Related
And how are you adapting?
Is the lock bootloader bothering you?, and how about the size of the phone?
is the development what you thought it would be?
And what made you jump ship?
thanks for the feed back!
chefb said:
And how are you adapting?
Is the lock bootloader bothering you?, and how about the size of the phone?
is the development what you thought it would be?
And what made you jump ship?
thanks for the feed back!
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Click to collapse
i came from the nexus and yes I am a bit sad that i cant flash whatever I want. But i am thankful at least we can flash roms.
Honestly, i bought the note 3 without doing any research, it wasnt until a few days after I found out that the bootloader was locked...which took me by surprise.
I dont regret it at all. To me, the galaxy nexus on verizon was probably one of the worst phones ever built. I am so glad to be done with it you have no idea. Living day to day with the nexus was painful. No amount of tweaks could save that crap phone. I am in heaven with the note 3 and its battery. Its actually kind of nice not having to flash something everyday in hope of improving my phone so its usable.
I also had the Galaxy Nexus, and while in general I liked it a lot, the battery life was pretty poor, and 4g/3g reception wasn't nearly as good as my wife's S4.
I debated upgrading for a while, but over Black Friday week-end, found a deal I couldn't refuse: Verizon lowered the price to $199, Comcast had a promotion giving a $200 PrePaid VISA card with the purchase of a new Verizon phone/Upgrade, and then I sold my Galaxy Nexus for $105 through Craigs List. Even with the upgrade fee and taxes, I netted $60 in the deal (assuming the $200 card comes in 4 weeks).
I never had the need to root/flash ROM's, etc., so my experience might be different from yours. But the GN3 is much, much smoother/quicker over all. The browsing experience is night and day better. Chrome works fine, and is incredibly quick. Battery Life is much better as well.
The screen size is much nicer for me, and yes the overall phone size is big, but not problematic. I use the basic TPU Case/Holster, and just put on the JLG Nano screen protector yesterday. Adds minimal size/weight, and keeps it protected and easily portable.
Radio reception remains to be determined as I haven't traveled much since getting it. Where I have been, it's been fine. Just took the OTA update yesterday, so can't yet evaluate what impact that had.
Bottom line - I am extremely pleased with this phone vs the GN I had - no regrets whatsoever (would feel the same even if I had to pay for it!).
I'm coming from the g-nex, and the N3 is far and away an incredibly, insanely superior device. Speed of the device, in general, is easily 3-4x faster, and with 3x the RAM, there's no comparison when it comes to multitasking. Features like multi-window and pen window put this phone light years ahead. Not to mention, the s pen features and technology are just amazing. This is the first time I've ever updated a device and felt like I've actually advanced 4 years in tech instead of 2.
Reception and the radios are vastly better - I haven't missed a single call yet whereas I'd miss calls pretty frequently with my gnex, and the 4G speeds are much better...but by far, most importantly, battery life is almost triple of what I could ever achieve on the gnex. I've regularly gotten 2-3 days of uptime on my N3 and can easily get 6-8 hours of screen on time. Insanity.
As for ROMs, the only reason why I installed ROMs on the nexus was to mod the nav keys, make the nav key background transparent, and a few other mods. With my N3 I feel absolutely no need to even install a ROM. Every single mod I ever wanted I've installed though xposed.
And I really though I'd hate not having nav keys (soft keys) after having them for two years, but now I actually much prefer NOT having them! The extra screen real estate is very nice, allowing full use of this huge display, and with xposed you can mod the capacitive keys, so my back key is now also my menu key when long pressed...no need for soft keys at all. Not only that, I have it so the keys are never lit so it's a very streamlined look, almost all display.
Hopefully on the Note 4, Samsung will finally ditch the physical home button and make it, too, capacitive. Then the device will look even that much more slick.
TL ; DR version: The N3 is light years ahead of the gnex in every imaginable aspect. A no-brainer; even at $300 it's WELL worth it coming from ANY previous-gen device.
All interesting. ...keep Em coming!
chefb said:
All interesting. ...keep Em coming!
