does a better job of this than Health kit, as well as besting Google Fit. Garmin-IQ actually does a really good job, if you are primarily a runner.
I am primarily a runner, with hiking and other types of exercises second. I owned the nike apple watch for several months, and enjoy it. Its most important function was as a running watch, to track my runs, and I was generally happy with it (though, I didn't know what I was missing).
After moving back to android, I tried the gear s3 frontier for a while, and really enjoyed it. It was probably the best combination of style, battery, and function of all the watches I tried. I returned it because I wanted to try out Android Wear 2.0. The Huawei watch 2 was great, but inferior to the S3 and the battery life wasn't great.
I had decided to go back to the Gear S3, when I picked up a Garmin 235, just to try....and that was that. If you are primarily a runner, a smartwatch can't hold a candle to the dedicated running watch from the likes of Garmin, polar, etc. The combination of superior run/pace tracking, 7 day battery life, health metric, limited smart notifications, always on heart-rate, and decent enough to wear on a daily basis. That being said, if you are not a runner, then I would go with the Gear S3.
The misfit vapor and the upcoming diesel smart watch will get my attention.
Interesting. Yeah I've got a Gear S3 and S Health became Samsung Health a short while ago, with some pretty big updates.
I've only tried Apple Watch for short amounts of time so can't comment, but I had FuelBand, Fitbits etc and I'm perfectly happy with Samsung Health on this Gear S3. Does the job well, although it could use a bit of gameification!
Same. It's a far better app to track routine fitness metrics. I've always found the HealthKit app to be mildly cumbersome. Also the step counter on the S8 is incredibly accurate in my experience.
never used SwiftKey on my iPhones before. But wow, SwiftKey is pretty amazing with swiping words (yeah, I know...you guys probally use it allready for quit some time haha)
Still need to get used it, but quit like it so far. In my understanding, after a period of time it will predict what I am about to typ, nice!
(yeah, I know...you guys probally use it allready for quit some time haha)Still need to get used it, but quit like it so far. In my understanding, after a period of time it will predict what I am about to typ, nice!
So far it seems like iMessage is one of the biggest things holding people back from switching to the S8. Google has done so well in many different areas except messaging. If RCS could ever get off the ground and be standardized then things would be much different.
I've always been on Android for my phone so maybe I don't know what I'm missing, but between using the stock Samsung messages with SMS and MMS, Facebook messenger, Skype, and KIK I don't have any issues with communication between different platforms.
With that said a single modern standard going forward would be really nice.
I've always been on Android for my phone so maybe I don't know what I'm missing, but between using the stock Samsung messages with SMS and MMS, Facebook messenger, Skype, and KIK I don't have any issues with communication between different platforms.
With that said a single modern standard going forward would be really nice.
This.
And the absence of the swipe back gesture. A lot of people hate those Back and Recent buttons.
I miss it big times while browsing in the stock Samsung Browser. I like to swipe back instead of reaching my thumb down to get to the back button.
With the swipe back gesture in iOS I am 100 times quicker when browsing the internet.
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Well I guess there's only so much that can be the same. If only you could merge the two. Maybe Apple will get enough cash to buy Google eventually and then we'll be down to that one perfect mobile platform.