S8- Superior phone with an inferior platform

[Sam Palm]

Having just migrated from Iphone to Samsung and been having hell for the last month despite my IT background, I can't help but feel bad for all those who are not technical enough to even understand the complexity!

I am so happy with the Samsung S8 as a phone, but Andriod, no but not thanks. If somebody has a simple requirement for a phone, like people used to 20 years back, then it is ok, otherwise, as an integrated platform, it leave a lot to be desired. It feels like stepping back in time.

1st and foremost, I will need many different apps to achieve what I can do with the standard apps of the iphone. My requirements are not much different from most of the users. Keep appointments on MAC, Ipad, and Samsung phone, to do lists, notes, calendar, contacts, mail from different sources and so on. It is hell to setup email to work with any me.com account. I had to migrate all my apps from apple and get individual apps, that are not even standard or ad free to just do the same simple thing that I can do with apple free and painless. I am surprised Google, a company I like and respect has allowed their platform to fall so much behind and think that by providing pictures and contacts synchronisation, their job is done. I wasted more than 48 hours of my time all together to get back where I was, only ten years back!

The user interface leaves a lot to be desired. So many buttons to press to do simple things like delete a damn sms needs 3 buttons to press. Not sure who is the genius who created this. Everything else is the same. Press here and press there for nothing.

You might wonder, why did I switch from iphone if I was happy and using it since inception. Apple simple stopped innovating and iphone 6 is like 6s, 7, 7s, and 8. That is 5 years of lack of imagination and they finally came up with something, they come up with a Samsung S8, only twice the price! The iphone X is the reason I switched away from Apple. Such a stupid move from Apple to present the next generation as their competitors previous generation and expect people to pay double for it. They should've dumped the iphone 8 and introduced the iphone X with the price bracket of the iphone 8. I am sure many other users like me will be moving and I am sure if someone create a solid cloud platform that includes all the apps on all platforms, they will do well.

 

[Almeuit]

Having just migrated from Iphone to Samsung and been having hell for the last month despite my IT background, I can't help but feel bad for all those who are not technical enough to even understand the complexity!

I am so happy with the Samsung S8 as a phone, but Andriod, no but not thanks. If somebody has a simple requirement for a phone, like people used to 20 years back, then it is ok, otherwise, as an integrated platform, it leave a lot to be desired. It feels like stepping back in time.

1st and foremost, I will need many different apps to achieve what I can do with the standard apps of the iphone. My requirements are not much different from most of the users. Keep appointments on MAC, Ipad, and Samsung phone, to do lists, notes, calendar, contacts, mail from different sources and so on. It is hell to setup email to work with any me.com account. I had to migrate all my apps from apple and get individual apps, that are not even standard or ad free to just do the same simple thing that I can do with apple free and painless. I am surprised Google, a company I like and respect has allowed their platform to fall so much behind and think that by providing pictures and contacts synchronisation, their job is done. I wasted more than 48 hours of my time all together to get back where I was, only ten years back!

The user interface leaves a lot to be desired. So many buttons to press to do simple things like delete a damn sms needs 3 buttons to press. Not sure who is the genius who created this. Everything else is the same. Press here and press there for nothing.

You might wonder, why did I switch from iphone if I was happy and using it since inception. Apple simple stopped innovating and iphone 6 is like 6s, 7, 7s, and 8. That is 5 years of lack of imagination and they finally came up with something, they come up with a Samsung S8, only twice the price! The iphone X is the reason I switched away from Apple. Such a stupid move from Apple to present the next generation as their competitors previous generation and expect people to pay double for it. They should've dumped the iphone 8 and introduced the iphone X with the price bracket of the iphone 8. I am sure many other users like me will be moving and I am sure if someone create a solid cloud platform that includes all the apps on all platforms, they will do well.

You're using Samsung's version of Android so yes .. you will see duplicate apps. Thank Samsung for that .

 

[Gayle Lynn]

You fall into the Google Pixel or Essential One group. "Pure" Android.

Google still doesn't have the goods though on both hardware and software, steep learning curve.

Some "pull the guts out" and disable as much Samsung (bloat) as possible.

But you have choice. Over default app and whether you want Safari etc or not.
The X is as small as the S8. While the Note appears to be in line with X Plus maybe - have to wait for Sept 2018, by which time the Note 9 will be coming out.