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bumpity bump
I too came from a Verizon G'nex, and I pretty much agree with everything that's been said so far. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Gnex...still do, as a matter of fact, but this phone is just superior in so many ways. I used to have to use 2 batteries just to get through a single day. Nowadays, I still have two batteries, but I've gone for entire days without ever having to switch them.
As far as development goes...I bought the phone, in large part, because of its stylus, and the various apps that come with it. Seeing as flashing anything based on AOSP would mean the loss of pen window, action memo, screen write etc, I would be unlikely to flash anything other than a Touchwiz-based rom in the first place, so SafeStrap is acceptable. Ideologically, of course, I hate the idea of a locked bootloader, but in practice it's not really that bad. I've flashed Beans' rom, and it looks like that's where I'll probably stay for a good long while. It's certainly nice, though, that the only reason I wanted to flash a new rom in the first place was to remove bloatware and take care of a few aesthetic concerns...flashing roms on the G'nex was more of a survival strategy to keep the phone working than a luxury. I felt like I was changing roms every two or three weeks on the G'nex due to some sort of performance or radio issue, and there's none of that with the Note 3.
Overall...it's a lovely, lovely phone, and an improvement over the G'nex in every possible way except for, perhaps, the locked bootloader. Some may gripe with its size, but I watch a lot of videos on my phone, and the screen is amazing for media viewing. The processor is good enough to handle literally anything you throw at it, with any codec, up to 1080p. I've come to expect that MX Player with the custom codec pack will play nearly anything, but I was sore amazed to find that the native video app can play most (not all, but most) MKV files, which allows you to do cool things like floating video. I've never had the phone slow down or stutter, even with multiple parallel app downloads going (which used to KILL the G'nex), and almost everything I didn't like initially can be patched with a few quick Xposed tweaks. So yeah...if you're hesitating about switching to this phone from a G'nex...don't. You'll love it and never want to look back.
there is a sticky for this discussion here ... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2466108
So I am trying the Samsung promo for a month and have been using the device for a week now. Here is my initial thoughts- complains/kudos/rants:
1. I still freaking hate Touchwiz. Its ugly, too complex and still has a lot of bloat. I am using touchwiz after 2-3 years now and I still feel its extremely ugly.
2. Samsung has really turned it around with the hardware. It feel premium, battery life is good and screen is stunning. The camera is probably the best out there.
3. I have noticed the small bezzles on the side causes the apps to open when I dont want to use them. This gets really annoying.
4. S-pen as actually not that bad and I use it quite a bit.
5. When the phone is locked and away, I have noticed the notification don't come up right away. I have seen Whatsapp and email notifications come in really late and show up only when I opened the app. Thought it was weird.
6. The finger print unlock works great all the time.
TLDR- Someone please make a Note 5 with Stock Android running.
I had the AT&T variant for a little over a week and took it back to the store. I found that when travelling out of state no one could hear me talk until I rebooted the phone. The same thing happened when I returned home. It also has major issues with 5ghz wifi that my HTC One M7 doesn't have. There were a few other glitches that required a reboot to clear up but I don't remember what they were at this point. It was a blistering fast phone, but I need something more reliable. I feel like if I could have rooted the thing I'd have been able to fix it. Now I'm just waiting for my chance to buy the n920i 64gb model and I'll try it again.
I get black screens sometimes. No button response for a moment. anyone facing the same issue?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note5/general/note5-user-reviews-opinions-t3190343
I'll start by saying I've been a strict Nexus (and now Pixel) user for the past 8+ years. However, the "pure" Android experience has gotten a bit bland/boring to me. Yesterday I had the opportunity to play with the Galaxy S8 at my local T-Mobile store and I was absolutely blown away. That is the most gorgeous phone/screen I have ever seen. And in my short time messing with the interface, I really like the overall aesthetics of Samsung's newest take on the Android experience.
However, before I pull the trigger, I do have some questions.
