New Phone

[MatchuEnsmith]

I have been looking for a new phone for the past couple weeks and have narrowed it down to the Samsung Galaxy S8+ and the iPhone 7+, but for the life of me I cannot decide between them please help. They both have features I like and stuff I don't and are around the same price for the configurations I want. I am a fan of Android but as I've only had one phone before I could be swayed to join team Apple. I care about camera quality, screen quality, usability, speed, comfort, battery life, HEADPHONE JACKS, and I really do not mind the S8's Bixby button or weird thumb pad. Lastly, should I wait the 5 months to get the new iPhone 8? Keep in mind that my previous phone just broke and I need a replacement soon so would the wait be worth it?

[PCGuy_5960]

Get the S8+, it is much better than the iPhone 7+. 

[The Sloth]

i have the 7 plus as a work phone and a 6p as a personal device, if you care about screen quality get the s8, battery life 7 plus, headphone jack s8, customer service 7 plus, customization s8 if you are a heavy google user get an android, if you are invested in apple ecosystem get a 7plus. 

[themctipers]

s8+ > 7+

 

this is coming from a ios fanboy  

[pbx2]

2 minutes ago, PCGuy_5960 said:

Get the S8+, it is much better than the iPhone 7+. 

 

1 minute ago, nerdslayer1 said:

i have the 7 plus as a work phone and a 6p as a personal device, if you care about screen quality, get a s8, battery life 7 plus, headphone jack s8, customer service 7 plus, customization s8 if you are a heavy google user get an android. 

 

Both super overpriced.

 

Oneplus 3T, Has less features, but most of them are not a worry, Only go for an S7/8 if you want a high res screen for VR (Less battery life btw)

[The Sloth]

Just now, pbx2 said:

 

Both super overpriced.

 

Oneplus 3T, Has less features, but most of them are not a worry, Only go for an S7/8 if you want a high res screen for VR (Less battery life btw)

 

one plus 3 is a shitty phone compared to a s8 or a 7plus.

[Mooshi]

I'd wait for the Pixel 2 if you were doing Android. The S8 is awsome spec wise, but Samsung is slow AF to update their devices and always have been.

[Badger906]

im a samsung slag through and through and not even being dicked over with the note 7 situation put me off and i actually lost about £100+ in the process...

 

howver the s8 is such a stupid phone... they failed to incorperate a touch anywhere fingerprint scanner so they just shoved one on the back in the only place they could and its not a natural position. its just a half measure.

 

apple are equally failing and the 7s wont be anything spectacular.

 

wait on the note 8. samsung will knock that out of the ball park to make up for the note 7 issues!

[Drak3]

2 minutes ago, Mooshi said:

I'd wait for the Pixel 2 if you were doing Android. The S8 is awsome spec wise, but Samsung is slow AF to update their devices and always have been.

With my experience, that is FAR from a bad thing. Hell, if it weren't for carrier forced updates and the fact that I buy phones for their stock experiences, I would still run Kitkat on my Note 4, I wouldn't have gotten my Lumia 950XL or S6.

For me, and everyone I know on a personal level, Lollipop+ has been a shit show for any device that doesn't come with it out of the box (as well as x86 versions of Android above Kitkat), and it's not unique problems to different models. It's the same problems, regardless if it's a Cyanogenmod ROM, Touchwiz, HTC Sense, or even Google's stock experience.

[AnonymousGuy]

I switched from an S7e to a 6s+ and now 7+.  iOS beats Android hands down for the majority of day to day usage.  Battery life, shit "just working", mfg. support, etc are all miles ahead with Apple.

 

And curved screens fucking suck.  Can't apply a screen protector and can't hold on to them properly,and the colors shift on the curves.

[Aytex]

Why are you making so many threads about the same thing?

[Mr.Meerkat]

I'm currently very anti-google right now as...(rant, almost out of topic hence the spoiler)

Spoiler

 

they "forced" Sony not to release Android 7.0 onto the Z2/Z3/Z3C ;-; 

I also want to blame Qualcomm for not supporting Vulkan/Opengl ES 3.1 but hey, neither existed when they released their Adreno 3xx GPUs so...

Damn you Google CTS  

 

Did I also mention how Android 6.0 also crippled Sony's stamina mode? One of the features that ultimately made my buy my Z3C and google's shitty battery saving features forced sony to disable stamina mode else sony would break Google's terms...

 

 

Oh wait, this isn't quite relevant...anyway, me no like either but if I had to choose, I'd say go Samsung although IOS is the "nicer" OS (IMO)  

 

2 minutes ago, Aytex said:

Why are you making so many threads about the same thing?

Why not? Some people like making sure as many people answer to their question as possible as after all they are making quite a big purchase...to a person with a limited income such as a student at the very least...

[MatchuEnsmith]

47 minutes ago, Aytex said:

Why are you making so many threads about the same thing?

