Is Note 8 Still A Worthy Upgrade?

[music_man185]

I still have my Galaxy S7 that I've had since launch. It was still running fairly well until it was updated to Android Oreo. Now, it is unbearable. It is so bad, that I've considered abandoning Samsung, even though I've been a longtime Samsung user. I don't think the update should have ever been pushed to the S7. My wife's S7 has suffered the same fate as mine after the update. For example, my phone's screen will frequently time out 1 to 2 times (15 seconds each) just while waiting on my phone to open my messaging app and send a text message. My battery is typically dead with an hour or less of screen time.

Anyway, I'm in need of a new phone. I've always gotten the latest flagship phone when I was ready to upgrade. However, with the current prices of flagships at $1k and continuing to rise, I can no longer justify it. According to Samsung's website, I can get the Note 8 or S9 for $20/month on Verizon, which is about as cheap as I have found for any Samsung phone released in the past year. I've never upgraded to a phone that was already a year old. I know that the Note 8 is much more powerful than my S7, but seeing how my S7 has aged makes me worried to buy a phone that is already a year old. How has the Note 8 aged and would it still be able to compete with new phones today? Reviews seem a little mixed. Some say their Note 8 still runs as fast and smooth as the day they got it. Others say they started experiencing lag and battery drain after a year. I will likely try to keep whatever phone I get for 2 years before upgrading. So how do you think the Note 8 will age when it's 3+ years old?

 

[j_hansen]

Did you try and factory reset the S7 after Oreo update?
I would say that would have it back to normal.
Note 8 does not suffer lag or anything else after a year, anyone who claims that theirs do must have fegged something else up themselves

 

[music_man185]

I haven't done a factory reset yet. I've been trying to hold off as long as I can. I've never done a hard reset and dread losing everything and starting over. I've done multiple soft resets and cleared the cache partition multiple times. I think even with a hard reset, the battery is toast

 

[methodman89]

I think I will be on the lookout for a good deal on a used note 8 once the n9 is out.

 

[music_man185]

I'm hoping the prices of the note 8 will be slashed even more when the note 9 is finally released.

 

[chanchan05]

I haven't done a factory reset yet. I've been trying to hold off as long as I can. I've never done a hard reset and dread losing everything and starting over. I've done multiple soft resets and cleared the cache partition multiple times. I think even with a hard reset, the battery is toast

I've found that a hard reset after every major update is much needed nowadays with all the customizations we do with our phones and all the cache system data we create.

 

[music_man185]

I believe all of my pictures are on my SD card. What else would I need to backup to do a hard reset?

 

[chanchan05]

I believe all of my pictures are on my SD card. What else would I need to backup to do a hard reset?

Hook it up to a PC and run the PC program for SmartSwitch to backup. It will backup nearly everything except the contents of some apps that block third party interference. So basically any app not by Samsung or Google (Google apps backs itself up to cloud so no worries there).

 

[music_man185]

Does smartswitch back up sms too? I use android messages

 

[chanchan05]

Does smartswitch back up sms too? I use android messages

The app you use for SMS doesn't matter, unless perhaps it's RCS. You'd have to check if the stock SMS app can view all your messages. Whatever the stock SMS app sees, SmartSwitch backs up.

 

[yarnsrj]

Note 8 is still an excellent phone, but if both you and the misses need new phones, look at the current BOGO deals for the Note 9. That way both of you can have brand new phones for about the same price with this buy one get one free deal. Take a look at Verizon's offers on their website.
PS. I tried to post a link but it's not looking to Verizon page.

 

[music_man185]

I saw the Note 9 bogo sale, but decided against it for a few reasons. 1. I believe it is for new line activations only. 2. My wife is petite with smaller hands and I'm almost positive that she would find the note 9 too big. We've looked at the Note 8 and the S9+ in stores. She thinks she would like having a bigger screen to view, but fears it will not fit in her pockets and take up a lot more space in her pocket book. Her S7 already sticks out of her pant pockets. 3. With the price of a single Note 9 being around $40/month, we could get a Note 8 and S9 for about the same price at $20/month each.

 

[L0n3N1nja]

As someone who owns both phones, I don't find the Note 8 to be a big upgrade in performance. Honestly the last few generations of phone all feel fluid to me and show little performance difference outside of benchmarks, but that's just my opinion on basic fluidity and smoothness of Android.

Its camera, storage, display, battery life, etc that get me to upgrade and the Note is a solid improvement in those regards.

Also I'm typing this on my S7 I've had since launch, battery is horrible from nearly 1000 recharge cycles, but over performance is still great. I don't get these lag issues your having, mines the Verizon version and it's on Oreo.

 

[music_man185]

I may try to reset my S7 tonight and see if it makes a difference in performance. I still think my battery is too far gone though. So back to the original question, do you guys think the note 8 would be a suitable phone to get now, a year after it was released, and to use for another 2+ years?

 

[music_man185]

Also, am I correct that the only bogo sales on Verizon are for new line activations?

 

[o4liberty]

Absolutely would not hesitate to purchase a note 8 works well no issues at all. I looked at the note 9 yesterday at best buy and can see any reason to update.

 

[Zulfigar]

FYI - Newegg Flash has the internetional dual Sim version of the Note 8 (Exynos 8895) in both grey and black for $599 with a $60 gift card included.

 

[methodman89]

Does smartswitch back up sms too? I use android messages

Once you sign into your account on the new phone, your provider will push from 3 months to a year depending on the carrier to your phone. Makes you wonder just how much more there saving hmmmmmm

 

[br77494]

Hope the reset helped, if you've tried it. It should have. Somebody on AC, Jerry H. comes to mind, should do a little story on this sort of thing. He's always got such good information.

 

[ChuckLIII]

Note 8 is still an excellent phone, but if both you and the misses need new phones, look at the current BOGO deals for the Note 9. That way both of you can have brand new phones for about the same price with this buy one get one free deal. Take a look at Verizon's offers on their website.
PS. I tried to post a link but it's not looking to Verizon page.

Maybe, but one of those phones needs to be on a new line. If you both already have phone numbers that you want to keep, it doesn't help that you have to pay for another phone line just to get a "free" phone. That second phone is in no way free.