1) For those who have had their S7 edge for a longer period of time, how has the experience held up as far as increased lag and decreased battery life are concerned? I know with previous iterations of Touchwiz, the lag really started to show within just a couple weeks of using the phone. In fact, my wife's S7 is unbelievably laggy (compared to my Pixel and iPhone 7), which is concerning. Only clearing all apps/rebooting the phone solves the problem but the lag comes back very quickly. Admittedly, I haven't spent the time to troubleshoot exactly where the resource hogs are with her phone.
2) Since I normally buy my Nexus/Pixel phone's unlocked, I always throw a screen protector and case on the phone right away so I can prevent scratches and preserve it for resale purposes. However, if I get the S8 I'll be doing it through Jump! On Demand through T-Mobile, which I still have but haven't made use of in quite a while. So I won't be reselling the phone and instead just turn it in. Because of this I'm seriously thinking about going with no screen protector so I can get the full experience of this unbelievable screen. However, my question for you is how well does this screen hold up to scratches over long term (6+ month) usage? Is it a scratch magnet that still requires a protector?
I should mention that I'm also still considering the LG G6. However, in my side by side comparison at the T-Mobile store, the screen on the S8 just completely blew the screen on the G6 away.
1. i've had my s7 edge for just a bit less than a year now, the particular android install that's running on my s7e for plus minus 6 months, and despite touchwiz still not being up to par with other OEM android variants, it still holds up pretty well in the performance department (samsung kinda ruined the battery life when they updated the s7 to nougat which gives me like an hour less battery life now so that's not all that great, but i'm just gonna assume and hope that they'll fix that at some point)
2. the s7's screen itself is pretty scratch resistant (mine has a load of very fine and thin scratches but honestly i only see those when the sun is reflecting on it just right, and even then i don't really pay attention to it ever), the metal border around it however absolutely loves to get scratched, not to mention the glass back which CAN crack if dropped just right. i personally recommend you to just get a samsung case which usually feel high quality and don't look like cheap chinese plastic garbage
Thanks for the input. That sucks about the battery life. Unfortunately, the battery life may still be an issue with the S8 on Nougat, according to the review I saw posted by Marques Brownlee.
I'd definitely get a case for the phone for scratch/minor drop protection.
sn0warmy said:
Thanks for the input. That sucks about the battery life. Unfortunately, the battery life may still be an issue with the S8 on Nougat, according to the review I saw posted by Marques Brownlee.
I'd definitely get a case for the phone for scratch/minor drop protection.
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I agree with the previous comment about battery life. That being said, I was blown away by the S7's battery life, going from a ~2000mAh phone to a ~3000mAh phone, and despite losing maybe an hour when updated to Nougat, it still lasts a long time and held up very well compared to its competition at the time.
Unlike the previous comment, however, after 2/3 of a year of owning this phone, maybe I'm more careful or less active than most, but I have no scratches on my device at all. That being said, I always keep it in a solid case. I haven't used a screen protector though! I would like to warn that the glass body is a total fingerprint magnet, but a case definitely helps because it means the back glass is protected.
When it comes to slowdown, I've barely noticed any of that, and it's been a far cry from the experience you say your wife has had. The speed still feels very close to when I first purchased. However, I've been eyeing the Pixel for a long time now, simply due to how much more freeing the software seems. If you're one to root your phone and install ROMs, Samsung software makes you go through hoops relative to competitors. I suppose that's because it's so damn stable anyway lol.
G-Man8776 said:
I agree with the previous comment about battery life. That being said, I was blown away by the S7's battery life, going from a ~2000mAh phone to a ~3000mAh phone, and despite losing maybe an hour when updated to Nougat, it still lasts a long time and held up very well compared to its competition at the time.
Unlike the previous comment, however, after 2/3 of a year of owning this phone, maybe I'm more careful or less active than most, but I have no scratches on my device at all. That being said, I always keep it in a solid case. I haven't used a screen protector though! I would like to warn that the glass body is a total fingerprint magnet, but a case definitely helps because it means the back glass is protected.
When it comes to slowdown, I've barely noticed any of that, and it's been a far cry from the experience you say your wife has had. The speed still feels very close to when I first purchased. However, I've been eyeing the Pixel for a long time now, simply due to how much more freeing the software seems. If you're one to root your phone and install ROMs, Samsung software makes you go through hoops relative to competitors. I suppose that's because it's so damn stable anyway lol.
