Upgrade Dilemma. Opinions, Please?

[LilSweetLin]

Hi everyone,

So as the title says, I have a bit of a dilemma. Up until three days ago, I had been using the Nexus 6P as my daily for almost two years. Last Sunday, however, I bought an unlocked, mint condition LG V30 off of Swappa, that I received on Friday. Battery life and standby time on the phone has honestly been unreal. I've reached as high as 8:45 SOT with 43 hours of usage on a single charge, and that's with AoD enabled, 25℅ brightness indoors, and occasionally, location toggled on at high accuracy. No joke, on a full charge, this phone takes what seems like about half an hour to drop to 99%, even with location on high accuracy. And on standby, forget it. This thing stays put. If I unplug it fully charged and set it down, it'll still be at 100% charge 90 minutes later.

The quad DAC on the phone is really good. Since I listen to music a lot, it makes a huge difference with my 100 ohm Sony headphones. Given these two things, you'd think I'd be happy, right? Well, not really. LG's themes are a joke. And although LG has features, it just feels as if it's just a pale imitation of Samsung. The problem is, I haven't had a Samsung phone since the S3, so I'm a bit skittish about coming back to Samsung.

Now, I'm a light user, meaning that I don't do anything graphic intensive like gaming, nor do I mess about with camera settings, other than the occasional point-and-shoot photo. Would I be able to achieve similar battery life on a Samsung phone, that I have on this V30?

Does the SD or Exynos S9+ or Note 8 with the same battery capacity as the V30 even compare in terms of battery life and headphone audio? Then there's the issue of screen protectors not fitting the curved screens. This V30 came with an IQ Shield screen protector, and it sucks. I bought a UAG Plasma case for it, and the corners are always lifting. It's really annoying. What should I do? Should I go for an S9+/Note 8 or do I wait for the Note 9? I've already listed the V30 for sale in the meantime, so feedback is really appreciated.

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

V30 stomps on the note 8 for all the criteria that you listed to compare.

 

[donm527]

If you found a good phone that impresses you, I'd keep running it for a while and just enjoy the phone. The V30 has always sounded like a solid phone. There is rumor the Note 9 might show up around July so you might want to hang in there a little longer. I'm so satisfied how my Note 8 is running and all issues been sorted out a while ago that it will be tough to justify going with a 9 and can be happy running this phone for 2 years I believe.

The Note 8 has decent battery life... I usually charge when it gets to around 27% and charge it up to around 90% and keep it in that range all the time and with the way I use it, it lasts 24 hours before I have to plug in at 27% again. Not bad for about 60% useage and display brightness at 50% if you want a comparison. You sound like you have great battery life but at 25% brightness I might be able to squeeze out a lot more.

 

[LilSweetLin]

If you found a good phone that impresses you, I'd keep running it for a while and just enjoy the phone. The V30 has always sounded like a solid phone. There is rumor the Note 9 might show up around July so you might want to hang in there a little longer. I'm so satisfied how my Note 8 is running and all issues been sorted out a while ago that it will be tough to justify going with a 9 and can be happy running this phone for 2 years I believe.

The Note 8 has decent battery life... I usually charge when it gets to around 27% and charge it up to around 90% and keep it in that range all the time and with the way I use it, it lasts 24 hours before I have to plug in at 27% again. Not bad for about 60% useage and display brightness at 50% if you want a comparison. You sound like you have great battery life but at 25% brightness I might be able to squeeze out a lot more.

I know, you'd think I'd be happy with the phone, but I'm not. The stock OS is rather ugly, and I like to theme my phones. LG's theme store is laughable, and since I already have a Nexus that looks like a Pixel using Nova Prime, I'm not too keen on using a Pixel theme (of which there are quite a few in the Play Store) on my next phone. Even though Samsung has its quirks, they at least try to justify the ridiculous prices they charge by giving you everything but the kitchen sink.

