iPhone to S8 Switchers

[Doug Moffat]

Re: iPhone swichers

For a number of years I've been using Samsung and my wife whatever the current iPhone is. One thing I've noticed (and not just with her iPhone) is that she seems to encounter many more dead spots re reception--particularly in our home.

I'm no iPhone hater but have always been troubled by the problems with Apple reception. YMMV.

 

[Wbutchart]

I'm a long term iPhone user, since 3GS came out. Have also used windows mobile on occasion too. Have ordered an s8, not normally one for flag ship these days however this one looks spectacular and seems quite future proof too.

 

[bassjo]

So ever since the whole Note 7 debacle I’ve been using an iPhone. (iPhone 7+ 256gb) Last Friday I picked up a S8+ and I think it’s an awesome phone, Samsung really knocked it out of the park when it comes to the hardware design of this one, (sans FPS). I even think this years version of TouchWiz is the lightest it's ever been. However, I’ve had a horrible time finding apps comparable to the ones I’ve been using for the last 6 months on the iPhone. For instance, I use a app called “My Workout+” (It’s a companion app to My Macros +) to create, log and track my weight lifting and there’s nothing in the GP app store that even comes close and the apps I can find are so dang clunky. I’ve always been partial to Android because of it’s flexibility and in the past I’ve not had many issues with apps. (Maybe I wasn’t able to find the exact app but I could find ones that worked and didn't look horrible) I had another issue with trying to find a fuel mileage tracker… while there are many of those available.none of them would allow me to import data from my old tracker. (It was exported as . csv and not some obscure IOS file extension) Anyway, as much as I am drawn to the S8+ and will probably be to the Note 8, I’ve got to concede here and say that I’d rather have a smooth overall experience than one where I have great hardware but the apps available make that experience frustrating.

 

[Vipmediastar]

I understand iMessage benefits, in fact, my daughters and wife all have iPhones so when I change to iPhone every once in a while I use it with them but not for messaging but for the new games within the apps, but even when I have an iPhone as my daily driver, I force them to use Whatsapp, I simply created a family group on it and all the communications go through it.

I've never been an SMS guy, in fact I kind of hate it, like I said even when I can use iMessage I never use it as my regular messaging option, so one thing I'm sure, a single feature like this one, no matter how good it can be, won't dicatate which phone I'm buying, I simply can't see myself involved in a situation that I must say; iPhones bores me to death, I hate those huge bezels, the HD IPS screen are not on the same league as the QHD AMOLED screen but I can't leave them because I use iMessage, or FindMyfriends in my case. I always look for an alternative, for family, WhatsApp and even Google Duo and the new Google Location Sharing to know the whereabouts of my daughters. For the rest of friends, if they don't have WhatsApp or Duo and not want to use them, that's their problems, not mine, if they need to contact me then they must call me instead.

Just my .02...

Google came out with find my friends version via google maps. I tried it with another s8 and iphone. Works great. Heck even on the web browser I new exactly which store my friend was at the mall. I don't thing Findmyfriends was that accurate but it is very good.

 

[swarlos]

I got the S8+ when it came out and used for basically the weekend. I do this every time a new Android phone comes out and I just can't bring myself to use it cause there's too many things for me that are annoying about Android vs iOS. One thing that is huge and I kept trying to do it on the S8+ is 3D Touch on the keyboard to move the cursor (it's freaking dope and once you use it constantly and go to something else it sucks), there was just too many options in settings I mean holy crap, no mute switch sucks, the music controls on the lock screen is wack, the pink tint on the edges were all detractors for me.

The only thing that I thought was the dopest was the iris scanner.

 

[anon(1762522)]

Sorry, but partly off topic: I switched from iPhone 6s a month or so ago to Google Pixel. Samsung S7 was my second choice. It was easy to switch because I used Google apps already. Much happier than I thought I'd be with Android OS. Not dealing with iOS is like a small daily irritation has gone away, especially the phone's keyboard, iCloud photos, and trying to sync contacts between Apple and Google (I have duplicates of duplicates).

 

[luvesuga]

Every April/May I try to switch to an Android device. I didn't bond with the Pixel (too small). The S8+ was a bit awkward to hold due to the height. Before I left the store, I had issues with using the fingerprint scanner. I gave up and said I'd try again when I got home. I was able to get it set up and somewhat adjusted to the location of it, but I could never get it to work with the case that I chose.

One reason I love Samsung is because of the ability to use fonts without rooting. Unfortunately I learned that my collection of fonts that I paid to have created won't work because they aren't "official". Not a huge deal since no other phone has fonts out of the box anyway.

I didn't see the huge deal about the screen, then I realized that it wasn't set to the highest resolution by default. The infinity wallpapers were cool.

The deal breaker for me was the low quality of images sent over SMS. The compression was beyond terrible. I'm sure Textra would have worked better. I'm also not a fan of Samsung's emoji... Again easily solved with Textra.

I tried for a whole 36 hours but I never felt excited about the S8+. I went back to my iPhone 7 Plus. The S8+ will be great for a lot of people, but unfortunately it wasn't for me.

 

[Christopher Robert]

Re: iPhone swichers

Like the others I had an iPhone from 4-6s. Just got a galaxy 8+ about a week ago. The only things I miss are imessage, because the rest of the family is on it. And the emojis. I hate the Samsung emojis, but that's not a big deal.

I am having a hard time learning to type again, I was super fast and smooth on the iPhone but it's like a whole different world typing on this thing. I'm trying SwiftKey, hoping it learns how I type to help, but I'm still struggling.

Get good at swype. That is the key way faster too.

 

[offsidebowler]

The oney case people can make for the iPhone is iMessage, FaceTime and the Apple ecosystem. Google have an alternative for all three and they aren't even good reasons to begin with.

