Galaxy S8/S8 Plus Pros and Cons

[VW Maverick]

Per some suggestions, we wanted to have a place to list your personal Pros & Cons of a device.
List your goods and bads as you see it.
Please do not start a discussion, just list your likes and dislikes for the S8 & S8 Plus.

Please do the following:
1. Keep posts to a listing of pros and cons.
2. You may list as many of either as you like.
3. If you would like, you may add an overall purchase suggestion.

I'll start:

Device: S8 Plus

Pros:
Great battery life.
Edge/Infinity screen is fantastic.
No physical home button.
Great Samsung fonts and theme options.
AOD.
Gear VR.
Samsung Pay.
64 GB.
Micro SD.

Cons:
Locked bootloader.
UI.
Fingerprint sensor in odd place.
Biometrics.
Fragile.
Unable to use screen protectors.

Recommend? YES!!

Mav.

 

[anon(238680)]

Re: Galaxy S8 & S8 Plus Pros & Cons

S8+:

Pros:
Great battery life.
Fast
Edge/Infinity screen is nice
No physical home button.
AOD.
64 GB.
Micro SD.
Very accessible FPS with either hand. Really like direct access to home screen.
Has excellent screen shields and cases available

Cons:
Way too much work to get notifications to work...too many settings in too many places.
Fragile.
Turns on in pocket (may have solved this)

 

[sweetypie31]

Device: S8 Plus

Pros:
Great battery life
AOD
Samsung Pay
64 GB
Micro SD

Cons:
The only con for me so far is not being able to find a decent glass screen protector. I have the zagg curved glass on now, but I've already had to replace it because I dropped my phone and the protector popped off. If this second one comes off I'll either go without one or try the HD contour from bodyguardz. It's not glass but it worked really well on my s 7 edge with my otterbox case.

I forgot to put that the charging cord for the wall charger stopped working after a week for fast charging. I have to keep plugging and unplugging my phone to get the fast charging to work. I use a non Samsung cord and Samsung fast charger brick with the USB c adapter at work with no problem.

 

[VW Maverick]

Who else wants to give us their lists???

Mav.

 

[Qc_Anubis]

Device : S8+

Pros :
-Excellent battery life
-64Gb (even though i don't need that much ahah)
-Aod
-edge lighting
-Screen (aspect ratio does screw this a bit)
-Screen size

Cons:
-the aspect ratio (no need for hdr or any of these in my usage)
-bixby
-no more removable battery
-Pricing
-Samsung bloatware that can't be disabled still
-edges make this a bit more fragile than i'd like


To those hesitating on which version to get try both in stores i choose the + as it was about the same size as my old note 4 but not every hand is created equally

Nb: i know i listed pricing as a con but it's mostly for it's "full price" got mine at a pretty good discount with a contract imo
Nb2 : i'm canadian so..... things may differ in the u.s alot (i don't have any bloatware on mine for one)

 

[rtwright68]

Considered waiting for the Note8, but when I went to check out the phone, I didn't think the lack of pen would be an issue for me personally.

Pros:
Beautiful design (love the near zero bezels, makes my iPhone 6S+ that I use for work look like an antique)
Great battery life so far
AOD, really missed that after I returned my Note7 and temporary 7Edge
No physical home button (yes I know the iPhone 7 and "8" will have that feature)
Edges are more refined compared to the 7Edge (hated that phone)
Amazing screen. I'm only running it in FHD+ (honestly can't tell the difference between that and WQHD+)
Better implementation of the Touchwiz skin (although I have loaded Nova like I have used for a long time)
Some Note7 functions (image capture, text recognition, etc)
64GB storage & MicroSD (I'm using the 256GB card I received with the Note7 purchase)

Cons:
Could be very fragile. Bought a Tech21 case but invested in a UAG case for additional protection.
I didn't buy an unlocked phone (AT&T variant). So, I'm concerned about timely updates.
Screen protector as others have mentioned. Really want to get one, but am not convinced there are any good ones.

