Thanks for confirming!
**** The Official Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ Thread ****
- Thread starter CaptainComedy
- Start date
Been discussed briefly here
All screen protectors for these curved screens are suitably naff
Naked it is thenBeen discussed briefly here
All screen protectors for these curved screens are suitably naff
I picked up mine yesterday afternoon, and have been playing with it almost non stop. I've been on WiFi the whole time pretty much (downloaded 5.4GB over WiFi and 244MB over 4G), set up all 104 apps and checked out everything on the phone now.
Here are my initial thoughts compared to the S7 edge I changed from.
- I ordered from Samsung, it came with a freebie, a flipping SACK material carrier bag thing? What has a carrier bag got to do with the latest smartphone? The Alcantara pouch is pretty neat though.
- Adapt Sound is broken, keeps saying "Adapt Sound stopped working", which would be annoying as my JayBird X3s needed some adapting on the S7 edge even with JayBird's hardware EQ/DAC. Seems Bluetooth on the S8 is much better, as I am using the same EQ firmware on the X3s, yet the music quality is richer/clearer using the same music app.
- Bluetooth and how devices are managed has been revamped, and is now more polished by the looks of things. Still no native battery display % for connected devices though.
- Screen on time, I have never had a phone that has had over 6 hours SoT even on WiFi only before on any phone. This is on the same network, the same apps installed, power mode set to the default Optimised profile, the same adaptive brightness settings, the same sync settings, the same everything, just the new phone. Considering this has 3500mAh vs the 3600 on the S7e, this proves to my mind that the S8+ is just much more efficient.
- I've bought a new Theme from the Galaxy theme store, one called Material Design 7.1. I found Material Dark great (and free), but it didn't feel as polished on the S8 in small areas here and there. MD7.1 is perfect.
- I remapped Bixby button to Google Now using the free app bxActions
- I enabled dark mode for the navbar when Gboard is up using Navbar Apps. By default the navbar is white, even if you have a dark keyboard theme. Just looks whack when it's not a flowing look.
- I love it now shows music playing and controls on the lockscreen properly, even from third party apps like GoneMad.
Having said that, it must be noted that Samsung apps have no micro stuttering. The browser, galaxy apps and other Samsung developed apps are perfect. This leads me to believe that Samsung have optimised their own apps to be 100% smooth, but it's Android itself that needs to do the same with third party apps, including Google's own apps. For example, Play Store micro-stutter when scrolling is still a thing from time to time.
- Bixby Vision is crap. it barely finds anything to shop for. That will be a feature that never gets used again.
- I like how you can uninstall almost all Samsung bundled apps now instead of just disabling them. You can't uninstall MS Office apps though like OneDrive/powerpoint etc.
- The camera is no different to the S7 camera. Nothing more needs to be said here, we all know the S7 camera is excellent.
- All of my installed apps seem to work just fine in 18.5:9 fullscreen mode.
- The little software tweaks that Samsung could have put into the S7 series are welcome. But it's annoying Samsung didn't put them into the Nougat update to the S7.
- I don't like the volume rocker. The S7 has a button for volume up, and a button for volume down. Rockers are just naff.
- I like that you have to run an iris scan before you can turn the phone off. Thieves won't get very far with a stolen S8. At least until the battery dies.
- The speaker is good, but doesn't have the same bass quality as the S7 edge. Maybe it's because my S7e is a year+ old, so the speaker has had time to loosen up.
- My screen had no major red tint issue, but it is clear that on a pure white screen, the edges are slightly pink biased vs the rest of the screen area. I have not had the OTA update yet which adds the edge tint and screen warmth sliders to remedy this issue, so am awaiting for this to remove that issue.
- Wireless fast charging works, but the fast wireless charging option does not appear in the settings area until you first place the phone on a fast wireless charging pad.
Overall, very impressed with the overall look and feel of the phone. The S7 edge is one classy looking phone, but the S8+ just looks even better, especially with a completely clean and logo free front. I don't think it's worthy of spending over £600 on if you already have an S7 edge, but if you sell the old phone for a good amount, then your additional costs are covered, which is what I will be doing soon once I've had Samsung replace the USB port, screen and battery under warranty.
The battery life seems to be better than the S7 edge, and the battery is said to retain 95% of its capacity after a year whereas the S7 edge loses 25% in the same period. For reference, in the first week of S7 edge ownership, I was getting 4 to 5 hours screen on time.
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Looking good mrk! Nice pics as usual
Was very surprised by your stats, then I realised you had the plus... still though, people were saying the bigger battery of the plus would be outweighed by the larger screen and we'd end up with similar stats but that seems maybe not the case? I don't think I'd get 6 hours SoT from the S8
What's your location setting on by the way for comparison?
Was very surprised by your stats, then I realised you had the plus... still though, people were saying the bigger battery of the plus would be outweighed by the larger screen and we'd end up with similar stats but that seems maybe not the case? I don't think I'd get 6 hours SoT from the S8
What's your location setting on by the way for comparison?
Thanks, I've just turned my wifi and bluetooth scanning off as they seem a bit pointless and potentially battery draining. Every little helps!
Also a nice thing I just noticed the other day that I'm not sure my S6 Edge did... the screen auto-brightness learns?? It says "Keep track of your brightness adjustments and apply them automatically in similar lighting conditions"
I didn't know it did that, I thought you set it manually OR you have it on auto and it does its own thing... didn't realise you can somewhat 'teach' the auto how you like to adjust it
If I'm reading that correctly
Also a nice thing I just noticed the other day that I'm not sure my S6 Edge did... the screen auto-brightness learns?? It says "Keep track of your brightness adjustments and apply them automatically in similar lighting conditions"
I didn't know it did that, I thought you set it manually OR you have it on auto and it does its own thing... didn't realise you can somewhat 'teach' the auto how you like to adjust it
If I'm reading that correctly
Doubt it - on all previous phones you've had to buy it from EE direct to get it to work.
Thanks. It would be great if someone could confirm.
I've got an unbranded S7 that works on EE WiFi calling
From what I've read on the EE forums. WiFi calling will work, but 4G Calling won't.
Amazon italy are selling the S8 for just over £600.