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I ended up picking up an S8 from my local T-Mobile store yesterday morning. So far I absolutely love it and haven't seen any lag/stuttering when compared to my Pixel. I threw a Spigen slim case on it right away (Amazon link) and went without a screen protector. The case is thin but provides the protection I need. And going without a screen protector (for the first time in like 5 years) is liberating! I'm really enjoying just being able to appreciate the feel of the bare screen on this phone.
As for the lag on my wife's phone, I think my initial setup and usage of the S8 has helped me discover why her S7 feels so laggy. She just started using it right out of the box and I never took the time to do the initial de-bloat/tweaking to help speed it up (like disabling window animation scale and transition animation scale). I'm sure she's got a TON of useless apps constantly loading and running in the background. I'll work on her phone tonight.
I previously relied on rooting and installing custom ROMs on my Nexus phones. However, with the Pixel and Android Nougat, I never felt the need to do that. I just used the Pixel in stock form for the past 6 months. So far the S8 feels just as snappy as the Pixel did but I actually prefer the tweaked UI that Samsung implemented. After many years of using "Pure Android" phones, the stock Google experience has become quite boring. The S8 interface feels much more elegant and grown up.
sn0warmy said:
I ended up picking up an S8 from my local T-Mobile store yesterday morning. So far I absolutely love it and haven't seen any lag/stuttering when compared to my Pixel. I threw a Spigen slim case on it right away (Amazon link) and went without a screen protector. The case is thin but provides the protection I need. And going without a screen protector (for the first time in like 5 years) is liberating! I'm really enjoying just being able to appreciate the feel of the bare screen on this phone.
As for the lag on my wife's phone, I think my initial setup and usage of the S8 has helped me discover why her S7 feels so laggy. She just started using it right out of the box and I never took the time to do the initial de-bloat/tweaking to help speed it up (like disabling window animation scale and transition animation scale). I'm sure she's got a TON of useless apps constantly loading and running in the background. I'll work on her phone tonight.
I previously relied on rooting and installing custom ROMs on my Nexus phones. However, with the Pixel and Android Nougat, I never felt the need to do that. I just used the Pixel in stock form for the past 6 months. So far the S8 feels just as snappy as the Pixel did but I actually prefer the tweaked UI that Samsung implemented. After many years of using "Pure Android" phones, the stock Google experience has become quite boring. The S8 interface feels much more elegant and grown up.
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Well, that's awesome and I'm glad to hear you're loving your device! The really looks like an improved version of the S7 edge in nearly every way. One thing I just thought of that may have helped me with speed, besides debloating, is the use of custom launchers (specifically Nova Launcher) that feel sleek and snappy. I prefer Nova over TouchWiz by miles, but that's a matter of taste, and every iteration of TouchWiz seems to be better and better.
G-Man8776 said:
Well, that's awesome and I'm glad to hear you're loving your device! The really looks like an improved version of the S7 edge in nearly every way. One thing I just thought of that may have helped me with speed, besides debloating, is the use of custom launchers (specifically Nova Launcher) that feel sleek and snappy. I prefer Nova over TouchWiz by miles, but that's a matter of taste, and every iteration of TouchWiz seems to be better and better.
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:laugh: Yep, I always install Nova Launcher Prime immediately after setting my phones up. I love the customization options of that launcher and it always seems to be the fastest of any launcher I try. Using Nova Launcher is probably one of the reasons this phone feels as fast as my Pixel.
I'm also really enjoying Bixby, despite its bad press. I like being able to hit the Bixby button to quickly access necessary information. So far it's better than Google Now, in my opinion, because you can set Bixby to show you only what you want to see (Weather, Calendar and Reminders in my case). With Google Now you can try to train it but it always ends up showing me a bunch of news articles and other crap I don't care about.