Amazing phone. I actually picked up the "49.95 Gear S3" promo from AT&T. Amazing device as well. I have stopped wearing my Apple Watch as a result and have been flying with the S8+/Gear3 combo.

Very much considering making my S8+ my main driver for personal and for work and ditching the iPhone. Main challenge would be iMessage because the rest of my family are on iOS (I do still have an iPad though). Sorry, kind of off topic.

 

[bembol]

Pros

+ Design that led me back to using it naked when not at work. So amazing in the hands.

+ SAMSUNG pay. Finally.

+ SAMSUNG promotions. Not just with the S8 but going back to Note 5, S7 & Note 8.

Cons

- Iris Scanner. For whatever reason I can't get it to work with my prescription glasses.


Battery, Performance and Storage are pretty much standard here. No complaints.


Amazing job not since the Note 2 that I bought two of the same. I love it so much I got the S8+ & S8.

 

[uncreativeartist]

Galaxy S8+ on Sprint

Pros:

• Sexy Design, the only phone that I want to not use a case with.
• Battery life has been great.
• I don't know what it is called but the phone sees when you put it into do not disturb mode or something similar and will set up an alarm or whatever for you.
• Beautiful screen
• Finger Print Scanner, nice to bring down the notifications bar with one hand.
• Camera is awesome
• Edge Screen
• Swipe up for apps
• AOD
• Sexy design
• There is so much more but my mind is not working as usual.

Cons:

• Bixby button is the most sensitive thing on the phone
• Can't get edge lighting to work properly
• Fragile

Did I mention this phone has a sexy design and fun to use and I have only just begun to scratch the surface. The beautiful design makes it very fragile. Even dropped on a high traffic carpet I got a crack in one of the corners. I also had a cheap phone case. I so want to take this phone out of it's case and use it but I am now afraid to do it even on the carpeted floors in my apartment.

The camera is one of my favorite things. I do not take a lot of pictures just cause I am horrible with a camera. With this camera I actually take ok pictures. It's odd because now I look for things to take pictures of where I never did before. I don't mess with any settings and just leave it on auto. Even I can't get a picture to come out blurry, which is typical for me.

I wish I could get the Edge Lighting to work properly. It only works while I'm using the phone and not when the phone is in AOD mode. I also love the customization you have on this phone just through Samsung themes. You do not get this level of design, functionality and customization with any other phone even if you root them.

Awesome job Samsung! You gave us a phone we wanted and need. This phone would be made only better if I could get some Gear products to go with it.

 

[bassplayrguy]

Pros:

Iris scanner
FPS, I even like the location
Display, all aspects of it, even ratio
Smooth and fast
Wifi range
Ergonomics
All glass!
Pocketability for a large screen phone
Edge screen
Split screen improvements
Ability to customize themes and icons with out 3rd party launchers
Touchwiz slimmed down
Bixby!
Battery Life

Cons:

Picture review not using full screen when taking pictures
Not all apps are optimized for this ratio although this has nothing to do with the phone
Slimmed down edge lighting so there are not more colors like with the s7 edge
Facial recognition totally quit working for me

This phone is fantastic overall. Wouldn't even consider moving to anything else.

 

[o4liberty]

Lack of good screen protection

 

[kevinpleasants]

Lack of good screen protection

Try the Olixar Tempered Glass. I've been using mine with a Speigen case for 3 weeks now. It has not come off and the phone functionality hasn't been affected. Take your time installing it.

