Hey guys,
For those who follow me on Tapatalk or who followed me on YouTube at BeardTec (before I had to set the channel aside to spend more time with my family) you know I am a huge smartphone fan. I don't discriminate on OS or platform or brand and generally think every OS has its Pros and Cons. Coming back over to Android from my iPhone 7 Plus was a decision I did not take lightly as I absolutely adored my iPhone and Apple Watch combo. Sadly I am not well off enough to keep both and I really liked what Samsung did with their new flagship and so I sold my Apple devices and went all in on Sammy.
First off let me just say that the S8+ is one beautiful piece of hardware, even if the ports at the bottom don't quite line up symmetry wise. The screen is amazing, bright, colorful, and great to view in sunlight. I can't say enough about the screen and how much I enjoy looking at it in general.
The battery life for me, in 4 total days, has been very surprising. I was able to get something in the range of 3 hours of SoT on the S7 Edge on AT&T. That would usually be a day of 5am to 9pm with some music streaming with bluetooth headphones and a Gear S3 connected at all times plus some phone calls, Hangouts and text messaging and other miscellaneous things. The same day on the S8+ has been getting me a consistent 6 hours of SoT with about 20% left at night before plugging in. To me, this is on par with the iPhone and is an incredible feat for an Android phone with this much screen and power.
The software on the S8 is where is actually really shines. Little touches like the way the settings menu looks, how the icons look, the snappiness of it, the sounds, and the way the edges of the display light up when you get a notification make the experience really unique and enjoyable. I have not seen much lag, though some apps tend to take longer to open (I'm looking at you Play Music) but I have not had any crashes or app shut downs yet.
Gaming on the device is another very fun experience. The phone flies through anything in gaming with nary a framerate dip in site. I even managed to play fully through Zelda OoT on it this past weekend with a bluetooth controller which was incredibly awesome.
That is not to say the S8 is perfect. The IP 68 cert is definitely a plus, but the speaker takes a big hit. Why was Samsung not able to do what Apple was able to do an give it amazing speakers with water resistance? This is a bit baffling for me as the speaker is garbage. The camera, while mostly the same as the S7/S7E and Note 7 (can we mention that phone by name still?) is a bit better and the front facing camera is quite good. I would put the rear camera in the top 3 of smartphone cameras, right behind the Pixel XL and on par with the iPhone 7/7 Plus. The front facing camera is fun with the Snapchat like filters you can add and it takes pictures about as well as say the iPhone 5s rear camera, which is to say it takes good pics in the right light.
USB C makes it's debut on the Galaxy S series and fast charge is just as good as ever. Having a great battery with the ability to charge the phone from 0-100% in about 90 minutes is, to me, a huge selling point. Reversible chargers are a good thing and wireless charging is even better. Just set it and go if you have a compatible wireless charger and if you have a wireless fast charger then it is that much better.
Samsung also seems to be the king of "Buy our stuff and we will give you more stuff" deals. Preorder the S8? Enjoy your free VR unit with controller in 6-8 weeks. Preorder it at Target? Here, take $100 too. Get it from Best Buy? Let's just take $100 off the price of the phone. It's incredibly enticing to buy a phone, a new flagship, when it comes with all of that on top of what's in the box.
Speaking of what is in the box, it now comes with a black charging brick and cable, the AKG headphones (which are good, not great) and a micro USB to USB C adaptor and a Smart Switch adaptor, also in black. This helps with the transitions both to a new phone as well as to a new charging port if you are coming from a previous Android phone.
Last few notes:
- Call quality is finally amazing on a Samsung device. I usually had a rattling or muffled earpiece and hated talking on the Galaxy series phones. This thing sounds much better than even my iPhone. - Always on Display is a nice feature and I feel like they got it right this year.
- Themes are fun and a cool way to distinguish your device.
- Samsung Pay. It's awesome. Still.
All in all this thing is a huge win for Samsung. It comes loaded with everything you expect from Sammy, and then some. I would recommend anyone with a smartphone to take a look at the S8 if you need to upgrade. You won't be disappointed.