I got bored of iOS along with their half-baked iOS 11 patches (a pattern that goes back to 2002 and OS X 10.2). Or that I am pushed into 11 even though my 6S Plus would be happy with 10.3.3 and some security updates. And maybe by 11.9 they've gotten it right.

I sure was hoping my SE/30 with 64MB of memory would see me through for 30 years.

 

[Rufinoman]

It's not much of a jump from iOS to Android, especially Nougat. Both are very intuitive, but at least with Android you have much more flexibility, unlike iOS which is locked down.
Try another launcher like Nova or Arrow and you may get a new perspective and it's why I moved back to Android after only 9 months with an iPhone 6S, which I considered dull in the extreme.

 

[doggy2965]

I have a galaxy 8+ personal and iPhone 7s for work. I barely consider my iphone a smartphone because you must do it all apples way with a android I can use any messaging, Email and calendar app I choose. No comparison between the 2.

 

[Tim1954]

Mrs Tim has iThings, I have the S8 and I'll prefer the infinitely tweakable Samsung over her iPhone any day.
I don't use any of those organising things and only have two emails so my needs are not the same as yours.
In any case, the answer is simple. Go back to Apple. Easy as. It would be a boring world if we all liked the same things huh..

 

[Dooki]

let's start with the simple things.
deleting text messages.
using Google messages if I hold it down it gives me options, copy download, ect, and delete. if I choose delete it asks me again to confirm because it is unrecoverable. Three steps, yes, but not in a cumbersom way. with dozens of messengers to choose from there are a few that will allow you to do it in one step.

as for the email. there are a lot of great apps, Google inbox (not Gmail), aqua mail, k9 outlook and others. I'm guessing most will integrate with a .me account. I have no experience with that type as I refuse to use any Apple apps after I came across how they deal with drm and wanted to burn down every Apple genius bar I could find.

could you be more specific about what you need in a planner, calendar, contacts and such. you might try Microsoft apps, they have a great launcher and a good suite of apps. Google also integrates well, if you let the dark side consume you.

Don't rely on Samsung's stock apps to do the job, they are to basic and often are missing key simple features.

 

[Ziich47]

Having just migrated from Iphone to Samsung and been having hell for the last month despite my IT background, I can't help but feel bad for all those who are not technical enough to even understand the complexity!

I am so happy with the Samsung S8 as a phone, but Andriod, no but not thanks. If somebody has a simple requirement for a phone, like people used to 20 years back, then it is ok, otherwise, as an integrated platform, it leave a lot to be desired. It feels like stepping back in time.

1st and foremost, I will need many different apps to achieve what I can do with the standard apps of the iphone. My requirements are not much different from most of the users. Keep appointments on MAC, Ipad, and Samsung phone, to do lists, notes, calendar, contacts, mail from different sources and so on. It is hell to setup email to work with any me.com account. I had to migrate all my apps from apple and get individual apps, that are not even standard or ad free to just do the same simple thing that I can do with apple free and painless. I am surprised Google, a company I like and respect has allowed their platform to fall so much behind and think that by providing pictures and contacts synchronisation, their job is done. I wasted more than 48 hours of my time all together to get back where I was, only ten years back!

The user interface leaves a lot to be desired. So many buttons to press to do simple things like delete a damn sms needs 3 buttons to press. Not sure who is the genius who created this. Everything else is the same. Press here and press there for nothing.

You might wonder, why did I switch from iphone if I was happy and using it since inception. Apple simple stopped innovating and iphone 6 is like 6s, 7, 7s, and 8. That is 5 years of lack of imagination and they finally came up with something, they come up with a Samsung S8, only twice the price! The iphone X is the reason I switched away from Apple. Such a stupid move from Apple to present the next generation as their competitors previous generation and expect people to pay double for it. They should've dumped the iphone 8 and introduced the iphone X with the price bracket of the iphone 8. I am sure many other users like me will be moving and I am sure if someone create a solid cloud platform that includes all the apps on all platforms, they will do well.

It sucks to hear that your first experience with android is going so poorly. I personally have also use macs ipad and android. So maybe i can help out a bit.
I use the Gmail app for all my email including my me.com acct. For my calendar i use Google calendar which can sync on both platforms.