Samsung Note 8

[jamezr]

Not getting your point...you already know that the Pixel 2 will have the advantage on getting android O first so why complain.

The new samsung UI has more features than any vanilla android O and you dont see that as a advantage when I and others do. Who cares when android O is released as long as security updates continue to occur on nougat since the Samsung UI is far ahead and more unique than vanilla android O.

Then the Android core apps get released/updated through the playstore so that point is moot as well. Then with monthly security updates....what are people missing?

 

[spinedoc77]

BOGOs are too restrictive for me to participate: add an additional line or change carriers. I am content enough with T-Mobile on my family plan. Idk, could be a MSRP and strategy thing because you cannot dilute a Samsung brand by undercutting the iPhone by that much. Also, free Gear VRs mean more VR content sales, but I think those strategies are fluff. There is nothing wrong with selling at $600-$800 range for flagships. It means cutting down on rent costs, labor costs, and shelf space cost because they don't need to fulfill VR headset promos and what not.

Doesn't take a master's degree to figure out companies, such as HTC, will not have strong bottom lines because they do not have smart pricing strategies or strong marketing. The major Android OEMs can already undercut Apple with better prices and hardware. They just need to figure out how to mimic the iOS level of consistency and be more smart about pricing and marketing.

Samsung had a nice BOGO in the US with the s8/+, no contracts, no carrier involvement, and no penalty if you simply sold one phone. Also no splitting your rebate up monthly, they just send you a check for the full amount.

 

[nviz22]

We used to get the snapdragon. I think up to the S5 we were getting the snapdragon. The original note was a pile of crap, freezing, rebooting, switching itself off, over heating but since then I had the S4, note 3 and S5. I also had the note 4 and S7 edge but only for about 2 months. I never had any major problems with them.

I had overheating issues with the S5. The S3 was my favorite Galaxy device. Didn't have the S4, but read about its problems. Family and friends had it and was awful for them too. The Note 5 and S3 were my two top devices because the rest had some other flaws when I used them. S6 had too small of a battery and was completely fragile. S7 had too small of a battery as well and that thing would die out quicker because my signal strength was crap at home, at work, and on my campus. S8 was meh battery life for me too, but the S8+ was solid.

But yeah, the original Note was crap. Qualcomm was only a part to blame. OG Touchwiz was nice looking, at least to me, but was just shoddy shoddy shoddy software.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Well it seems as though my carrier have solved the colour conundrum for me. They are only offering it in black

Oops I didn't look at the page properly. They have it in gold

 

[spinedoc77]

You may have meant that in your head, but look at your original post .... that is not what you wrote.



The implication of what you wrote is that you were peeved it was not shipping with an OS version that was merely days old. Which was imo an unrealistic expectation to have.

Nope, read it again. I never said HTC or LG would release Oreo phones this month. Quote me where I specifically said this or move on from the semantics twisting. Now whether being peeved at Oreo not being there on release day is unrealistic I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I also don't fully agree and think it was possible for Samsung to have done it. What major changes to touchwiz have come out since the S8 was released months ago? How long has Oreo been available as a public beta? Much less a private beta Google can provide to the vendors? But once again I tempered my expectations to provide Samsung a realistic amount of breathing room.

What's next, will you defend waiting 8+ months for Oreo? I don't get it.

 

[nviz22]

Samsung had a nice BOGO in the US with the s8/+, no contracts, no carrier involvement, and no penalty if you simply sold one phone. Also no splitting your rebate up monthly, they just send you a check for the full amount.

Oh right, they did so I could take advantage of that. That is a solid BOGO deal. But Samsung's software is cruddy and I will refrain from their products. Either give me a Google Play edition S8/S8+/Note 8 or I will go elsewhere with Android products.

