Refreshingly honest review of the S8 by Forbes (link)

[Nreeldeep]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...sVMFaEp1QIBbhbFdQ&sig2=ZmE8iRLOy_DC3J6Z5bbJZg

 

[erasat]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...sVMFaEp1QIBbhbFdQ&sig2=ZmE8iRLOy_DC3J6Z5bbJZg

Sorry but this was posted in another thread already. But honest? none of the so called issues he says that he has suffered during this time seem to be shared by most if not all of the other reviews out there without mentioning the ones that matter, the real users reviews.

Samsung software is bad - that's pure preferences and opinions, for me the worst thing on an iPhone is its OS, simply hate iOS, and you read forums and reviews and people takes for granted the greatness of it, for me is old, restrictive, lack of new and innovative stuff and simply limited and boring. So there you have what an opinion really means, nothing.

For the rest, supposedly the S8 is slowed while doing an specific custom process he does, this may be true, but it may be caused by tons of other factors too, so unless we can replicate his exact process we can't say if indeed there is an issue with that or he is just nitpicking.

I use Google maps every day and I'm constantly switching between it and a bunch of other apps, all the time, never, ever I've seen an issue with it.

I'm not saying that he is just lying, he may really had all that, but like we have seen here in the forums, rogue apps can cause havoc in all phones not just Samsungs, and there are some hardware related issues with some phones, anyway, what I'm saying is that articles like this, from sites like this one that most of the times are simply anti android/samsung, have little credibility with me. With this comment at the end (For me, 60 days with the S8 is enough. The screen is brilliant but the software just irks me a bit too much here and there.) makes it clear to me that the whole article's tone was a negative one and not really an "honest" one.

 

[Kalvin Kerns]

I'm not entirely sure Forbes articles can ever be considered "honest" by any stretch of the imagination.

I agree with his FPS assessment. Anyone who's used one of these ones has to give him that, but I mean... Laggy? The S8? Really? What the heck was he doing with his phone to cause an S8 to lag?

 

[Aquila]

IMO the review and 60 day refresh are both off, for a few reasons.

1) it's Forbes.
2) he says it's overpriced. That's a value judgement, not a critique of the quality of the device. It is also untrue, because if it were overpriced, it wouldn't be selling.
3) he admits the body of the device looks like crap, but then says the only reason he's going to use it is because it is so pretty.
4) he says the software is so bad it reminds him of "a China phone" - but then says he's going to abandon the S8 for the Mate 9. The Mate 9 is a Moto Z Play competitor, not a S8 competitor. It's a high priced midranger.
5) he says that the software issues can be fixed by installing Nova launcher (he's specifying notifications, etc). This is untrue. None of the lag issues or Samsung software issues except for the launcher can be solved by using a different launcher. The phone is either good or bad and the launcher is either good or bad, but the launcher does not impact the rest of the firmware, etc. in any way, so the lag, stuttering, slow app switching, etc - that's not impacted. Notifications also are not impacted other than how you access them.
6) we can't forget #1 - Forbes has no expertise in objectively analyzing phones & tablets. This is an opinion piece but is made to look like a review of the device.

 

[eric002]

Sorry but this was posted in another thread already. But honest? none of the so called issues he says that he has suffered during this time seem to be shared by most if not all of the other reviews out there without mentioning the ones that matter, the real users reviews.

Samsung software is bad - that's pure preferences and opinions, for me the worst thing on an iPhone is its OS, simply hate iOS, and you read forums and reviews and people takes for granted the greatness of it, for me is old, restrictive, lack of new and innovative stuff and simply limited and boring. So there you have what an opinion really means, nothing.

For the rest, supposedly the S8 is slowed while doing an specific custom process he does, this may be true, but it may be caused by tons of other factors too, so unless we can replicate his exact process we can't say if indeed there is an issue with that or he is just nitpicking.

I use Google maps every day and I'm constantly switching between it and a bunch of other apps, all the time, never, ever I've seen an issue with it.

I'm not saying that he is just lying, he may really had all that, but like we have seen here in the forums, rogue apps can cause havoc in all phones not just Samsungs, and there are some hardware related issues with some phones, anyway, what I'm saying is that articles like this, from sites like this one that most of the times are simply anti android/samsung, have little credibility with me. With this comment at the end (For me, 60 days with the S8 is enough. The screen is brilliant but the software just irks me a bit too much here and there.) makes it clear to me that the whole article's tone was a negative one and not really an "honest" one.

