S8 / S8+ First Impressions Thread

[jamezr]

I think I can go 6 months with this one no problem. Just depends on the note 8 ... lol

I can't go 6 months.....so far this year I have had the S7 edge....G6....Mate 9.....Pixel XL....Pixel.....S8+.

Will probably get the Oneplus 5.....LG V30....Note 8.....iphone 8......and ?????

 

[uncreativeartist]

I can't go 6 months.....so far this year I have had the S7 edge....G6....Mate 9.....Pixel XL....Pixel.....S8+.

Will probably get the Oneplus 5.....LG V30....Note 8.....iphone 8......and ?????

Wow what do you do with all those phones? There is a Note 8 coming out? I thought the SG8+ was the note with a new name change, so instead of note we got the SG8+. Now I'm a little upset I didn't know there was going to be a Note 8, I would have waited to get that instead, it's what I originally wanted, a new Note.

 

[jamezr]

Wow what do you do with all those phones? There is a Note 8 coming out? I thought the SG8+ was the note with a new name change, so instead of note we got the SG8+. Now I'm a little upset I didn't know there was going to be a Note 8, I would have waited to get that instead, it's what I originally wanted, a new Note.

Sometimes I keep them sometimes I sell them. The Note 8 will be out in late August/Sept and it should be a beast......

 

[uncreativeartist]

Sometimes I keep them sometimes I sell them. The Note 8 will be out in late August/Sept and it should be a beast......

DAMN, My luck!!! Ok someone really needs to buy my kidney soon. I need a Gear watch and a Note 8. Willing to trade my SG8+ with it.

 

[EMGSM]

Sometimes I keep them sometimes I sell them.

I do the same thing. The ones I keep could come in handy. I gave my mom one of my old Notes and she loves it. She was coming from the S2.

 

[ScreaminChameleon]

Hmmm. It's a nice phone, but frankly doesn't compare to my Note 7. N7 is faster. FPS is inaccessible once in my case on the S8+. The notification light on the edge panel doesn't work - which I read others also not able to get theirs to work. I don't know if it is a carrier issue or setting issue, but the S8+ is slower - having trouble pulling up photos/images through different apps, websites, etc. These were not issues I had two days ago on my N7. However, could be a carrier issue - yet this is when I am on wifi also, so don't think that's it.

My launcher does not work properly on the S8+ side screens (black bars on the sides) - though that isn't Samsung's issue, but the developer's. I have used the same launcher for years, so now have to adapt to the TouchWiz or a different launcher that doesn't have that issue.

 

[rushmore]

Hmmm. It's a nice phone, but frankly doesn't compare to my Note 7. N7 is faster. FPS is inaccessible once in my case on the S8+. The notification light on the edge panel doesn't work - which I read others also not able to get theirs to work. I don't know if it is a carrier issue or setting issue, but the S8+ is slower - having trouble pulling up photos/images through different apps, websites, etc. These were not issues I had two days ago on my N7. However, could be a carrier issue - yet this is when I am on wifi also, so don't think that's it.

My launcher does not work properly on the S8+ side screens (black bars on the sides) - though that isn't Samsung's issue, but the developer's. I have used the same launcher for years, so now have to adapt to the TouchWiz or a different launcher that doesn't have that issue.

How was the Note 7 faster? I had two 7's and really liked them a lot, but no comparison for speed, thermals, battery life and cell reception (Verizon). The 8+ is in another higher league. This is mainly due to the 835 chipset and the very efficient display (per Displaymate).

I find the device very fast and the stock UI better than the Note 7 and see no reason for using Nova, etc. I apologize if you were being sarcastic and I misunderstood.

I do wish the 8+ overall had the N7 display ratio, but some use and apps favor the 8+.

 

[ClintRo]

Yeah this phone is better in every way over my S7 edge

 

[m3lover1]

How was the Note 7 faster? I had two 7's and really liked them a lot, but no comparison for speed, thermals, battery life and cell reception (Verizon). The 8+ is in another higher league. This is mainly due to the 835 chipset and the very efficient display (per Displaymate).

