Samsung Note 8

[PJM83]

I installed the whitestone protector on my note this week and it's great. Probably the best tempered glass I've ever used.

Just take it easy while installing and follow the instructions.

 

[Voodoochild346]

Just wanted some opinions. Which is the better option? Get a Note 8 and keep my 7 Plus or get an iPhone X and trade in my 7 Plus? I am getting 60% of the value of the iPhone X in tradein next year while the Note 8 is $200 cheaper from the get go.

I'm biased as a Note 8 owner but I really think you should go with the Note. You already have a 7+ for when need to go back to IOS so why trade in your phone for something that will likely be a worse experience for you than the Note and 7+ combo will be? How much is the X REALLY giving you over your 7+? Every feature that the X has, the Note has also with arguably better features and things like expandable storage. I say that as a person who plans on keeping his Note 8 for a bare minimum of 2 years. The lower resale value doesn't matter to me since I'm not drawn to getting every new phone that comes out. It's up to you though.

 

[convergent]

Just wanted some opinions. Which is the better option? Get a Note 8 and keep my 7 Plus or get an iPhone X and trade in my 7 Plus? I am getting 60% of the value of the iPhone X in tradein next year while the Note 8 is $200 cheaper from the get go.

Are you seriously looking at this as an investment and which will get you the best return? They are very different phones which I would think would drive the decision more than marginal financial impact differences.

 

[mjschabow]

Why go back to iOS when I can have this on Android?

 

[Septembersrain]

Why go back to iOS when I can have this on Android?

Does it function the same or does it actually disable Wi-Fi/BT like it should on iOS?

 

[Nancy bout]

Agreed with you
I may pick up a note the

 

[Voodoochild346]

My best result yet. Full 1440p resolution, brightness at around 40%, Bluetooth off, using wifi and doing everything including watching numerous YouTube videos. I absolutely love this phone!

 

[yui4]

My best result yet. Full 1440p resolution, brightness at around 40%, Bluetooth off, using wifi and doing everything including watching numerous YouTube videos. I absolutely love this phone!

Off topic but what theme is that?

 

[Voodoochild346]

Off topic but what theme is that?

This one from the theme store. It is very similar to the "black" version except it's free.

 

[michael9891]

My best result yet. Full 1440p resolution, brightness at around 40%, Bluetooth off, using wifi and doing everything including watching numerous YouTube videos. I absolutely love this phone!

I'm happy with my battery but a 9 hrs screen on time is very impressive.

 

[Tsepz]

Got my DeX and BT Keyboard courtesy of Samsung South Africa

Lol, as if the SPen wasn't enough, DeX sets this phone far apart from anything else on the market with its 6GB RAM.

I can't take anything else seriously at this point.

 

[michael9891]

Got my DeX and BT Keyboard courtesy of Samsung South Africa

Lol, as if the SPen wasn't enough, DeX sets this phone far apart from anything else on the market with its 6GB RAM.

I can't take anything else seriously at this point.

Did you buy the DEX or was it a free gift?

 

[Shanghaichica]

Got my DeX and BT Keyboard courtesy of Samsung South Africa

Lol, as if the SPen wasn't enough, DeX sets this phone far apart from anything else on the market with its 6GB RAM.

I can't take anything else seriously at this point.

Well that’s nice. I submitted my claim on 18/09/17 and I still haven’t heard anyhing back yet.

 

[Tsepz]

Did you buy the DEX or was it a free gift?

It was free. If you are in South Africa, Samsung are doing a DeX + Keyboard Promotion, take your Note8 with proof of purchase (cash or contract) to the nearest large mall in your province, and you will get the gift. It took just 10mins to get mine.

Deatils under the Promotion tab here:
http://www.samsung.com/za/offer/switch-to-galaxy-note8-campaign/

 

[Tsepz]

Well that’s nice. I submitted my claim on 18/09/17 and I still haven’t heard anyhing back yet.

This is a seperate thing from the Preorder gifts.

My preorder gift is a pair of BT Samsung U Flex Level headphones, still waiting for that to.

 

[macjunk(ie)]

Well...I gave in and bought the Note 8. I have to say, the unboxing experience was unreal. A fast charger, S-Pen tips, nice headphones that sit nicely in the ear canal, a micro usb adapter, a usb adapter...WOW! Feels really great! No penny pinching! I have not had this experience in a long time.

Set this up last night. There are lags here and there so that is a little disappointing but my disappointment with Apple is far greater now. I can't believe that I paid nearly 60% less for the Note 8 than I would have paid for the iPhone X (prices in Singapore)! And the Note offers so much more! So micro lags here and there in the Note are totally fine. And it is not like Apple is always smooth. I have had more than one embarrassing moment when either my iPhone or my parents' iPhones have frozen with a restart the only way to solve it, all this while I was espousing the benefits of the iPhone to them!