I agree completely. Furthermore, Bixby is useless - That's true. I 'don't know anyone that uses that Samsung feature.

The Fingerprint scanner that you've got to get used to yes but it works 100% of the time flawlessly!

The Samsung Software lag time - Again, I'm guessing not too many editors bother using a package disabler to remove useless apps (debloating the phone). I've NEVER had had issue with performance, RAM, battery, etc.

The Iris Scanner sometimes working. - Admittedly, I've barely used that feature as well because I"m so used to the fingerprint scanner at this point. Also since I came from my older Nexus 6P.

Again, in regards to the Forbes' editors comments about using Google Maps and other apps simultaneously no matter where you are, I say completely wrong! I've never had an issue whatsoever, and Google Maps is my "Killer Application" I need to get around. I have a really horrible sense of direction.

 

[Aquila]

CNET, Forbes, BGR, PCMag, TrustedReviews, TechSpot, Digital Trends, etc, etc. These are not expert reviews. Most of them aren't credible at all, let alone in anything requiring expertise.

 

[dejanh]

Well, he's right about the lag. I realize that this is hard to accept for most, but this phone is not nearly as smooth as the Pixel, and definitely far, far from what you get on an iPhone. For heavy mutitaskers like myself, the phone lags regularly. There are things one can do to improve this. For starters, using Nova Launcher and some other tweaks can improve things. However, memory management on the phone is completely shot. It is much too aggressive. Apps refresh all the time and will close out completely if left in the background, even when all optimization options are disabled. To be clear, this is not a function of Android. This is purely a Samsung thing. As much can be witnessed when you try a custom kernel or use a different device. Also, Bluetooth issues have been plaguing this device for many since day one. I agree with the FPS comments as well. I too dismissed it as attrocious to start but now I feel different. No iris scanning for me so I can't comment in that but I do know that these types of technologies don't work in bright sunshine so there's that. Bixby? A waste of time and energy. No Bixby Voice means that the main feature that is supposed to make this phone stand out over the rest is a nonexistent. Overall the device is pretty good, but not great. For the record, I use a Samsung S8+.

 

[bassplayrguy]

I think the guy is off base on pretty much everything. He seemed happier telling us about all the places he travels.

 

[eric002]

I think the guy is off base on pretty much everything. He seemed happier telling us about all the places he travels.

I agree with you! i mean I will admit that the older galaxy phones prior to the S7 Edge were pretty bad from what I played with in stores and heard others say about their phones. With the Galaxy S8's, Thankfully Samsung finally dialed down Touchwiz immensely which is one of the reasons why I bought the phone. For the pure customization without Touchwiz being all over the place, and intrusive. Now, I'll admit that I disabled the bloatware on my S8 right off the bat, but I also knew that I was going to do that when i bought the phone which I'm Perfectly content with doing.

On that note, There are also a couple of OS features ofthe Pixel phones that I dislike. For example, I find ambient display inconsistent and extremely frustrating at best to use compared to AOD of Samsung.

 

[Kalvin Kerns]

Well, he's right about the lag. I realize that this is hard to accept for most, but this phone is not nearly as smooth as the Pixel, and definitely far, far from what you get on an iPhone. For heavy mutitaskers like myself, the phone lags regularly. There are things one can do to improve this. For starters, using Nova Launcher and some other tweaks can improve things. However, memory management on the phone is completely shot. It is much too aggressive. Apps refresh all the time and will close out completely if left in the background, even when all optimization options are disabled. To be clear, this is not a function of Android. This is purely a Samsung thing. As much can be witnessed when you try a custom kernel or use a different device. Also, Bluetooth issues have been plaguing this device for many since day one. I agree with the FPS comments as well. I too dismissed it as attrocious to start but now I feel different. No iris scanning for me so I can't comment in that but I do know that these types of technologies don't work in bright sunshine so there's that. Bixby? A waste of time and energy. No Bixby Voice means that the main feature that is supposed to make this phone stand out over the rest is a nonexistent. Overall the device is pretty good, but not great. For the record, I use a Samsung S8+.

Somewhat disagree.