I find the device very fast and the stock UI better than the Note 7 and see no reason for using Nova, etc. I apologize if you were being sarcastic and I misunderstood.

I do wish the 8+ overall had the N7 display ratio, but some use and apps favor the 8+.

Agreed. I had the note 7 as well, just once, didn't bother getting a second one. This phone is certainly faster and better all around than the note 7. Battery life is amazing for me, although these couple days seems like I'm getting a Bluetooth wakelock going on. And the design blows the note 7 out of the water, even though they are similar. And the lack of the physical home button is just glorious. Agreed on the fingerprint sensor though, it just sucks.

 

[zigaliro]

Anyone else just using Iris scanner to unlock their phone? I see no problem using it, it`s fast enough, I love it.

 

[HighTechToid]

Wild how experience can be so different. No such issues with my 8+ and I have over 250 apps installed.

Agreed. I find that with the way I use my phone's Samsung can't seem to keep up. Samsung performance is very dependent on the apps you use because TouchWiz appears to not work well with some apps, especially apps that feature functions similar to Samsung features. It tends to confuse the software. For example, apps like Google Voice often times are broken on Samsung. When the app "rings" from an incoming call, TouchWiz tries to push the app to the standard dialer instead of letting the app ring by itself. What ends up happening sometimes is either both apps end up dialing, your custom Google voice ringtone doesn't work (because the TouchWiz dialer is ringing) you get one of the phone apps still ringing even though you have answered the phone and other such problems. Problems that don't often exist on other Android phones.

And you have other annoyances because of TouchWiz, such as apps like Slacker not displaying properly on the lock screen because Samsung's custom lock screen chooses to instead display only media controls and not the Slacker shortcuts that are far more useful. Nor do you get the album art full screen.

At the end of the day, how I specifically use my phone's Samsung has never been able to keep up.

I say this is a write on my Pixel XL that's keeping up just fine with no problems.

 

[justin1578]

Not buying it, but my true first impression that for a 5 foot 7 guy with short fingers, the fingerprint reader is no issue. Not sure how you would mistake the camera for it either.

I toyed around with the iris scanner, would probably use that if it was an every day phone. This model is the Plus and the display is just too tall for me, none of the media fit and I still think the ratio is stupid. I would prefer the s8 height but wider.

 

[Qc_Anubis]

First impression ? I just went holy sh** when i saw the thing in my hands xD (have a plus model) had a bit of a red tint fixed in the options easily didn't had any other issues exept i can't keep my hands off it ahah .

 

[jdballard]

First impressions after three full days:

Pros:
• The screen is beautiful.
• Performance is fast and fluid. No slow-downs or lags. We'll see how it performs over time. My previous phone, an HTC 10, was my first foray back into Android after several years of Windows phones and it never lagged, even after a year of use so I suspect the S8 will be the same.
• Love the fact it comes with 64GB of storage. It's one of the things that swayed me from the LG G6 to the S8. 32GB isn't enough for me these days.
• Camera takes great photos. (Always subjective, but I like it.)
• FPS is fast. Seems much faster than my HTC 10 was. (I'm not the only one on the placement: see cons regarding placement.)

Cons:
• I don't like where the fingerprint sensor is. I have the Spigen Liquid Crystal case and I wish it had a little divider between the FPS and the camera. I can usually get it right without it, and it doesn't look like I have smudges on my camera lens, but still. Guess I'm just a bit uptight/OCD worried I might smudge it. Might consider a new case with a divider.
• My biggest complaint/gripe: not crazy about the button layout. Some of it's a change because I'm coming from the HTC 10 where the buttons are all on the right. Overall, it seems like the buttons are in an odd place to be able to reach them - mostly because of the Bixby button which is in the spot where my thumb naturally rests when holding the phone. Until I installed package disabler and disabled it, because every time I picked up the phone (or even sometimes while just holding it) I would hit the button and Bixby would launch. Glad for the package disabler.

