Ok the honeymoon period is starting to wear off....

[Amele]

The Note would work fine if I just left it as it was out of the box but maybe I am a minority but I like the tinkering. I really enjoy, even when I get momentarily frustrated at something not working like I wanted, the messing around with what it can do, how it can look, etc. It's not that I am particularly good at technology, either. But outside my family and close friends, my phone is my closest companion, and I like interacting with it. But not everybody feels like that, and that is why we have choices.

 

[Mtro]

The battery life on my 7+ was stupid great when I first got it. And it was for a while. But for several months it's been marginal at best. There has been VERY few days in the recent months that I haven't had to charge it some to finish my day. Performance dropped a little but not much. The thing that drove me crazy with ios is the slow animations. I absolutely can't stand them.

Samsung phones always start out with "amazing" battery life. 6 months later I want to see all the postings of their battery performance. One year later I I can guarantee that a 2 1/2 sot will be the norm. I'm basing this from experience owning every galaxy except the S4. They are great devices, but the battery degradation is pretty horrible. Not entirely Samsungs fault though, batteries have a fairly short life cycle to begin with. That's why non removable batteries are a bad idea. I believe they do it to assure a new upgrade is needed every 2 years.

 

[Torm558]

Well I guess we will see how samsungs battery claim is for the s8 and note 8 phones. Says they keep 95% capacity after 2 years now

 

[verks]

The new iPhone will not be all that they are saying and android is and always be more customizable than Apple. I am all Apple except for my phone love the Mac books and iPad but the iPhone sucks in my opinion.

I'm in this boat. I try to use an iPhone every year but I just don't like it. It works great but so many limitations. So many times I need to complete something the iPhone just can't do or it takes to much work to get something done. Finally, it is really a dull device to me. The notifications are awful and customization's are non existent. I really enjoy having several widgets at my disposal that don't require me to dig into an app. The info is right on my home screen. To each his own.

 

[dohlo]

Samsung phones always start out with "amazing" battery life. 6 months later I want to see all the postings of their battery performance. One year later I I can guarantee that a 2 1/2 sot will be the norm. I'm basing this from experience owning every galaxy except the S4. They are great devices, but the battery degradation is pretty horrible. Not entirely Samsungs fault though, batteries have a fairly short life cycle to begin with. That's why non removable batteries are a bad idea. I believe they do it to assure a new upgrade is needed every 2 years.

I was referring to the battery life of my iPhone, not a Samsung. The only Android phone I kept more than a year was my Note 4, I had it almost 2 years and it took about that long for the battery life to even start to drop much at all. It faired pretty well that entire time tbh.

If the Note 8 came with a replaceable battery, it would make it an even better device. But obviously Sammy wants to make money off us buying the newest versions every year

 

[Climb14er]

Samsung phones always start out with "amazing" battery life. 6 months later I want to see all the postings of their battery performance. One year later I I can guarantee that a 2 1/2 sot will be the norm. I'm basing this from experience owning every galaxy except the S4. They are great devices, but the battery degradation is pretty horrible. Not entirely Samsungs fault though, batteries have a fairly short life cycle to begin with. That's why non removable batteries are a bad idea. I believe they do it to assure a new upgrade is needed every 2 years.

But... but... but... Sammy CEO PROMISED AND GUARANTEED 95% battery life after two years. I personally and experientially think his statement is pure b.s.

Btw... I fully agree with you! The degradation has been my experience as well. I bought the Note 8 as a trade in for the Note 5... after an offer I could not refuse. I'm expecting the same warranty battery degradation issues with the 8 as I had with the 5.Unfortunately.

 

[Fr0gburp3r]

Has Apple incorporated any way to use a dark mode or theme? I just can't stand all of the white you get with iOS.

"Enable iOS 11 hidden dark mode

Open Settings on your iPhone.Head over to General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Invert Colors and turn on Smart Invert. Your eyes should thank you now.

Smart Invert, as its name suggests, is smart enough to not invert some of the image colors. For instance, the Photos app looks incredible with the dark theme: The color of the photo itself does not get inverted like it did with the old color inversion feature."

 

[Fr0gburp3r]

My use case, is head phone jack to car aux in for driving directions. With the iPhone you can not do this and charge the phone at the same time.

Sure you can. A lot of cars nowadays come with USB ports which allows you to charge and control your music without the dongle.

 

[ThrottleJohnny]

"Enable iOS 11 hidden dark mode

Open Settings on your iPhone.Head over to General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Invert Colors and turn on Smart Invert. Your eyes should thank you now.

Smart Invert, as its name suggests, is smart enough to not invert some of the image colors. For instance, the Photos app looks incredible with the dark theme: The color of the photo itself does not get inverted like it did with the old color inversion feature."

Oh wow... Thanks.

 

[ol_jackburton]

Sure you can. A lot of cars nowadays come with USB ports which allows you to charge and control your music without the dongle.

and a lot of folks (me included) do not have one of those.

 

[Torm558]

and a lot of folks (me included) do not have one of those.

Include me on that as well and I have a 2012.