CONGRATS on your purchase,
I know a lot of us have already received our devices, and some haven't. If you have received your new phone, post your first impressions. After using the device some, also post what little tricks you may have found, what you have fell in love with and what you dislike or absolutely hate. Also, what was your previous phone and are you enjoying your upgrade? I'll start by saying first impression is I love the size and screen. Real quick thing I do absolutely hate is Bixby. Tried it out a few times from the button, sucked. And the image recognition got me a little excited, but disappointed. I must also add, the face recognition is amazingly fast.
I use only FACE RECOGNITION - it is very fast, works 99% and I don't think one will steal, shoot a photo, print it... and so on.
It is the fastest and easy way to unlock the phone, I was wearing a hoodie and it worked very very well.
I am not the NSA, so face recognition is enough for me and I am happy that it is as fast as it is...
lienot
My Initial Thoughts
I received my Orchid Gray 64GB T-Mobile device yesterday around 5 PM EST. I have had a few hours to mess around with the device as a result. Here are my first impressions:
1. The screen is absolutely gorgeous. Samsung really hit it out of the park with this one. The images are clear, crisp, vibrant, and with absolutely zero pixels to the naked eye. This holds true even when the device is held close to the face. With that being said.... there are definitely some app and media content compatibility issues. Samsung tries to alleviate this with some built in cropping and optimization from the software side of things, but it just can't hide the fact that the content has quite caught up with the hardware. That is on the development community, though, and not Samsung.
2. Biometrics are the way to go when it comes to logging into and working your way through this device. The iris scanner isn't perfect, but, it is absolutely light years ahead of the tech that we had a taste of in the Note 7. The iris scanner ALMOST feels like a feature at this point, rather than a gimmick. With that being said. The fingerprint scanner is total weak sauce. This doesn't so much have anything to do with the actual location as it does the accuracy ratio of the scanner itself. I have long and thin fingers which make the placement of the fingerprint scanner a nonissue for me. To each their own. I would say that the accuracy is more a constant miss than a hit. I find myself using a combination of smart lock and the iris scanner with a pin to keep me going and it works well for me. I have not tried the facial recognition yet.
3. The device is blisteringly fast. There isn't any argument to be had here. Everything flies from web page scrolling to scrolling through the Playstore to loading apps from memory. No management issues yet that I have been able to spot. The only limitations are those of your data connection. The Snapdragon 835 is a thing of beauty.
4. The actual hardware absolutely oozes quality from the orchid color to the excess of gorilla glass and metal. The device is thin but not flimsy and big but not too heavy. Home run as per usual.
5. I am still working through battery life. I know it takes a few days for your software to settle so i'll report back at a later point with an update. Thus far, though, it is AT LEAST no worse than my Pixel XL. It might be a bit better but it is too early to tell. With that being said. The Pixel XL has faster fast charging. This sucker takes a bit to charge up. Not as long as it could take, but there is faster on the market.
6. My final point and my biggest issue with the device is primarily software. Whereas I felt that Samsung had finally reached a place of beauty with the final Marshmallow builds on the S7 Edge. The Nougat Touchwiz, or Grace, or whatever it is called these days feels like a bit of a step back. The software hasn't reached that point of optimization that the Pixel XL has nor even the level that the S7 Edge had. It feels more like the early Grace UX on the Note 7. There are scaling issues. The menus aren't always arranged in the best way. There is some scrolling jank in terms of the actual Android menus and whatnot. I feel that it probably has to do with an experience that wasn't quite optimized for such a unique screen, yet. I am hoping this will improve over time. I won't really hold it against Samsung. I mean, perhaps I am just spoiled after having been a Pixel XL user from the beginning but I won't say it necessarily works in their benefit yet, either. The S7 Edge felt polished. This experience still feels like a work in progress. Of course.....as of 420/17 we haven't even had a day one patch yet since day one is tomorrow...so......to be continued.
Feel free to ask me any questions if there is something I have missed. I feel like there is a lot I have left unstated.
EDIT: One additional thought. S7 Edge era standing wireless charging cradles are not completely compatible with the 8+ I have one and have tried it. The wireless charging cycles between connect and disconnect because the device is too tall for the cradle. The hardware inside as a result sits just at the edge of the top of the cradle and provides an inconsistent connection. This can be alleviated by sitting the device on the cradle sideways...but who wants to do that? Lol!
