Switching to Note 8

[dsignori]

first sign of an issue that bugs me the phone is going back

That seems like a pretty low breaking point. Mine comes tomorrow. If I see such an issue I plan to take a breath, keep using it and get a real feel for the overall experience over time - and definitely NOT return it at the sight of the first tiny issue.

 

[anon(10271520)]

Touchwiz is just fine. It used to be pretty terrible but now it is pleasant. With the specs of phones nowadays, any hiccups are usually powered through. It may still be the most bloated of all manufacture UI's, but at least it is mostly useful instead of mostly useless.

 

[thanew20]

I currently have both. While I love the Note 8 and all of it's glory, I can't stop taking pictures with the 2 XL. They are absolutely stunning on both sides of the camera. Full disclosure - I have no screen burn or any other nagging issues with my Pixel 2 XL. I guess I choose an okay screen with an exceptional pictures over an awesome screen and good pictures. The FFC on the Note 8 is just terrible.

 

[torbach1]

I own the Note 8, and love it. I haven't had any lag so far, but with other Sammy phones, lag has shown up later. One aspect I thought I'd add to this conversation in favor of the Pixel, is that it's not just that Samsung and the carriers are very unpredictable we uth security updates. That alone is true, and a few months ago that for me would not be a deal breaker.

But in the last 2 months, we've had 2 completely new vulnerabilities that are very serious exposed, and if that trend continues, I'll be switching to a device that gets security updates immediately.

Specifically, 1. Blueborne, a Bluetooth based vulnerability that thankfully Samsung resolved for the Note 8 on launch day (but took another few weeks to resolve for the S8, which is a sign of how long they'll take once the Note 8 is no longer their latest release).

2. KRACK WPA 2 exploit, which Google is only resolving in their November security update. Time will tell when Samsung will resolve that.

Both of these vulnerabilities are different to traditional vulnerabilities because you can't stop them if your device is not patched and an attacker is within a certain distance of you. If Bluetooth is on, a Blueborne attack can take over your phone. If you use WiFi with WPA 2, an attacker can see all of your WiFi traffic. I believe using a VPN can help with that one.

Bottom line is that if these types of vulnerabilities are exposedore frequently and if hackers take advantage of them, having timely security updates will become a must for anyone who has valuable information on their phone.

 

[Hussain Ahmadi]

I'm coming from a 6P which just died (boot loop) on top of power off at 30% battery, so I had to get a new phone right away. I have a 2XL still on order, but I picked up a 8+ (unlocked) from Amazon a few days ago and I gotta say, I'm loving this thing. Screen is ridiculous, it's super responsive and coming from the 6P I'm actually liking some of the things Samsung has baked into the OS. I'm super close to canceling my 2XL order and just sticking with the 8+, but I was going to wait until I had both in my hands to make that final decision, but now after all the screen talk, I may just stick with the 8+. Hopefully you like the Note!

Exactly the same thing happened to me. My Nexus 6P hands down is the worst smartphone I've ever owned. So much value people put in Google's updates! Those corrupting updates made the 6P completely unusable so I vowed to never buy anything from Google again. Never. I used to have Nexus 6 before the 6P which was a little better. My note 3 is still solid, yes there are no updates any more but it performs better than the newer 6P and it's HD screen is much better than the QHD screen of 6P. Now I have S8+ and it is such a great phone. Best screen, love the software and the options Samsung has implemented be it the ram management or background apps. I am getting 5 - 6 hours SOT with heavy usage under normal mode. When I choose the mid performance mode I am getting 7 - 7.5 hours SOT.

Both the nexuses when they were new I would not get 3.5 hr SOT. The 6P before it's demise could not even get me 2 hr SOT!!

Before I used to say that someone should only care about updates if he is keeping the phone for 2 years or more but in Google phones case that is not relevant because my bad experience with the 6P proved to me Google is totally unreliable. Even if they offer updates their updates if did not spoil the phone will not have half of the features that Samsung is offering from two years back!

 

[Hussain Ahmadi]

one more thing I want to add is that some of the comments here mentioned that Samsung is forcing stuff on you like the Bixby button etc. Well, Google does that too. Why Google wants to force on the users what it calls the natural RGB for screen color? Why not offer the option like Samsung and other manufacturers to the consumer to change them? Even Apple now have that in it's settings!!

Why did Google hide the ram management under the developer option? Google wants to force it's own control on the user while on the other hand Samsung has given a full control of ram management to the user and also offered different performance modes. Another option is changing the screen resolution. I know Google will be copying all these features from the other manufacturers and present them in what it terms as "future updates". These future updates which are actually past features offered by almost all other Android manufacturers.

When I had my Nexus 6 stock Android didn't even have a simple thing like a battery percentage!! Something that Samsung offered since Galaxy S1!! same goes for multi windows apps.

Can anyone remember when did Google add a restart feature in stock Android? a year ago or two years? Lol. that same restart feature was offered by others like Samsung since S1.

My point is that Stock Android updates are extremely overrated and mainly offer features that are overdue

 

[PowrDroid]

one more thing I want to add is that some of the comments here mentioned that Samsung is forcing stuff on you like the Bixby button etc. Well, Google does that too. Why Google wants to force on the users what it calls the natural RGB for screen color? Why not offer the option like Samsung and other manufacturers to the consumer to change them? Even Apple now have that in it's settings!!