 

[epicrayban]

Nope, read it again. I never said HTC or LG would release Oreo phones this month. Quote me where I specifically said this or move on from the semantics twisting. Now whether being peeved at Oreo not being there on release day is unrealistic I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I also don't fully agree and think it was possible for Samsung to have done it. What major changes to touchwiz have come out since the S8 was released months ago? How long has Oreo been available as a public beta? Much less a private beta Google can provide to the vendors? But once again I tempered my expectations to provide Samsung a realistic amount of breathing room.

What's next, will you defend waiting 8+ months for Oreo? I don't get it.

I think expecting O on the Note 8 and wanting Samsung to update software faster are two conversations.

I agree -- I think most everybody agrees -- that they should update faster. As you've mentioned, a few months is reasonable.

But having O on the Note 8 is, I think, both unrealistic and unreasonable. Samsung doesn't plan their release schedule based on Android software versions; they plan base on other, arguably, more important factors.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I had overheating issues with the S5. The S3 was my favorite Galaxy device. Didn't have the S4, but read about its problems. Family and friends had it and was awful for them too. The Note 5 and S3 were my two top devices because the rest had some other flaws when I used them. S6 had too small of a battery and was completely fragile. S7 had too small of a battery as well and that thing would die out quicker because my signal strength was crap at home, at work, and on my campus. S8 was meh battery life for me too, but the S8+ was solid.

But yeah, the original Note was crap. Qualcomm was only a part to blame. OG Touchwiz was nice looking, at least to me, but was just shoddy shoddy shoddy software.

Apparently the S4 was bad at launch but got better after a software update. I didn't get the S4 until a few months after launch so I might have avoided the issues.

 

[epicrayban]

And let's remember how important it was for so many of us that Samsung focus and concentrate on making their devices better, more stable, more useful, etc. versus just rushing things to check off an achievement list.

Rushing to adapt Android O would have been a move made by Samsung of yesteryear. And if there were serious bugs, we'd give them crap for, once again, rushing things.

No, the mistakes modern-Samsung make are more related to lousy fingerprint scanner locations. ;P

 

[spinedoc77]

I think expecting O on the Note 8 and wanting Samsung to update software faster are two conversations.

I agree -- I think most everybody agrees -- that they should update faster. As you've mentioned, a few months is reasonable.

But having O on the Note 8 is, I think, both unrealistic and unreasonable. Samsung doesn't plan their release schedule based on Android software versions; they plan base on other, arguably, more important factors.

But you are saying 2 different things. It's not that it's unrealistic or unreasonable, it's that Samsung doesn't plan around Android software versions. That doesn't mean that they couldn't.

Once again let me say that I'm not particularly harping on Oreo being on the Note 8 on release day. Yes it peeves me, but it would not keep me from buying the phone at all. But I do think a reasonable time frame should be 1-2 months, not 8+ months.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I mean the average Joe won't worry much about Ars Technica or Erica Griffin pieces. Nor will they notice performance issues. But at the same time, we have to hold Samsung accountable for its lack of updates and disappointing performance dips. You did mention the occasional lag and frame rate drops. That shouldn't be "occasional" it should be rare at worst. Bixby is a crappy concept because it takes up so many resources when the Google Assistant is much better.

I expect the V30 to be the phone of the year on the Android side because Google's Pixel will not go with the more popularized concepts like curved displays, minimal bezels, dual cameras, etc.

I get occasional lag and frame drops on every device I have. Even experienced it on the U11 and iP7+ Bixby is actually decent and lag free the majority of the time. Yes Google assistant is the fastest and has the best voice recognition, but Bixby can do things Google assistant can't. I have them both enabled on my S8+, and both of them together is better than just one.

As far as updates, I don't care much, since I always upgrade a Samsung phone twice a year between the S and Note line. But I understand the concern for those who keep it on a longer term basis. For my impatient self, I rather get my hands on a Note 8 now, rather than wait a several months for them to release just to have Oreo.