Miscellaneous:
• Had zero issues pairing it with the BT in my F150 or my BT headphones.
• I like the fact that unlike my HTC 10 screen, I can see it in portrait mode with my polarized sunglasses on.
• I'm ambivalent on the edge screen. I don't hate it, but it's not the best thing since sliced bread, either.
• I tried using the built-in launcher for a few hours, but ended up going back to Arrow. Guess I'm just too used to it. Wish I'd backed that up before I got rid of the old phone.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it.

 

[JawjaBill]

As a Note 7 refugee, I can say that I like it. a lot. I would have liked to see the Bixby button and Volume Control positions swapped.

 

[Tarah Sorber]

I use voice to text when driving. Has anyone noticed that it is so slow and terribly laggy? I can speak 3 sentences and i swear it takes 30 seconds to catch up.

 

[fixitrod]

After hating the S8 I decided to keep it and work through the things I didn't like. I have found that the battery life has gotten better. The "learning" function works! I still charge it every night but I don't have to give it any juice during the day. The camera was really weird the first couple days for some reason but seems to have gotten better after the last update. I still think the 18.5:9 screen is weird but useful in some scenarios. Once I learned to use the button-less buttons at the bottom I have not had one issue with them. I like that the screen lets me type and work normally even if there are some sprinkles of water on it. I wish I didn't have to change all my charging cables but that's inevitable. I got a case made by MOKO that is slick, inexpensive and gets rid of the slippery delicate feel of the phone. The facial recognition didn't work well at first. I found if I held the phone further away when taking my picture it works much better now. I need to find a way to turn the Bixby button into something else or buy the app that blocks it. Bixby makes no since to me. I also still don't understand the rolled edge screen. The edges do not light up like they are supposed to for notifications. The phone is still super fast. I go this phone on April 20th so about 2 weeks. Oh, the keyboard. I wish the swype did not include the space bar. I bump it all the time and it makes the swype very bad. I switched to swiftkey keyboard and it's helped. Just wanted to update my initial "hate" for this phone. It isn't all the hype has made it out to be but it is a nice phone.

 

[agaskew]

Having had the S8 for a couple of days, so far so good. I've come from a Note 4 running Rooted Android 7.1.1, and the S8 so far is as slick and responsive as that was (unlike Touchwiz on the Note 4 which was sloooooow). There are so many features on the S8 its a bit mind boggling, e.g. waterproofing, facial/iris/fingerprint unlocking, Always on, wireless charing etc blah blah the list is long.

What impresses me most of all about the S8 is the sheer amount of effort and changes that have been made since the S7. The new Samsung skin/interface and apps for example, whether you like them or not, are so different from the old versions. Its funny to watch Apple roll out incremental little changes to iOS year after year, but they are definitely lagging behind now - they recently ordered many millions of new OLED screens from ... Samsung.

 

[rushmore]

Having had the S8 for a couple of days, so far so good. I've come from a Note 4 running Rooted Android 7.1.1, and the S8 so far is as slick and responsive as that was (unlike Touchwiz on the Note 4 which was sloooooow). There are so many features on the S8 its a bit mind boggling, e.g. waterproofing, facial/iris/fingerprint unlocking, Always on, wireless charing etc blah blah the list is long.

What impresses me most of all about the S8 is the sheer amount of effort and changes that have been made since the S7. The new Samsung skin/interface and apps for example, whether you like them or not, are so different from the old versions. Its funny to watch Apple roll out incremental little changes to iOS year after year, but they are definitely lagging behind now - they recently ordered many millions of new OLED screens from ... Samsung.

Surprised you went from Note 4 to 8, rather than 8+. Display real estate more equal to the 8+.

 

[indysteve9]

Only had mine a few days but so far so good. I did have a glitch today where the microphone would not initiate on the keyboard when I tried writing a text. Had to reboot the phone. I realize it's trivial but so soon out of the box? I had to, as I always do, put a case on the phone because all that smooth glass and metal is just waaaaay to slick. Always felt like it was going to slip out of my hand. The case fixed, as it always does, the issue. Let the games begin.