First impression...I no like it so much.
After playing with it all night tho, I like it. I got the 64gb s8+ and it's a lil tall but I think I'll grow into it. The fingerprint scanner that everyone is making such a huge deal about is in a great spot for me. When I go to pull it out of my pocket my finger falls right there and it's unlocked B4 I even look at the screen. The audio out of the akg headphones is great and it's even better in my car. Battery life, well, it's at 71% now and it's been on since about 7pm yesterday (10:49am now) and that's with heavy use. My only real gripe with it so far is I want to remap the bixby button to launch the camera. I think that would be perfect...Hope you guys are having fun with your new toys like I am
I've found it to be pretty snappy! I love the iris scanning, it works even with my glasses on. It is actually really easy to use one handed, with a rare supporting off hand assist.
The screen is of course impressive.
I've had 3 occasions where I needed to reboot the device because either an app refused to load. Play Store once, setting TW as my launcher (I was using Nova on my S7E so after smart switch when I pressed the home key it asked which launcher to set as default) and then trying to enable "Ok Google" where it didn't hear me. As an early adopter, I expect that there may be possible hiccups.
Not crazy about lock screen music player...Wish there were other options for that... Seems like I have to make sure I'm hitting exactly in the right spot to skip songs.
Becomes a bit of a annoyance when having to hit the button repeatedly to switch a song...
I'm currently at work and I have 4 bar signal while in the basement. My Note 7, S7, LG V20 got 2-3 or no bars. I'm extremely happy due to this. More to follow and im glad i got it.
took forever for Iris scanner to register my iris properly
Its a great phone overeall.
Fast and great looking screen. Feels really good in the hand.
I got the s8 plus and im able to access everything on the phone.
The fingerprint sensor works. I can have the phone in my right hand and press the power with my thumb and finger on the sensor.
The home key took a bit to get use to. I wasnt pushing on it like i should.
Gui/OS has some nice changes, that makes things faster or easier to do.
Bixiy isnt useful at all. Maybe once its update it will work better. But on a sids note i havent Accidentally hit the button. So thats good.
The obly complain i would have a bout the phone that some apps dont fit full screen. You can force them but then the sides get cut off.
I know its an Aspect rataio that should be fix in updates of those apps.
And ill have to test but i think the speaker is lower volume then the s7e. But not sure yet.
buttsak said:
First impression...I no like it so much.
After playing with it all night tho, I like it. I got the 64gb s8+ and it's a lil tall but I think I'll grow into it. The fingerprint scanner that everyone is making such a huge deal about is in a great spot for me. When I go to pull it out of my pocket my finger falls right there and it's unlocked B4 I even look at the screen. The audio out of the akg headphones is great and it's even better in my car. Battery life, well, it's at 71% now and it's been on since about 7pm yesterday (10:49am now) and that's with heavy use. My only real gripe with it so far is I want to remap the bixby button to launch the camera. I think that would be perfect...Hope you guys are having fun with your new toys like I am
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I haven't updated it yet, so I was stil able to use the "All in one Gesture" app that was discussed on XDA before official release.
My second day impressions are pretty much spot on with @TheAnarchist1. This is hands-down the snappiest phone I have ever used. The screen is brilliant, and this version of Touchwiz is (finally) excellent. I've seen lot of features that the other launchers have had for years. I usually install Nova immediately, but this time I'm rolling with stock. I also was able to remap the Bixby button to Google Assistant with no problem.
My only issue (so far) is with the always-on screen. I've had two pocket dials and responded to a text with gibberish while the device was in my front pocket. Clearly, that's not going to work. I'll probably have to turn it off.
Just got mine going.
Design is pretty good, however, I think personally I would have preferred they stick with the sharper corners from the Note 7 and less rounded screen like the Note 7. Basically make the Note 7 but with smaller top and bottom bezels and this screen size. This is fine though, here's to hoping for the Note 8.