The Bixby button is a piece of hardware that frequently gets turned on my mistake. It can't be easily remapped.

It's likely that Google will offer a software patch to allow adjustment of the screen color. It's easily accomplished. Getting rid of the Bixby button--not so much.

 

[torbach1]

The Bixby button is a piece of hardware that frequently gets turned on my mistake. It can't be easily remapped.

It's likely that Google will offer a software patch to allow adjustment of the screen color. It's easily accomplished. Getting rid of the Bixby button--not so much.

I don't know what the big deal is about the Bixby button. In 1.5 months of having this phone, I haven't pressed this button by accident once. I can't see others out there hitting it by accident that often. I think it's much ado about nothing.

 

[Zod1010]

It's likely that Google will offer a software patch to allow adjustment of the screen color. It's easily accomplished. Getting rid of the Bixby button--not so much.

How is this different than the squeezable sides of the Pixel, which can't be remapped? Neither company allows you to remap that functionality. Samsung now allows you to disable the Bixby button.

 

[Scottie15]

How is this different than the squeezable sides of the Pixel, which can't be remapped? Neither company allows you to remap that functionality. Samsung now allows you to disable the Bixby button.

You can also reprogram the Bixby button to perform other actions.

 

[polbit]

Thank you for your insightful comment, really appreciate when people take the time and share their knowledge to help others.

 

[Scottie15]

Waited for months in the Pixel 2, from speculation to release event and pre-order. Decided to cancel. Way too many issues with the device so early on. Trading my G4 in for a Note 8. It got here in two days.

Here's to hoping Google gets it right the third time around. Just stay away from LG and they'll be good.

 

[husslord]

Does the Note 8 get hot on the back my last Samsung phone was 6s edge and it got so hot it was unusable.

 

[jhnnyblze2000]

How is this different than the squeezable sides of the Pixel, which can't be remapped? Neither company allows you to remap that functionality. Samsung now allows you to disable the Bixby button.

You can remap the squeeze to activate Google Assistant as well so...

 

[torbach1]

Does the Note 8 get hot on the back my last Samsung phone was 6s edge and it got so hot it was unusable.

Mine hasn't. But I've had mixed results with Samsung phones heat wise. The T-Mobile branded S7 Edge I had prior to getting the Note 7 didn't get hot. Between Note 7 recalls, I got an unlocked Olympic edition S7 Edge and that got very hot. I put it down to it not having as good reception for T-Mo's Band 12. This year I've had T-Mobile S8+, my wife has a T-Mobile S8, and now I have a Note 8, and none of them have gotten hot.

 

[JHBThree]

Mine hasn't. But I've had mixed results with Samsung phones heat wise. The T-Mobile branded S7 Edge I had prior to getting the Note 7 didn't get hot. Between Note 7 recalls, I got an unlocked Olympic edition S7 Edge and that got very hot. I put it down to it not having as good reception for T-Mo's Band 12. This year I've had T-Mobile S8+, my wife has a T-Mobile S8, and now I have a Note 8, and none of them have gotten hot.

Same here. S8+ and Note 8 and neither got hot at all.

 

[frankenhooker]

Mine hasn't even got warm let alone hot.

 

[Hussain Ahmadi]

It's likely that Google will offer a software patch to allow adjustment of the screen color. It's easily accomplished. Getting rid of the Bixby button--not so much.

It is likely or maybe unlikely that they will provide that option. I needed that option badly with the Nexus 6 which had almost a sepia tone! (Again Google forcing their BS on me) or even with the 6P but that option never came!

The question is why go for something inferior that does not even have the option to reduce or eliminate that inferiority when I can get much better quality with an option added to it?

In that case why go to a phone (Pixels now and Nexus before) that has a very inferior screen and lacks the basic option to reduce that inferiority when I can get the best screen on a phone (Samsung S8 and Note 8) in the market plus all the options to change that screen colors to my liking in so many different ways?

I have the S8+ for over 3 weeks now and not even once I pressed Bixby by mistake. And I had both Nexus 6 and 6P for about 3 years and in all those 3 years I had a buyer remorse every time I was looking at those screens without having the option provided by Google for a simple RGB tuning.

Stock Android being the best is just a fluke those paid reviews are trying to sell and I am not gonna lie that I bought it at first but after giving it a try and put up with it for 3 years I said enough is enough.

My experience with Nexus 6P has proved to me that Google provides both inferior hardware as well as software.

 

[Hussain Ahmadi]

Same here. S8+ and Note 8 and neither got hot at all.

Not even once here too. I just need to put my S8+ on charge now. From 100% to 4% battery on a mid performance setup I got an SOT of 7 hours and 44 minutes!! with a standby time of 22 hours!

Samsung nailed it with S8+ in both hardware and software. No phone lasted that long for me. S8+ is very consistent. And looking at that screen makes you want to pickup the phone all the time.

 

[frankenhooker]

Wow, has all the commercials on TV invited all the trolls into our Pixel 2 forum?

I thought this forum is for people who actually care about this phone. All I see are a bunch of jealous people trying to feel better about their phone choices.

Well here I am, feeling great about my Pixel cause it is obviously better than any phone out there. I am So smart.

Not sure why Note 8 or S8+ users would be jealous of the Pixel to be honest. I can't speak for others, but I'm here because I'm interested in the Pixel and have considered purchasing one. The last Google phone I had was the Nexus 5, which is probably my favourite handset of all time.