 

[Faded03cobra198p]

Samsung phones always start out with "amazing" battery life. 6 months later I want to see all the postings of their battery performance. One year later I I can guarantee that a 2 1/2 sot will be the norm. I'm basing this from experience owning every galaxy except the S4. They are great devices, but the battery degradation is pretty horrible. Not entirely Samsungs fault though, batteries have a fairly short life cycle to begin with. That's why non removable batteries are a bad idea. I believe they do it to assure a new upgrade is needed every 2 years.

Thankfully I upgrade every 3 to 6 months.

 

[zipro]

I had a iPhone 7+256gb and hands down the battery was outstanding that's the biggest trade off ,no internet in returning to ios

Battery life on the 7 Plus has always been absolutely terrible for me. I rarely get more then 7 hours out of it before I have to recharge. Exchanged it twice but no improvement. Compared to that, while still not great, the Note8 is definitely better. I also like the more extensive sharing options on Android.

What I miss is iMessage (this is almost a killer for me) and iCloud integration. I use iCloud extensively on my iMac and the iPad Pro I use for work. It's not absolutely essential on a phone, but would be nice to have. I'm undecided about the iPhone X - the 256 gb version I'd have to get because 64 gigs are just not enough would cost me 1600$ here if I factor in Apple Care - that's simply bonkers. Plus no guarantee battery life will actually be better. I won't buy the iPhone 8 as the bezels are ridiculously outdated on it. Plus it still costs a thousand bucks.

 

[Doug Moffat]

I'm tapped out: $2,500 on Verizon stuff in the last 4 months. But I could give my almost new S8+ to the wife and buy the Note 8 on payments. But she refuses to give up her iPhone. My problem is the alimony. We've been married a long time and the payments are going to swamp the savings on the phone. Going to have to mull this over.

 

[o4liberty]

I am well invested in the apple eco system except for the phone which is my Note 8. They work well toghether with all the google apps on IOS so no need to pick up an iPhone plus it's nice to have both eco systems at the same time. The note 8 for me is almost a flawless device which works well day in and day out.

 

[ol_jackburton]

I'm tapped out: $2,500 on Verizon stuff in the last 4 months. But I could give my almost new S8+ to the wife and buy the Note 8 on payments. But she refuses to give up her iPhone. My problem is the alimony. We've been married a long time and the payments are going to swamp the savings on the phone. Going to have to mull this over.

maybe a second wife who would take the S8 plus

 

[ol_jackburton]

I am well invested in the apple eco system except for the phone which is my Note 8. They work well toghether with all the google apps on IOS so no need to pick up an iPhone plus it's nice to have both eco systems at the same time. The note 8 for me is almost a flawless device which works well day in and day out.

Same here with the iOS ecosystem. 3 Apple TV's, iMac home computer, 1 iPad, The other 3 family memebrs all have iPhones, over 150 + movies through iTunes, i keep an old 5s for apple TV remote and Airplay (airplay just works better than Google cast).

My last 3 phones have been samsung and so far i have been happy (including my Note 7).

 

[KupKrazy]

Exactly! People like to overblow the whole dongle thing but it's really not a big deal. Sure it's little less convenient but like you say, if you leave it attached to the headphones then there's nothing at all to worry about carrying around and losing.

I take it you guys have only one pair of earphobes/headphones that you would ever use on your iPhone. I have the 7 plus and it is annoying af. I have in ear headphones and over the air when I want noise isolation, especially when travelling. The dongle doesn't support microphone so if I receive a call, I have to take my ear/headphones off and talk with the phone agajnst my face. So, it may be "a little less convenient" for folks like you, but it via a pain in the *** for folks like us who need more flexibility than one pair of phones.

Oh, don't even get me started on when you're on a plane and you only have the lightning tipped earpods and you want to watch in flight movie...

 

[Sammuel1973]

Once they removed the ability to replace batteries I had to change my way of thinking. I basically solved my issues with battery life if a few simple steps. At work (I'm lucky enough) I have a charging station at my desk. When I'm on the go my car has a charger. When I go to sleep its on a charger. It's basically 100% most of the time.
Now when I'm out for an extended period of time, I carry a 3ft or shorter cord. I also have a simple fully charged Anker battery pack to go to if I need juice.
Sorry but when you seal the batteries on phones you get what you get. If you have an app that sucks up power uninstall it and find an alternative. And lastly your phone comes with power saver mode. Use it once in awhile.

Sadly, I am leaning returning my N8 for the reasons you have stated. I had the S6, S7, N5, N7, and now the N8. Even though I have chargers like you all over the place, including a battery pack, it's still not more convenient and efficient than a phone with a removable battery, so I am back to my N4. The N8 is far more superior than the N4, but not by much, for what I need to do on a daily basis. Moreover, I feel more comfortable knowing that I would never run out of juice. I was at the beach all day yesterday, and had to leave my N8 at home.

 

[stuckingoo]

I know there is a case with battery for the S8+ that's pretty cheap on Amazon. Wondering if those are a good solution for those with juice issues. Haven't checked if there is a Note 8 version out yet.