Obviously the fingerprint sensor on the back. Would have been exceptional for the fingerprint sensor to be built into the screen as rumored, but I don't particularly think this placement is much worse than any other fingerprint sensor that is on the back of the phone. I've mapped fingers from both hands, and when two handed, I find my left pointer rests on the sensor so it is kinda nice in some regard. I use smart location and bluetooth device unlocks a lot, so I avoid unlocking for the most part, at home, in vehicle, running with headphones, etc... Iris scanner is very useful, most of the time, but it can be awkward. Haven't tried facial recognition.
I see SIGNIFICANT improvement to Touchwiz and now they finally get at least some customization options. I'm trying to make it work, but a couple hours in, I'm already itching to switch back to Nova launcher. Small little peeves, but overall, it finally looks good, and has enough customization that I don't think the Samsung launcher is too bad. I really wish they would stop loading messengers for Verizon and Samsung, to which Samsung's is un-disable-able. Samsung makes special customization and actions for theirs, but I still don't want to use a manufactures messenger. Google brand for me.
1. So far, I'm amazed how well the iris scanner works and it is totally a fingerprint substitution. The battery life is simply amazing imo, I'm using it to the phone quite frequently in fact I have been browsing the web and using all sorts of social media the past hour. I should say I've only dropped about 8%, I'm genuinely pleased.
2. Performance is snappy, I haven't come across "real" lag (arbitrary statement). Coming from a note 4, TouchWiz has greatly been optimized and made much smoother.
3. 4gs of ram sounds like a little in 2017 but it's holding up like a champ!
4. So far I'm just in awe how great this phone is just to hold. I was scared the s8+ would be too big, but it fits perfect in the hand and is comfortable to use.
I can update this post as time goes by, but so far I only have a few gripes and some are not of the phone itself but the software:
1. I was upset when I was forced to go from the Note 7 back to the S7 edge due to the battery issues ( Twice! ) and was upset again when the s7 did not have the option of showing your calendar events listed on the Always On screen and instead just had the full month calendar. Eventually it was updated and gained that capability, but now, the S8 is the same way! I am an attorney and always have somewhere to be or someone coming by so it was nice just to look at my phone and know what was coming up without having to unlock it to check my calendar. Not a biggie, just annoying that a new phone is without that option.
2. The screen ration thing does look annoying sometimes. You can just tell that you have this big beautiful screen but almost everytime you turn it landscape there are black bars and your apps look the exact same as on the previous phone. Like I said, this is just the software thing and hopefully apps will catch up and start utilizing the larger screen more.
Otherwise, love the screen, love the speed. Wanted to stick with TouchWiz but I have a thing about the bottom of the screen not being available and the limitations of the 5x5 setup so I went back to Solo Launcher where I can hide the notification panel and dock at the bottom which makes this big screen look even bigger! More native customization of the home screen closer to home replacements such as that is what Touchwiz has been missing for a long time.
My initial impressions on my S8+:
1. It's incredibly fast. Snappier than any Samsung phone I've ever had or would ever expect them to produce. Loading time doesn't even exist for most apps, and the various animations seem much better than their older phones - the phone's performance reminds me more of the One plus 3T than an S7.
2. Battery life is really impressive. It looks like it might have the best battery life of any phone I've ever owned, which is particularly impressive considering it's a bigger screen and a smaller battery than the S7E.
3. The fingerprint scanner placement isn't quite as bad as people would lead you to believe. I haven't accidentally touched my camera lens once. However, it is a not too high up on the phone, which leads me to only touching it with half my finger, leading to it not unlocking. If they had located the entire set up a little lower on the device, it would've been fine.
4. The S8+ is a little too tall for my liking. It's practically impossible to reach the top opposite corner when using it with one hand. Obviously, activating one handed mode is one solution, but I really hope with flagships switching to 18:9 ratios, developers start moving any and all buttons to the lower half of their apps.
First impression, absolutely fabulous phone. Why ist the small cores maximum freq disabled?
Other than AT&T sent me the wrong color (You had one job...) I LOVE the phone. Coming from a Nexus 6P this thing is INSANE.
TheAnarchist1 said:
This can be alleviated by sitting the device on the cradle sideways...but who wants to do that? Lol!