 

[flyingkytez]

Pros:

Stellar camera, including the front selfie camera
New features such as fun built-in live filters, iris scanner, and upcoming Bixby assistant
Beautiful design, no manufacture has dared to go this far
Great battery performance
Beautiful Super AMLOED screen, huge screen size
Easier to use one-handed thanks to new aspect ratio
Samsung Pay
Samsung Health App is very good if you haven't tried it

Cons:

Curved design makes it difficult to install cases and screen protectors
Bezelless design makes it difficult to hold comfortably
Bad fingerprint scanner placement
Iris scanner not very secure after all (can be tricked with photo)
Aspect ratio can get annoying when watching YouTube (annoying black borders)
Screen doesn't actually feel that large (screen is much more narrow than typical phablets
Fragile, all glass design
No removable battery (been gone since Galaxy S5)
TouchWiz OS doesn't feel as buttery smooth as pure Android or other OS
Ugly icons

The only reason why I would pick the Samsung is for the camera and reliability. I currently have the V20 and S8 Plus. The V20 is my daily driver. My personal recommendation: wait for the S8 ACTIVE or get the older S7 Edge (not too different than S8 Plus).

 

[novice]

PROS
--Edge Panel
--Waterproofing
--Infinity Screen
--Fantastico Battery
--AOD

CONS
--Nonremovable Battery
--Beta Iris Scanner
--Indifferent Speakers
--General Fragility

 

[novice]

Most gorgeous phone ever--far superior to comparable Apple models but the price is a nonremovable battery. I, personally, prefer the battery option.

 

[anon(7901790)]

Pros:

Iris Scanner - Really fast

Finger Print Scanner - Really fast, placement is actually pretty decent.

microSD up to 256GB - I now have my ENTIRE music collection on one portable device

Screen - It's just freakin' awesome

Call quality - I'm on Verizon and I get excellent call quality and service

Battery life - Pretty good. Not quite as good as my old iPhone 6s Plus. I've had to charge it a couple times while camping, where as I only had to charge my 6s Plus only once.

Camera - One of the best cameras I've used in a while. Handily beats my old iPhone. I love the Pro feature which allows me to do RAW capture

Video - Excellent video quality.

USB-C - 'Nuff said on that

Wireless charging

And now for the cons.

Lack of good screen protectors, although this is more of a screen protector maker problem than Samsung's.

When in pro mode, the camera won't save to the microSD card, which is annoying.

The Bixby button is an annoyance. Bixby itself is not to bad though, it is still a work in progress. Siri, Google Assistant, and Cortana all have their growing pains.

Samsung built a lot of new tech into this phone. With firmware/OS/driver updates, it actually can grow in capabilities. For example not just having a "force touch" on the home button, but adding a 3D type touch where it does something different with different levels of pressure.

 

[doohsun]

Pros:
- feels solid
- great design
- fast
- water proofing
- great battery life ( i get 2 full days before i charge )
- loved the screen
- Feels good with one hand use
- camera is good and fast
- AOD


Cons:
- wish they just give us 6gb of ram
- dual camera
- like others hard to find a tempered glass that works (but i have solid case along with liquid nano on my screen)
- wireless charging hit and miss (ended up selling my samsung fast charger that was designed for S7/note7)

 

[Cobravision]

Pros:

Iris scanner

Sleek, all black design

Size and shape make it easy to use one handed

Remappable buttons

Cons:

Fingerprint scanner placement is the worst

No camera improvements or features

WiFi is weaker than S7 Edge

 

[rushmore]

Pros:

Speed
Battery life
Display scaling
Display quality
3.5 jack (sound quality very good as well)
FM radio works
Display ratio is great for emulators (moves touch controls out of way more)
Fits hand well

Cons

Crack magnet design
Curved corners (reminds me of a CRT monitor)
Curved sides distort content
No stereo speakers
The chipset throttles too much even at lower temps (very apparent with Dolphin emulator)- Would be nice if part of power saving options.

Overall though rocking device, but would MUCH prefer a flat display with no curved corners, but compromise the one hand use a tad.

 

[Doug Moffat]

As I have noted elsewhere a number of times if screen protection is a top priority consider folio/wallet leather case.

 

[shadowsjc]

Galaxy S8 unlocked

Pros:

Beautiful aesthetics (thin, slim bezels)
water resistant


Cons:

FINGERPRINT SCANNER is horrible (terrible location and finicky to use)

Honestly, if they would have put the scanner towards the bottom of the phone and far away from the camera, this would have been the perfect phone....