S8 / S8+ First Impressions Thread

[Byoung23]

I felt the same way about the swipe to get to the iris scan, didn't even occur to me to check if I could disable that! I would have found it sooner or later as I'm obviously still exploring, but thanks for piquing my interest. Now one of the two VERY minor gripes I had is eliminated.

 

[anon(5630457)]

I purchased the orchid gray S8+ today on Verizon and I must say, it has greatly exceeded my expectations. The FPS location isn't all that terrible; the facial recognition is really fast; and I see Samsung refined the iris scanner from the Note 7. It's no longer slow nor do I have to swipe up on the screen to get it to work!

 

[cardboard60]

I was on at&t.
Changed to S8+ today for myself.
It don't have any Verizon logo on back.
It is a model 955u
Made in Vietnam on 4-5-2017
64gb phone.

Traded in my note 5 , got 396.00 on the program.
Traded in a S6 for the 2nd line. Got another 396.00.
Made me go on a 24 month payment plan.
I'm a happy camper.

 

[thecaringkind]

Ok. I have the S8. Orchid Gray. Beautiful color BTW. The phone looks great at just about any angle. It's thin and light and to quote Flossy Carter, feels good in the hand...ladies you know the procedures For the first time EVER Samsung's stock launcher is...just fine. It works. I'm usually a Nova launcher man but the new Sammy minimalism approach is quite capable.

The camera is GREAT, the screen is GREAT, excellent sharpness and clarity and the curved edges are subtle.

The speed and overall snappiness are notable. It's smooth and fast and feels like what iPhone's always feel like, a device that just WORKS.

SO FAR battery life has looked really good, however I am not a power gig in general and I never really was a big fan of the AOD and other power sipping features.

Overall this is an excellent phone top to bottom. The fingerprint sensor placement is not good but the sensor itself works just fine. The biometrics can be a little quirky but they are welcome features. By and large Samsung got it right. It's an almost future proof phone that should get better with time.

 

[cardboard60]

I got our phones setup so when the phones are off.
We put our index finger on the back of the fingerprint sensor.
The phone unlocks and comes on at the same time.

It's fast.
I was looking at a pixel for me.
But with the wife on the Samsung, decided to just stay with it.

 

[mhettrich]

A little late to the party here, but the S8+ may well be the best phone I've ever used. I love it so far. The only thing I'm still trying to get used to is the location of the fingerprint scanner, but I'm starting to adjust and putting a case on really helped.

 

[ChromeShark]

Upgraded from Nexus 6 to S8+, despite the bigger screen the phone feels much smaller and easier to hold. At first I thought I'd been sent the regular S8 by mistake

Night and day difference in performance. I forget I have games running in the background because there's no lag whatsoever. Battery is way better than the Nexus, easily lasts the day.

Not getting on with the biosecurity, gone back to pattern unlock which is just fine by me.

Samsung UX is actually pretty nice for the most part. Only thing I miss from the Nexus is lock screen widgets which let me stick my favourite clock there.

Noticed a few weird software quirks that will take a while to get used to, like how you can't​ switch from silent to vibrate using the volume rocker. Bixby button is a pain, wish I could remap it.

Overall I still feel that Nexus/Pixel software edges it but Samsung could improve with updates. The small annoyances don't detract from the brilliant hardware, which feels years ahead of any other device I've tried.

 

[amyf27]

I was on at&t.
Changed to S8+ today for myself.
It don't have any Verizon logo on back.
It is a model 955u
Made in Vietnam on 4-5-2017
64gb phone.

Traded in my note 5 , got 396.00 on the program.
Traded in a S6 for the 2nd line. Got another 396.00.
Made me go on a 24 month payment plan.
I'm a happy camper.

Wish I'd get that much that's a great trade in. Assuming it's your carriers trade in special for going to the S8 lineup

 

[jamezr]

I am so impressed by this phone. More than I thought I would be. It is so feature and design rich. Samsung has a real winner in the S8+. The battery has been impressive as I am getting right around 6 hours SOT and have 20% battery left at the end of my day so can't complain there! The phone is very responsive with no lag at all....Samsung has really improved the whole user experience except for that dang FPS.

Most of you can remember how I have not been a fan of the curved displays. But on the S8+ i really don't notice it at all. I have not had any false touches so far.

If there was 2 things I could change on the S8+ .....
I would move the FPS to below the camera and make it round and make the phone just a little bit wider...but not by much.
Taking a little 4x4 trip to the mountains later so will take some pics.....

 

[kav48382]

I got my S8+ in the Verizon store yesterday. Everything was perfect. The only thing I've noticed was the display problem on S8 and S8+. The models on display stand. Two weeks ago when I came first time to see them they were fine but yesterday the displays on both were with some artifacts (slightly burned/over-colored area) where probably static image was displayed. It looks like visible browned square at the left upper corner that takes about 40% of the screen. Later I've seen the image that could produce that result. Have anybody seen this in a store? I have attached two images of S8 and S8+ with this problem but it hard to see on the images and very annoying on phones.

 

[EMGSM]

I am so impressed by this phone. More than I thought I would be. It is so feature and design rich. Samsung has a real winner in the S8+. The battery has been impressive as I am getting right around 6 hours SOT and have 20% battery left at the end of my day so can't complain there! The phone is very responsive with no lag at all....Samsung has really improved the whole user experience except for that dang FPS.