Because I get a couple response and then they stop and every time I get different people with different opinions

[Zusafek]

13 minutes ago, MatchuEnsmith said:

Because I get a couple response and then they stop and every time I get different people with different opinions

Please stick with one thread. Its annoying to scan through and see the same person posting the same thing repeatedly. 

[maizenblue]

I would handle and use both at a store, side by side if you can, and see which one you like better. Just keep in mind first impressions might not be how you view the phone months later.

 

The S8 has many things which I could see becoming a major annoyance down the road. The fingerprint scanner location, sketchy battery life, performance degradation common with Samsung phones, and durability issues with the glass back and crack prone curved display. Plus Tempered glass screen protectors don't seem to work well on curved displays, and cases on curved displays often greatly alter the look and feel of the phone, more so than cases on flat screens. In addition some people find that once the novelty of it wears off, they just don't like curved screens.

[maizenblue]

Something to keep in mind.

 

Square trade, which insures phones, did probably the most scientific and extensive drop tests of the S8 and S8 Plus to date, and both did horribly. In fact they scored worse than any previous flagship phone in recent years. Every sample of the S8 cracked on all sides in every drop test conducted, the first time any phone has ever done that in these tests.

 

They even scored significantly worse than the S7 and S7 edge, which already had reputations for being fragile phones.

http://newatlas.com/samsung-galaxy-s8-drop-test-breakability-glass/49179/

 

[kirashi]

On 4/20/2017 at 1:49 PM, MatchuEnsmith said:

I care about camera quality, screen quality, usability, speed, comfort, battery life, HEADPHONE JACKS,

That bold bit there about headphone jacks rules out the iPhone for you, so I guess you're going with the Galaxy S8 then? Or a OnePlus 3T maybe?

[MatchuEnsmith]

6 hours ago, kirashi said:

That bold bit there about headphone jacks rules out the iPhone for you, so I guess you're going with the Galaxy S8 then? Or a OnePlus 3T maybe?

I just dont want to have to keep up with a dongle to use higher quality headphones but I can deal with it.

[MatchuEnsmith]

10 hours ago, maizenblue said:

Something to keep in mind.

 

Square trade, which insures phones, did probably the most scientific and extensive drop tests of the S8 and S8 Plus to date, and both did horribly. In fact they scored worse than any previous flagship phone in recent years. Every sample of the S8 cracked on all sides in every drop test conducted, the first time any phone has ever done that in these tests.

 

They even scored significantly worse than the S7 and S7 edge, which already had reputations for being fragile phones.

http://newatlas.com/samsung-galaxy-s8-drop-test-breakability-glass/49179/

 

That does worry me. How did the iPhone 7+ fare?

[maizenblue]

6 hours ago, MatchuEnsmith said:

That does worry me. How did the iPhone 7+ fare?

It scored average. Not great, but still better than the S8. I wouldn't call the IPhone 7 plus a rugged phone by any means though.

 

However one big difference for me is that you can put a tempered glass screen protector on the IPhone 7 Plus without much difficulty, and it doesn't affect screen responsiveness at all. I've had a zagg screen protector on mine and use Apples silicone case which looks sharp and doesnt add to the bulk of the phone, so my phone still looks brand new after 6 months.

 

I have heard that with curved edge displays, glass screen protectors just don't work. They are super hard to put on properly, usually affect screen responsiveness, don't stay on for long, and the curved portion of the screen still often cracks when dropped even with one on.

 

That's not to say there aren't people that have owned an S7 edge for over a year with no problems. If you are careful AND lucky you could be fine. You could also buy phone insurance that replaces the phone if the screen does crack, although I imagine the deductible wont be cheap.

[kirashi]

10 hours ago, MatchuEnsmith said:

I just dont want to have to keep up with a dongle to use higher quality headphones but I can deal with it.

This is exactly it. If you're OK using adapters and dongles, then great, have at her and buy whatever phone works best for you.

 

However, unless you're using an externally powered DAC/AMP combo unit, you still won't be properly powering high impedance headphones through Apple's Lightning to 3.5mm adapter, or through anything that gets power from the phone's internal battery. This means you'd need to essentially carry around another device roughly the size of a secondary wallet stuffed full of credit cards, money, and other things, AND remember to charge it everyday if you're an avid music listener like myself.

 

http://north-america.beyerdynamic.com/shop/a-200-p-us.html

 

http://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-e5

 

http://www.centrance.com/products/hifi-m8/

 

All these AMP/DACs were recommended over on the HeadFi forums where they're a little more dedicated to the knowledge required to actually use services like Tidal's Hi-Fi streaming audio, and other audiophile stuff. http://www.head-fi.org/t/746636/dac-for-iphone-6

[mrchow19910319]

iphone 7+.

 

I always felt that iOS is more reliable than android.