 

[Nubwy]

Re: iPhone swichers

You don't need FaceTime. Google Duo works exactly the same way as FaceTime and it's available on iOS as well. Just get your family to download the app (for free!) and Google Duo away.

Google Duo is fantastic, and works just as good. I came from an iPhone 7 Plus and I am loving the s8+

 

[NYVET]

Re: iPhone swichers

Why not use Google photos?

That's exactly why I'd never have a crApple phone...I have all my photos, documents, backups, music, videos etc on a 128Gb memory card! No iPhones or Google Pixel for me, EVER! I do have everything backed up to the Verizon cloud (150 gb) but I prefer to also have everything backed up on a memory card that is in my possession and not reliant on a network or some server somewhere! Too many people put way too much faith in online backups that you don't even have any idea where it is.

 

[Iva_LadyDiCaprio98]

I first switched to Samsung in 2014, I believe. I came from an iPhone 5 (horrible, horrible phone with horrid battery life) to a Galaxy S5 (the crappiest of the Samsung phones I owned, but still better than the iPhone 5). Then last year, I got the S7 Edge which was a great phone, and now I have the beautiful S8+; I mainly upgraded to the S8+ because of more internal storage and bigger screen. This will be the phone I keep for a while I have my S7 Edge to my mom as an early Mother's day gift. She had my dad's hand-me-down iPhone 5. So in the end, we both ended up happy. I love everything about my S8+ and I am glad to have made the jump to upgrade.

 

[Kiegi]

Any users switch from the iPhone to the S8+ and are you happy? Are you missing the ecosystem at all, or do the two ecosystems work well together.

Thanks!

 

[chidoro42]

Short answer, no, I don't know anyone who switched.

 

[Tmakedon]

Actually the S8 plus on gsm arena beats the iPhone 7 plus in talk time and video playback substantially and I have experienced the same . Hands down this phone has the best battery life I've seen on a device. Check gsm arena again before you quote it. Battery life is stellar on this thing !!

 

[donm527]

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ battery life test result is out

 

[erasat]

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ battery life test result is out

People like me that have used both, S8 and S8+ in same conditions know that a battery test result that shows the S8 superior to the S8+ Is simply wrong, there's simply no way for that, and if I remember correctly PhoneArena was the only one showing suck a thing, so I'd simply ignore that battery test at all, not because shows the iPhone 7 plus with better results but simply because of the above.

 

[swarlos]

The oney case people can make for the iPhone is iMessage, FaceTime and the Apple ecosystem. Google have an alternative for all three and they aren't even good reasons to begin with.

Yeah and those alternatives suck. Why do you think that Google made Allo and Duo to compete with iMessage and FaceTime?! They both suck! Nothing comes close to touching the Apple Ecosystem, let me know of something on Android that lets you seamlessly copy something from your phone then paste to your laptop or start an email on your tablet then finish it on your phone or have all your conversations synced between devices or answer a phone call on your laptop.

All you Fandroids say we can only make a case using those three arguments but you guys still only have the same argument as well.

If it was so lame why do Samsung and Google try so hard to replicate it but fail miserably?

 

[Wbutchart]

Yeah and those alternatives suck. Why do you think that Google made Allo and Duo to compete with iMessage and FaceTime?! They both suck! Nothing comes close to touching the Apple Ecosystem, let me know of something on Android that lets you seamlessly copy something from your phone then paste to your laptop or start an email on your tablet then finish it on your phone or have all your conversations synced between devices or answer a phone call on your laptop.

All you Fandroids say we can only make a case using those three arguments but you guys still only have the same argument as well.

If it was so lame why do Samsung and Google try so hard to replicate it but fail miserably?

Err, you are aware that the cortana app can do that kinda stuff between android and windows 10? Probably not I would imagine lol.

Whilst you sit throwing stones at others from your superior tech tower you best be aware it's crumbling...apple have lost their innovation, I think the iPhone 8 from the renders and leaks still looks dates in comparison to the s8. But let's go to the real logic fail you have displayed. You speak of the easy of copy and paste from a MacBook to an iPad etc, yeah how much have you had to pay for copy and paste lol? 1k for a MacBook and extra for the dongles? And you have a go at others whilst being conned into buying crippled hardware so you can copy and paste? Mental! I could replace my whole ecosystem of tech for what you paid for one laptop, likely twice over and it can do the same stuff.

Anyway, back on topic, clearly the threat of the s8 makes some rather sensitive.... I have ordered an s8 orchid grey, my only irritation is that it's out of stock so I have to wait! If I had ordered black I would have had it a few days ago. Looking forward to it. Things I'm looking forward to most is the display, the always on display, a led notification! (Hey I'm moving from iPhone!) the storage, edge shortcuts.

 

[sangs]

Yeah and those alternatives suck. Why do you think that Google made Allo and Duo to compete with iMessage and FaceTime?! They both suck! Nothing comes close to touching the Apple Ecosystem, let me know of something on Android that lets you seamlessly copy something from your phone then paste to your laptop or start an email on your tablet then finish it on your phone or have all your conversations synced between devices or answer a phone call on your laptop.

All you Fandroids say we can only make a case using those three arguments but you guys still only have the same argument as well.

If it was so lame why do Samsung and Google try so hard to replicate it but fail miserably?

No need to get nasty swarlos. It's been a pretty civil discussion so far. Yes, I agree with you about Allo and Duo, they aren't remotely comparable to iMessage. As for the battery tests that everybody enjoys citing, they couldn't be more useless. Because to date, I've yet to run into anybody that uses their phone in a lab-controlled manner, where all the variables are constant. Click-bait, designed with stupid tests and meaningless results.