My wife's iPhone 6 has big time lag compared to my Galaxy S6 and S8 and just feels so clunky to use. The only thing it's faster than is my old Nexus 7 (2013). Of course it's iOS vs Android and iOS is just terrible in general (except for imessage, FaceTime and texting video).

The S8 completely​ destroys the Pixel, IMO.

I've had no Bluetooth issues.

Agree that Bixby is garbage.

For the record though I do use Nova and feel it makes Samsung phones much easier to use and faster in general.

 

[eric002]

Somewhat disagree.

My wife's iPhone 6 has big time lag compared to my Galaxy S6 and S8 and just feels so clunky to use. The only thing it's faster than is my old Nexus 7 (2013). Of course it's iOS vs Android and iOS is just terrible in general (except for imessage, FaceTime and texting video).

The S8 completely​ destroys the Pixel, IMO.

I've had no Bluetooth issues.

Agree that Bixby is garbage.

For the record though I do use Nova and feel it makes Samsung phones much easier to use and faster in general.

My gf and most of her family have iPhones. They all use it for 3 reasons as why most everyone uses an iPhone.. 1. The Apple Ecosystem; Facetime, Imessage, etc. 2. They're all "used to it". 4=3. It's somewhat user friendly.

Yes, the S8 compared to the Pixel is much better. Not just the internals which any phone could theoretically have, but the overall Experience. It's a combination of Samsung's customization + AOD + niceties (one-handed mode, edge display) and Google apps, which we all know and love using everyday!

I've also had absolutely NO bluetooth issues whatsoever. Granted my older Nexus 6P was on Beta S/W from Google, but my HondaLink BT NEVER worked correctly for redirecting audio. My S8, perfect!

 

[sangs]

CNET, Forbes, BGR, PCMag, TrustedReviews, TechSpot, Digital Trends, etc, etc. These are not expert reviews. Most of them aren't credible at all, let alone in anything requiring expertise.

Not to throw water on your theory, but the majority of people that are using/buying phones are not "experts" either. That is to whom they are writing. We tend to forget around here that we are a very, very small minority of the purchasing public. Very small.

 

[eric002]

Not to throw water on your theory, but the majority of people that are using/buying phones are not "experts" either. That is to whom they are writing. We tend to forget around here that we are a very, very small minority of the purchasing public. Very small.

Yes, unfortunately very true as well. Also, most people don't care about lag times, are what kind of phone they have THey just want/need it to work correctly.

 

[sangs]

Yes, unfortunately very true as well. Also, most people don't care about lag times, are what kind of phone they have THey just want/need it to work correctly.

I wouldn't call it "unfortunate." You need some sort of mass acceptance to keep the train moving.

 

[ThrottleJohnny]

Not to throw water on your theory, but the majority of people that are using/buying phones are not "experts" either. That is to whom they are writing. We tend to forget around here that we are a very, very small minority of the purchasing public. Very small.

LOL...most of those people don't care about reviews at all. They pencil in their iPhone purchase every 2-3 years and call it a day.

Galaxy and Apple devices are basically review proof anyway. Most only watch hands on videos to preview the new "cool" features.

 

[Aquila]

Not to throw water on your theory, but the majority of people that are using/buying phones are not "experts" either. That is to whom they are writing. We tend to forget around here that we are a very, very small minority of the purchasing public. Very small.

I agree with you, I just ignore what they say myself unless it's able to be verified by someone trustworthy.

 

[eric002]

I wouldn't call it "unfortunate." You need some sort of mass acceptance to keep the train moving.

Good Point. My apologies. Not unfortunate at all, more like you said, we're the small majority of technical users.

 

[eric002]

LOL...most of those people don't care about reviews at all. They pencil in their iPhone purchase every 2-3 years and call it a day.

Galaxy and Apple devices are basically review proof anyway. Most only watch hands on videos to preview the new "cool" features.

That's true. Most people really don't care. For example, Even if their smartphones have poor/decent battery power, they'll wind up buy8ing a battery case for the phone regardless. For people like us, we fine-tune and tweak the phones' settings and perfect things. At least that's what I've always done, and will continue to do.

 

[eric002]

I agree with you, I just ignore what they say myself unless it's able to be verified by someone trustworthy.

I usually feel that if CNet says it, and multiple other credible tech blogs and Android blogs/websites are saying the SAME EXACT thing, then it's more likely to be correct, than not.