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I got a chuckle from that because someone asked me in another thread if the charger would work with the phone in landscape position. BTW, nice review.
Just set it up. My only gripe is so far is I wish Samsung used Google version of restore data. I connected it to my Pixel and it copied everything but data. I guess the app wasn't able to do it. So having to manually download all my apps sucked.
Hello Masters of Disasters
As I surf all these sites and this forum I couldn't help but notice that Samsung S7 (Edge or non Edge) is getting much more attention from dev teams. It even made it to the official ineageos.org device support list with its both version version. It's hard to find something fitting our model. I hate to break up with S6E+ but it seems to me that I would have much easier time modding, rooting, flashing, installing LineageOs with S7 than with S6E+.
What do You think boys and girls?
It would be only minor upgrade, you won't gain much, better wait price drop and buy Galaxy S8
El Solido said:
It would be only minor upgrade, you won't gain much, better wait price drop and buy Galaxy S8
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That is absolutely correct, I wouldn't gain much in performance by buying S7, the photo camera is a bit worse in daylight in S7. The menu buttons at the bottom are "melted in the screen" which is a little irritating. S8 is much more irritating because the whole area is the actual screen, no real physical buttons. That's not impressing.
I do very like the look of my S6E+ and I would like to keep my phone cause I think it's balanced perfectly in every aspect (performance, looks, screen size, real-physical buttons, awesome camera).
The only reason for the change is that I would like to have a phone that supports LineageOS or a bunch of mods that can make it free of Google's ads, non-removable aps, privacy etc. nasty violation.
Can someone help or guide me how to achieve these goals without switching to S7?
Thank You for Your Time to read my post
androidbadboy said:
That is absolutely correct, I wouldn't gain much in performance by buying S7, the photo camera is a bit worse in daylight in S7. The menu buttons at the bottom are "melted in the screen" which is a little irritating. S8 is much more irritating because the whole area is the actual screen, no real physical buttons. That's not impressing.
I do very like the look of my S6E+ and I would like to keep my phone cause I think it's balanced perfectly in every aspect (performance, looks, screen size, real-physical buttons, awesome camera).
The only reason for the change is that I would like to have a phone that supports LineageOS or a bunch of mods that can make it free of Google's ads, non-removable aps, privacy etc. nasty violation.
Can someone help or guide me how to achieve these goals without switching to S7?
Thank You for Your Time to read my post
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There is unofficial lineageos, I don't know about stability, but rom that i can recommend you is this : https://forum.xda-developers.com/note5/development/rom-n-fuel-xl1-t3609259
It's extra lite, so extremely debloated, no samsung bull****, perfect rom, also battery life is perfect.
Now about google ads, I use AdAway, it requires root ofcourse but it's perfect.
El Solido said:
There is unofficial lineageos, I don't know about stability, but rom that i can recommend you is this : https://forum.xda-developers.com/note5/development/rom-n-fuel-xl1-t3609259
It's extra lite, so extremely debloated, no samsung bull****, perfect rom, also battery life is perfect.
Now about google ads, I use AdAway, it requires root ofcourse but it's perfect.
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I have tried this ROM as well, and can confirm you'll get the best battery life possible from this ROM. No edge features though, so I left it. Lack of support on my 928t has me wanting to upgrade as well, except I won't get and s7 edge since that what I had at first (got rid of it because of locked bootloader). Looking towards an s8+, but then again I'm broke so I guess I have no option but to keep my 6
LEGONIKES said:
I have tried this ROM as well, and can confirm you'll get the best battery life possible from this ROM. No edge features though, so I left it. Lack of support on my 928t has me wanting to upgrade as well, except I won't get and s7 edge since that what I had at first (got rid of it because of locked bootloader). Looking towards an s8+, but then again I'm broke so I guess I have no option but to keep my 6
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Have you seen/touched S8, worked a bit with it.
I did.
It only does a bit better photos. It's not ergonomic hence problematic. Think twice about that.
But Note 8 on the other hand... wow that's a different story. This phone rocks even it has screen almost all over but non edgy so it saves the day.