Most of you can remember how I have not been a fan of the curved displays. But on the S8+ i really don't notice it at all. I have not had any false touches so far.

If there was 2 things I could change on the S8+ .....
I would move the FPS to below the camera and make it round and make the phone just a little bit wider...but not by much.
Taking a little 4x4 trip to the mountains later so will take some pics.....

Yep you nailed it. Those are my only 2 gripes. Not really a big deal for me though.

 

[Mark8768]

After 2 days update... Just a solid device. A lot like my note 7 and I really love it. Only drawback so far is finding a screen protector that works on an otterbox defender. If anyone has a solution please let me know.

The phone it's self...rock solid.

 

[sillehrabbitz]

GBoard is my go to keyboard that is for sure. First thing I did was switch keyboards!!

I wasn't going to buy the S8 (I mean I have an S7), but I caved at the last minute. I never switched to Next and I took advantage of pre ordering it at BB the day before to get a lower rate per month. I like it a lot more than my S7 so far. The Orchid grey color is so pretty! I really miss having a white phone though. I wonder why Samsung doesn't make those anymore. The look just feels a lot more cleaner. I like having more screen. It reminds me of how much screen I had back when I had the Samsung Note 4 except it feels so much smaller and not as bulky and bothersome. It was a little weird not having a home button though. Funny thing..I pressed where my home button used to be on my S7 when I woke up half asleep and it turned on my phone. Pretty neat!

SO far it is a def. WIN in my books.

 

[m3lover1]

Wow...cars come with wireless phone charging now? Do you have a picture of this?

Yep. Chevy has them in their cars, not sure if all of them though. My uncle has the Yukon Denali and the center armrest at the front has the wireless charging pad.

One of my gripes is an old Samsung one, the inability to not select an app for default usage. Main example for my case is browser. I use link bubble a lot, I like browsing Twitter or some other app, and I open links in link bubble to view later. But it doesn't mean I want that as default, as sometimes I do want to click on a link and read it in chrome. But with Samsung, once I click link bubble the first time, it'll make that the default app for handling web links, and now if I want to read a page in an actual browser instead of link bubble I will have to open it in link bubble and click open in browser, an extra step.

Why not be like the rest and offer to either default it or use that app for this particular time?

 

[HMBgal]

Upgraded from VZ S6E to S8 and love this phone. Unicorn Beetle case fits well.

Only major issue thus far is that my AW 2.0 watch won't connect properly. It keeps seeming to pair, but AW constantly says "Trying to Connect", and the notifications to the watch are very inconsistent. Something's very wrong with that. I do not know if this is a S8 thing or a general Nougat thing, because I came from the S6E and that was Marshmallow (and worked fine right to the point I shut it down).

Otherwise, it's absolutely a beautiful phone and a definite keeper!

-AJ

My Gear s2 classic wouldn't connect either. I had to do a factory reset on my watch, which didn't make me too happy, but it connected immediately after that.

 

[amyf27]

My Gear s2 classic wouldn't connect either. I had to do a factory reset on my watch, which didn't make me too happy, but it connected immediately after that.

Pretty sure you have to do that every time you connect to a new phone . I'm settings on the phone it says "connect to new phone and will reset. I've got the Gear S2 and it pairs nicely

 

[jma78b]

My Gear s2 classic wouldn't connect either. I had to do a factory reset on my watch, which didn't make me too happy, but it connected immediately after that.

I had to do that too! No biggie really. Bluetooth connected well with the car and the Bose wireless headset. Have downloaded all my apps, music and photos. Had to buy a new clear case for it. The one I had preordered looked awful on the phone. Also thought I had bought a tempered glass screen saver but what they sent me was plastic! Will be having words! I have the Galaxy S8 in Orchid Gray. Previous phone was the S7. Still got lots to learn about it and hope I use most of the features.

 

[EMGSM]

My Gear s2 classic wouldn't connect either. I had to do a factory reset on my watch, which didn't make me too happy, but it connected immediately after that.

I basically had the same issue with my gear fit 2. I hate when I have to do a reset. Especially cause I lose Samsung Health data.

 

[erasat]

Yep. Chevy has them in their cars, not sure if all of them though. My uncle has the Yukon Denali and the center armrest at the front has the wireless charging pad.

One of my gripes is an old Samsung one, the inability to not select an app for default usage. Main example for my case is browser. I use link bubble a lot, I like browsing Twitter or some other app, and I open links in link bubble to view later. But it doesn't mean I want that as default, as sometimes I do want to click on a link and read it in chrome. But with Samsung, once I click link bubble the first time, it'll make that the default app for handling web links, and now if I want to read a page in an actual browser instead of link bubble I will have to open it in link bubble and click open in browser, an extra step.

Why not be like the rest and offer to either default it or use that app for this particular time?

Just go to settings-Apps-3Dots at the top-Default Apps and change the Default App Selection to Ask before setting default apps.

 

[cardboard60]

After 2 days update... Just a solid device. A lot like my note 7 and I really love it. Only drawback so far is finding a screen protector that works on an otterbox defender. If anyone has a solution please let me know.

The phone it's self...rock solid.

I got a screen protector from Verizon,
They put it on.
I like the Glass Screen protector

Got a otterbox Defender Screenless Edition case.
It comes with the clip so you can put it in yer belt. Clip it on yer pants or whatever.
Feels great.