For those who follow me on Tapatalk or who followed me on YouTube at BeardTec (before I had to set the channel aside to spend more time with my family) you know I am a huge smartphone fan. I don't discriminate on OS or platform or brand and generally think every OS has its Pros and Cons. Coming back over to Android from my iPhone 7 Plus was a decision I did not take lightly as I absolutely adored my iPhone and Apple Watch combo. Sadly I am not well off enough to keep both and I really liked what Samsung did with their new flagship and so I sold my Apple devices and went all in on Sammy.
First off let me just say that the S8+ is one beautiful piece of hardware, even if the ports at the bottom don't quite line up symmetry wise. The screen is amazing, bright, colorful, and great to view in sunlight. I can't say enough about the screen and how much I enjoy looking at it in general.
The battery life for me, in 4 total days, has been very surprising. I was able to get something in the range of 3 hours of SoT on the S7 Edge on AT&T. That would usually be a day of 5am to 9pm with some music streaming with bluetooth headphones and a Gear S3 connected at all times plus some phone calls, Hangouts and text messaging and other miscellaneous things. The same day on the S8+ has been getting me a consistent 6 hours of SoT with about 20% left at night before plugging in. To me, this is on par with the iPhone and is an incredible feat for an Android phone with this much screen and power.
The software on the S8 is where is actually really shines. Little touches like the way the settings menu looks, how the icons look, the snappiness of it, the sounds, and the way the edges of the display light up when you get a notification make the experience really unique and enjoyable. I have not seen much lag, though some apps tend to take longer to open (I'm looking at you Play Music) but I have not had any crashes or app shut downs yet.
Gaming on the device is another very fun experience. The phone flies through anything in gaming with nary a framerate dip in site. I even managed to play fully through Zelda OoT on it this past weekend with a bluetooth controller which was incredibly awesome.
That is not to say the S8 is perfect. The IP 68 cert is definitely a plus, but the speaker takes a big hit. Why was Samsung not able to do what Apple was able to do an give it amazing speakers with water resistance? This is a bit baffling for me as the speaker is garbage. The camera, while mostly the same as the S7/S7E and Note 7 (can we mention that phone by name still?) is a bit better and the front facing camera is quite good. I would put the rear camera in the top 3 of smartphone cameras, right behind the Pixel XL and on par with the iPhone 7/7 Plus. The front facing camera is fun with the Snapchat like filters you can add and it takes pictures about as well as say the iPhone 5s rear camera, which is to say it takes good pics in the right light.
USB C makes it's debut on the Galaxy S series and fast charge is just as good as ever. Having a great battery with the ability to charge the phone from 0-100% in about 90 minutes is, to me, a huge selling point. Reversible chargers are a good thing and wireless charging is even better. Just set it and go if you have a compatible wireless charger and if you have a wireless fast charger then it is that much better.
Samsung also seems to be the king of "Buy our stuff and we will give you more stuff" deals. Preorder the S8? Enjoy your free VR unit with controller in 6-8 weeks. Preorder it at Target? Here, take $100 too. Get it from Best Buy? Let's just take $100 off the price of the phone. It's incredibly enticing to buy a phone, a new flagship, when it comes with all of that on top of what's in the box.
Speaking of what is in the box, it now comes with a black charging brick and cable, the AKG headphones (which are good, not great) and a micro USB to USB C adaptor and a Smart Switch adaptor, also in black. This helps with the transitions both to a new phone as well as to a new charging port if you are coming from a previous Android phone.
Last few notes:
- Call quality is finally amazing on a Samsung device. I usually had a rattling or muffled earpiece and hated talking on the Galaxy series phones. This thing sounds much better than even my iPhone. - Always on Display is a nice feature and I feel like they got it right this year.
- Themes are fun and a cool way to distinguish your device.
- Samsung Pay. It's awesome. Still.
All in all this thing is a huge win for Samsung. It comes loaded with everything you expect from Sammy, and then some. I would recommend anyone with a smartphone to take a look at the S8 if you need to upgrade. You won't be disappointed.
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