The only other thing I am worried about is software updates to the Note. Lets see how this goes this time.

Time to put up the iPhone 7 for sale. Gonna keep the iPhone SE though...way too cute to get rid off. Plus I think at the price point, it is the best there is.

Next stop: my MBP. But I am going to wait for this. I will wait till the MBP dies which I hope is not in the near future. But the new MBPs at their retch inducing price point is out of the question.

iPad Pro: Nothing in the market beats this tablet at the moment. Apple is king here.

Apple TV: Gone and replaced with a Fire TV. All the content I have on iTunes is now old anyway.

Speaker: I was all in for Apple's homepod but that will now be replaced with 3 Alexas. I might plonk in for a Sonos One. Looks interesting enough.

Apple's penny pinching and its price increases across its product portfolio has left me disgusted. Its again reminded me of a lesson I thought I should have learnt by now: closed ecosystems suck! Not because of the quality of it, because of the stickiness of it...leaving you at the mercy of ecosystem's owner.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I just tried the Samsung Flow app on my Windows machine with my Note 8. Works pretty good. Finger sensor unlocks Windows, and I get phone notifications on Action Center, which I disabled out of annoyance. Hot Spot feature works great as well. Samsung just needs to add Messages, and more features. I wouldn't replace SideSync with Flow just yet, but Flow is a great step to the feel of true integration vs SideSync feeling more like just another 3rd party app.

 

[Tsepz]

I just tried the Samsung Flow app on my Windows machine with my Note 8. Works pretty good. Finger sensor unlocks Windows, and I get phone notifications on Action Center, which I disabled out of annoyance. Hot Spot feature works great as well. Samsung just needs to add Messages, and more features. I wouldn't replace SideSync with Flow just yet, but Flow is a great step to the feel of true integration vs SideSync feeling more like just another 3rd party app.

Samsung just need to be more consistent in how they implement some of this stuff, I feel like they are so close to getting it all right, they must just focus on finishing Flow properly and not making another app with similar functionality.

 

[convergent]

I just tried the Samsung Flow app on my Windows machine with my Note 8. Works pretty good. Finger sensor unlocks Windows, and I get phone notifications on Action Center, which I disabled out of annoyance. Hot Spot feature works great as well. Samsung just needs to add Messages, and more features. I wouldn't replace SideSync with Flow just yet, but Flow is a great step to the feel of true integration vs SideSync feeling more like just another 3rd party app.

Samsung Flow does do messages, although it appears to be a little wonky and you only seem to be able to respond to ones coming in via a notification, not initiate one from contacts.

There is also Samsung SideSync which is kind of cool. You can have your phone's messages display in a window on your Mac or Windows computer. Not exactly the same thing but another tool in the bag.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Samsung Flow does do messages, although it appears to be a little wonky and you only seem to be able to respond to ones coming in via a notification, not initiate one from contacts.

Yea, I just noticed that. Comes through very clean. At first it wasn't picking messages up.

There is also Samsung SideSync which is kind of cool. You can have your phone's messages display in a window on your Mac or Windows computer. Not exactly the same thing but another tool in the bag.

I also use Samsung SideSync, but it's not something I keep active. Samsung Flow is not something I need to keep open in Windows, nor even in my system tray, and uses less resources. It's more like set it and forget it. I hope Samsung can eventually make Flow as feature packed as Sidesync, while maintaining the same small footprint and feel of integration.

 

[convergent]

Yes... I just started trying Flow and for messages it was a little hit or miss. Some messages didn't come in, and if they have multimedia then it doesn't provide that. Agree.. its a good step, but needs more help.

Anyone used Facebook Messenger to send SMS messages? I just saw that it will do it.

 

[Tig Bitties]

I am very tempted to pick up the Note 8, looks like a great big screen, beautiful design, etc...

But man I have been bitten by the Lagwiz bug on every Samsung Galaxy phone I've had in the past, even the S8+ had micro stutters and slight hiccups, compared to my Nexus 6P which is still buttery smooth. Every Galaxy phone I had was always warp speed fast out of the box, and remained super smooth and very good the first couple of months, but it seems the lag starts creeping in after several months of use, like the 4 to 6 months period, it's not same smoothness as the first month of use. Whereas a Pixel phone, the first month, the sixth month, the 12th month now, it's still a super smooth phone.

And then I hear every year, oh Samsung really optimized Touchwiz this year, it's been overhauled this time to be much smoother, and year after year the lag still pops up again 6 months down the road. Yeah the first month or two it's still gonna be great, but tell me that six months from now. But I do agree, each year the lag seems to take longer to pop up, and the 6GB RAM + Exynos seems to be really be the sweet spot the Galaxy phone needs, it's the Snapdragon that bogs the Galaxy phones down more. So maybe the Note 8 is the very first ever Galaxy phone that won't lag down the road, and be smooth as a Pixel ? Maybe. Only time will tell, it's too early to say the now, the phone is still new.