 

[anon(10388027)]

The Note 8 is a terrific phone. I would not obsess over spending a fortune jumping between phones of the same model year... But you are free to do so.

There is no problem with Samsung battery life.

It is important that you compare equivalent settings. The good news is Samsung phones have the best displays. Reality is on highest settings, it drains the battery. The number one drain on any phone battery is the display. Lower display settings look fine... And very little on the web can make use of max resolution.

Secondary is turning of background app data use... Easy enough on Android these days.

If you don't need to upgrade, then wait until 2019 for a phone with a 5G LTE modem.

 

[LilSweetLin]

The Note 8 is a terrific phone. I would not obsess over spending a fortune jumping between phones of the same model year... But you are free to do so.

There is no problem with Samsung battery life.

It is important that you compare equivalent settings. The good news is Samsung phones have the best displays. Reality is on highest settings, it drains the battery. The number one drain on any phone battery is the display. Lower display settings look fine... And very little on the web can make use of max resolution.

Secondary is turning of background app data use... Easy enough on Android these days.

If you don't need to upgrade, then wait until 2019 for a phone with a 5G LTE modem.

Funny that you mention Samsung's displays, which are indeed tops in the industry. I neglected to mention that I used the max resolution on the V30, had AoD toggled on, and had location set to high accuracy. Despite that, the V30 lacks a certain "wow" factor that comes with a Samsung phone. No matter what, every phone is overpriced nowadays, so you might as well get the best bang for your buck. As far as upgrading, I'm really upgrading from the Nexus 6P, which has been my daily for two years now.

 

[Tsepz_GP]

Hi everyone,

So as the title says, I have a bit of a dilemma. Up until three days ago, I had been using the Nexus 6P as my daily for almost two years. Last Sunday, however, I bought an unlocked, mint condition LG V30 off of Swappa, that I received on Friday. Battery life and standby time on the phone has honestly been unreal. I've reached as high as 8:45 SOT with 43 hours of usage on a single charge, and that's with AoD enabled, 25℅ brightness indoors, and occasionally, location toggled on at high accuracy. No joke, on a full charge, this phone takes what seems like about half an hour to drop to 99%, even with location on high accuracy. And on standby, forget it. This thing stays put. If I unplug it fully charged and set it down, it'll still be at 100% charge 90 minutes later.

The quad DAC on the phone is really good. Since I listen to music a lot, it makes a huge difference with my 100 ohm Sony headphones. Given these two things, you'd think I'd be happy, right? Well, not really. LG's themes are a joke. And although LG has features, it just feels as if it's just a pale imitation of Samsung. The problem is, I haven't had a Samsung phone since the S3, so I'm a bit skittish about coming back to Samsung.

Now, I'm a light user, meaning that I don't do anything graphic intensive like gaming, nor do I mess about with camera settings, other than the occasional point-and-shoot photo. Would I be able to achieve similar battery life on a Samsung phone, that I have on this V30?

Does the SD or Exynos S9+ or Note 8 with the same battery capacity as the V30 even compare in terms of battery life and headphone audio? Then there's the issue of screen protectors not fitting the curved screens. This V30 came with an IQ Shield screen protector, and it sucks. I bought a UAG Plasma case for it, and the corners are always lifting. It's really annoying. What should I do? Should I go for an S9+/Note 8 or do I wait for the Note 9? I've already listed the V30 for sale in the meantime, so feedback is really appreciated.

If this was 4months ago I would say get the Note8 without thinking twice:

Note8 + Whitestone Dome Screen Protector & a good slim case = the best protection for a phone while keeping it's profile.

At this point I would say if you want the SPwn immediately get the Note8 but otherwise rather wait for the Note9.

I am thoroughly enjoying my Note8, the Display is phenomenal in terms of quality, brightness and size, Battery life is great, Cameras are superb, I use the SPen daily and I absolutely love it's design.

The LG V30 is a great phone but I feel the Note8 is far more of a complete Productivity and Multimedia Beast overall.