 

[epicrayban]

But you are saying 2 different things. It's not that it's unrealistic or unreasonable, it's that Samsung doesn't plan around Android software versions. That doesn't mean that they couldn't.

Once again let me say that I'm not particularly harping on Oreo being on the Note 8 on release day. Yes it peeves me, but it would not keep me from buying the phone at all. But I do think a reasonable time frame should be 1-2 months, not 8+ months.

Until we know more about how Google gives OEM's new software to work with, who knows.

Otherwise, agree. I always say, it'd be great for Samsung to improve in areas of software updating generally.

 

[MRU]

Nope, read it again. I never said HTC or LG would release Oreo phones this month. Quote me where I specifically said this or move on from the semantics twisting. Now whether being peeved at Oreo not being there on release day is unrealistic I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I also don't fully agree and think it was possible for Samsung to have done it. What major changes to touchwiz have come out since the S8 was released months ago? How long has Oreo been available as a public beta? Much less a private beta Google can provide to the vendors? But once again I tempered my expectations to provide Samsung a realistic amount of breathing room.

What's next, will you defend waiting 8+ months for Oreo? I don't get it.

I don't defend waiting 8 months for an update. Every time I look at my G6 and seen Android 7.0 it peeves me too. And I too think a couple - three months is fair time also, but I merely called you on being peeved it wasn't releasing with it.

You implied that LG & HTC working with Google somehow means they have access to code and could therefore release updates sooner (otherwise why even make the analogy) whereas realistically that doesn't happen.

The G6 and HTC U11 will be months and months away from seeing Oreo.

The point I was making is merely 1. Expecting Oreo on the Note 8 was silly and 2. As ****** as the situation is HTC, LG and others are just as bad as Samsung. This doesn't make it any better, but singling out Samsung for something that plagues third party android devices regardless of OEM was again silly.

LG & HTC are not releasing devices (unless the V30 surprises but the hands on reports of UX 6.0+ showed it running on android 7.1.1) with Oreo despite working with Google on Pixel Hardware.

 

[epicrayban]

Official video:

 

[MRU]

I think expecting O on the Note 8 and wanting Samsung to update software faster are two conversations.

I agree -- I think most everybody agrees -- that they should update faster. As you've mentioned, a few months is reasonable.

But having O on the Note 8 is, I think, both unrealistic and unreasonable. Samsung doesn't plan their release schedule based on Android software versions; they plan base on other, arguably, more important factors.

This ^ Exactly. Two completely different conversations ...

 

[spinedoc77]

Until we know more about how Google gives OEM's new software to work with, who knows.

Otherwise, agree. I always say, it'd be great for Samsung to improve in areas of software updating generally.

Oh of course, it's all just theoretical. None of us knows what truly goes on behind the scenes. The fault may lie more with Google restricting it's new OS only to the pixel vendors.

 

[nviz22]

I get occasional lag and frame drops on every device I have. Even experienced it on the U11 and iP7+ Bixby is actually decent and lag free the majority of the time. Yes Google assistant is the fastest and has the best voice recognition, but Bixby can do things Google assistant can't. I have them both enabled on my S8+, and both of them together is better than just one.

As far as updates, I don't care much, since I always upgrade a Samsung phone twice a year between the S and Note line. But I understand the concern for those who keep it on a longer term basis. For my impatient self, I rather get my hands on a Note 8 now, rather than wait a several months for them to release just to have Oreo.

Yeah, JoD life is different than long term usage. I am in the long term use mindset now.

 

[epicrayban]

I get occasional lag and frame drops on every device I have. Even experienced it on the U11 and iP7+

Don't forget the Pixel!

As usual with any big Samsung release, you can expect the "TouchWiz is lagfest" or "requires extreme tweaking to work" FUD.

 

[rhinosrcool]

Well, I'm impressed. I really miss my spen. My iphone lags way more than any samsung phone I've had for the last few years. Yes, we know it won't get Oreo for several months. To me, no big deal. The price is a bit steep. However, with the freebies, it's not too bad.