I would love to see a comparison of the Note 8 vs Pixel 2 XL, not now though, but after six months of real world daily use, then pit the two phones against each other, not freshly wiped new installs, but both phones after months and months of day to day use, lets see how they operate and perform after that time ? I would think the Pixel 2 XL will still be buttery smooth in six months, and the Note 8 doubtfully not anymore.

 

[Tsepz]

Galaxy Note8 does to the LG V30 what it did to the iPhone 8 Plus in the speed test, obliterates it!

 

[convergent]

I am very tempted to pick up the Note 8, looks like a great big screen, beautiful design, etc...

But man I have been bitten by the Lagwiz bug on every Samsung Galaxy phone I've had in the past, even the S8+ had micro stutters and slight hiccups, compared to my Nexus 6P which is still buttery smooth. Every Galaxy phone I had was always warp speed fast out of the box, and remained super smooth and very good the first couple of months, but it seems the lag starts creeping in after several months of use, like the 4 to 6 months period, it's not same smoothness as the first month of use. Whereas a Pixel phone, the first month, the sixth month, the 12th month now, it's still a super smooth phone.

And then I hear every year, oh Samsung really optimized Touchwiz this year, it's been overhauled this time to be much smoother, and year after year the lag still pops up again 6 months down the road. Yeah the first month or two it's still gonna be great, but tell me that six months from now. But I do agree, each year the lag seems to take longer to pop up, and the 6GB RAM + Exynos seems to be really be the sweet spot the Galaxy phone needs, it's the Snapdragon that bogs the Galaxy phones down more. So maybe the Note 8 is the very first ever Galaxy phone that won't lag down the road, and be smooth as a Pixel ? Maybe. Only time will tell, it's too early to say the now, the phone is still new.

I would love to see a comparison of the Note 8 vs Pixel 2 XL, not now though, but after six months of real world daily use, then pit the two phones against each other, not freshly wiped new installs, but both phones after months and months of day to day use, lets see how they operate and perform after that time ? I would think the Pixel 2 XL will still be buttery smooth in six months, and the Note 8 doubtfully not anymore.

I would be surprised if the Pixel didn't have a performance advantage since Google designs it... I'm sure they are able to better optimize things. But the question is how much advantage. I get that Galaxy's historically slow over time. A few of the reviewers I've seen have had every Note from the beginning and say the Note 8 is different. But no one will know until a few months out. As I think I've said on here before... if it turns out to be a dog over time, I'll be happy to report that. I am not wedded to any vendor. I want what works best for my needs.

 

[dallas112678]

I am very tempted to pick up the Note 8, looks like a great big screen, beautiful design, etc...

But man I have been bitten by the Lagwiz bug on every Samsung Galaxy phone I've had in the past, even the S8+ had micro stutters and slight hiccups, compared to my Nexus 6P which is still buttery smooth. Every Galaxy phone I had was always warp speed fast out of the box, and remained super smooth and very good the first couple of months, but it seems the lag starts creeping in after several months of use, like the 4 to 6 months period, it's not same smoothness as the first month of use. Whereas a Pixel phone, the first month, the sixth month, the 12th month now, it's still a super smooth phone.

And then I hear every year, oh Samsung really optimized Touchwiz this year, it's been overhauled this time to be much smoother, and year after year the lag still pops up again 6 months down the road. Yeah the first month or two it's still gonna be great, but tell me that six months from now. But I do agree, each year the lag seems to take longer to pop up, and the 6GB RAM + Exynos seems to be really be the sweet spot the Galaxy phone needs, it's the Snapdragon that bogs the Galaxy phones down more. So maybe the Note 8 is the very first ever Galaxy phone that won't lag down the road, and be smooth as a Pixel ? Maybe. Only time will tell, it's too early to say the now, the phone is still new.

I would love to see a comparison of the Note 8 vs Pixel 2 XL, not now though, but after six months of real world daily use, then pit the two phones against each other, not freshly wiped new installs, but both phones after months and months of day to day use, lets see how they operate and perform after that time ? I would think the Pixel 2 XL will still be buttery smooth in six months, and the Note 8 doubtfully not anymore.

As a first time android user, I'll be paying attention to my Note 8 performance in the coming months. With that being said, every review has said that Touchwiz 8.5 (Note 8) is SIGNIFICANTLY smoother than Touchwiz 8.1 (S8/+). Samsung seems to be really getting their stuff together, and trying to get away from the Touchwiz notoriety. They of course changed the name, and the appearance (Samsung Experience 8.0, 8.1), and it seems that Samsung Experience 8.5 on the Note 8 heavily focused on optimization.

With that being said, I'm sure the pixel 2 will be smoother, as less features means less time need to optimize all of them, but with how smooth the Note 8 seems to be, is it really going to be much different? Probably not. Definitely not different enough to sacrifice all of the extra features and functionality.