Sorry to interrupt the complaining. Carry on...

 

[spinedoc77]

I don't defend waiting 8 months for an update. Every time I look at my G6 and seen Android 7.0 it peeves me too. And I too think a couple - three months is fair time also, but I merely called you on being peeved it wasn't releasing with it.

You implied that LG & HTC working with Google somehow means they have access to code and could therefore release updates sooner (otherwise why even make the analogy) whereas realistically that doesn't happen.

The G6 and HTC U11 will be months and months away from seeing Oreo.

The point I was making is merely 1. Expecting Oreo on the Note 8 was silly and 2. As ****** as the situation is HTC, LG and others are just as bad as Samsung. This doesn't make it any better, but singling out Samsung for something that plagues third party android devices regardless of OEM was again silly.

LG & HTC are not releasing devices (unless the V30 surprises but the hands on reports of UX 6.0+ showed it running on android 7.1.1) with Oreo despite working with Google on Pixel Hardware.

But you get peeved also, so I don't understand your issue with me on a forum saying I'm peeved. I'm peeved if my dinner isn't hot, or if the toilet lid is down in the middle of the night, so what?

I didn't imply that LG and HTC had early access to code, I definitely stated that. While I can't say I have any proof to this, it's only logical and common sense that Google would provide its pixel partners with the necessary code to build the pixel phones. Whether they can release these for their own phones I don't know, it's possible Google has some kind of embargo where they are limited on their own hardware, and it's possible this is the case with Samsung as well, I have no idea and am not privy to that information.

Point 1: Expecting Oreo on the Note 8 was silly... I didn't say I expected Oreo on release date, I did say I was peeved. Once again reference my toilet seat analogy. It's ok to be peeved at things even though you know they will not happen. I'm still a bit baffled why you took such umbrage to this, I'm sure I could find a million things you are peeved about on the forums if I were to look. Heck these forums exist in large part for us to all air our grievances against our technological overseers. With that said I still believe it's not remotely outside the realm of possibility that the Note 8 could have been released with Oreo (even though it's NOT my expectation), but I don't (and neither do you) have enough information as to the inner workings of such things to make anything other than a personal opinion.

Point 2: Absolutely, the other vendors are just as bad and I have complaints against them as well, and Google themselves, and the carriers. But the thread was about the Note 8, and Samsung also has a heck of a lot of clout, arguably more clout than any other vendor. It's only silly if you don't realize the thread is about the release of a Samsung product and try to make is seem like I am singling out that vendor. One last thing is I'm not entirely sure that Samsung isn't the worst, do other vendors truly take 8+ months to release new Android OS'? I'm genuinely curious as I really only have experience with Samsung in owning an Android phone long term.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

One last thing is I'm not entirely sure that Samsung isn't the worst, do other vendors truly take 8+ months to release new Android OS'?

Yea, Samsung does have a reputation of slow rollouts, especially considering they are the biggest Android manufacturer. But most other manufacturer don't support their devices as long as Samsung. Even the Note 4 has 7.0 and is rumored to be slated for 7.1.1.

 

[Michael Goff]

Don't forget the Pixel!

As usual with any big Samsung release, you can expect the "TouchWiz is lagfest" or "requires extreme tweaking to work" FUD.

Yeah. As a guy with a Pixel and an S8+, it's the updates and slightly better camera keeping me on the Pixel. It isn't that one lags and the other doesn't.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I wonder if they used the exact same S-pen as the Note 7. Cause I still have two S-pens from returning the Note 7 twice.

 

[epicrayban]

Dual camera is looking sweet.

I wonder if they used the exact same S-pen as the Note 7. Cause I still have two S-pens from returning the Note 7 twice.

The new S-pen is waterproof, so maybe not?

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

The new S-pen is waterproof, so maybe not?

The S-pen on the Note 7 was waterproof as well.