Samsung Galaxy S8

[bloomen]

AJB88 said:

Nobody wants a FM tuner these days though. Everybody wants streaming and DAB.

Where I live I would get about 10 minutes of successful streaming every hour on an exceptionally good day. If I started moving around that would dwindle to about 5 minutes.

[Yipper]

AJB88 said:

Erudite geezer said:

Thanks. Listening to the radio over the internet with Wi-Fi or SIM signal does not appeal to me.

How hard can it be for Samsung to incorporate an FM tuner into their recent smartphones?

Nobody wants a FM tuner these days though. Everybody wants streaming and DAB.

Most US and EU operators, as well as Apple, do not want FM or DAB radio on smartphones because they cannot make any money from it. If you are spending 2hrs listening to FM radio and your favourite show and running down your battery, that is potentially 2hrs lost where you could be making a phonecall, posting a social message, or surfing the mobile Web.

[TheOversteerLever]

Disappointed to see that the S7 Edge has a 3,600 mAh battery but the S8 only has a 3,000 mAh battery. I'd have thought that they'd have been able to stick a bigger batter in the S8.

[Rawwr]

TheOversteerLever said:

Disappointed to see that the S7 Edge has a 3,600 mAh battery but the S8 only has a 3,000 mAh battery. I'd have thought that they'd have been able to stick a bigger batter in the S8.

One might think that Samsung are being a little more cautious with how much battery they squeeze into their devices

[Henners]

TheOversteerLever said:

Disappointed to see that the S7 Edge has a 3,600 mAh battery but the S8 only has a 3,000 mAh battery. I'd have thought that they'd have been able to stick a bigger batter in the S8.

[RTB]

I used to get genuinely excited about new phones and loved the process of finding uses for all the new features. I now think of them more like consumable white goods than the life affirming geek gadgets that I used to treat them as.

I used to spend months finding ways of embedding my smart phone (and related android gadgets) into my life. Now everything just works and I'm struggling to justify the new features.

Case in point: Work have just issued us with Samsung J5s, I switched it on, held it back to back with my S6 Edge+ and within about 15 minutes had the J5 set up identically to my S6. I now use them interchangeably and the user experience on the J5 is perfectly adequate, to the point where if I leave my S6 at home I can still can 95% of the use out of the J5.

If I stitch myself into an S8, I'll sync it all up like my S6 and end up having paid 700 quid to get about 2% more function out of it in the real world.

I'm trying to talk myself out of the reflex to get an S8.....

I should go and buy a Sony RX100V and keep my S6 for another 2 years....

I'll end up buying both the camera and the S8

[TheOversteerLever]

Rawwr said:

One might think that Samsung are being a little more cautious with how much battery they squeeze into their devices

Haha, yeah, that's a fair point I guess!

[Ste1987]

BlackLabel said:

Bet the s8 plus with its 6.2in display is lovely. Not very practical at that size though. Where will the constant rise in phone display sizes stop?

Somewhat relevent:


Back on topic, I got the S7E on the upgrade scheme last year so I've preordered the S8+. Disappointed they don't do discount for those already on the scheme, ah well.

[tankplanker]

RTB said:

I used to get genuinely excited about new phones and loved the process of finding uses for all the new features. I now think of them more like consumable white goods than the life affirming geek gadgets that I used to treat them as.

I used to spend months finding ways of embedding my smart phone (and related android gadgets) into my life. Now everything just works and I'm struggling to justify the new features.

Case in point: Work have just issued us with Samsung J5s, I switched it on, held it back to back with my S6 Edge+ and within about 15 minutes had the J5 set up identically to my S6. I now use them interchangeably and the user experience on the J5 is perfectly adequate, to the point where if I leave my S6 at home I can still can 95% of the use out of the J5.

If I stitch myself into an S8, I'll sync it all up like my S6 and end up having paid 700 quid to get about 2% more function out of it in the real world.

I'm trying to talk myself out of the reflex to get an S8.....

I should go and buy a Sony RX100V and keep my S6 for another 2 years....

I'll end up buying both the camera and the S8

Very few people need anything other than a mid range phone, and most could probably survive just fine with a budget phone if they used one the alternative facebook apps. The days of even a good mid range phone being miles behind the flagship for normal usage are long gone for Android devices.

While I like the reduced bezels they do not go far enough for me, I was hoping for something closer to Xiaomi's Mi Mix, small steps I guess.

I'm wondering if we'll see a reduced spec version (as something has to give when you shrink the phone) of the S8 with a ~5" screen that has the same foot print of the iPhone SE? I could see that being a big seller.

[Ste1987]

tankplanker said:

RTB said:

I used to get genuinely excited about new phones and loved the process of finding uses for all the new features. I now think of them more like consumable white goods than the life affirming geek gadgets that I used to treat them as.

I used to spend months finding ways of embedding my smart phone (and related android gadgets) into my life. Now everything just works and I'm struggling to justify the new features.

Case in point: Work have just issued us with Samsung J5s, I switched it on, held it back to back with my S6 Edge+ and within about 15 minutes had the J5 set up identically to my S6. I now use them interchangeably and the user experience on the J5 is perfectly adequate, to the point where if I leave my S6 at home I can still can 95% of the use out of the J5.

If I stitch myself into an S8, I'll sync it all up like my S6 and end up having paid 700 quid to get about 2% more function out of it in the real world.

I'm trying to talk myself out of the reflex to get an S8.....

I should go and buy a Sony RX100V and keep my S6 for another 2 years....

I'll end up buying both the camera and the S8

Very few people need anything other than a mid range phone, and most could probably survive just fine with a budget phone if they used one the alternative facebook apps. The days of even a good mid range phone being miles behind the flagship for normal usage are long gone for Android devices.

While I like the reduced bezels they do not go far enough for me, I was hoping for something closer to Xiaomi's Mi Mix, small steps I guess.

I'm wondering if we'll see a reduced spec version (as something has to give when you shrink the phone) of the S8 with a ~5" screen that has the same foot print of the iPhone SE? I could see that being a big seller.

Don't the Galaxy A3 and A5 fill that gap?

[tankplanker]

Ste1987 said:

Don't the Galaxy A3 and A5 fill that gap?

Yup, an update of those to shrink the bezels and thus reduce overall phone size would be great.

[rscott]

AJB88 said:

TheJimi said:

So, going off topic a tad, if one doesn't want a big phone, but wants a high spec device and android the answer is Pixel.

Right?

if you have £££ to spend then yes.

Or perhaps the OnePlus 3T ? Same processor and screen resolution as the Pixel, but considerably cheaper. My only concern is they're apparently very susceptible to moisture damage.

[CaptainSensib1e]

Was seriously consoidering getng one of these, but £689 and £779 for the G8+! Wow. I just can't justify the spend, so have ordered a S7 Edge for £470 from Amazon. 95% of the phone for 70% of the money.

[downthepub]

CaptainSensib1e said:

Was seriously consoidering getng one of these, but £689 and £779 for the G8+! Wow. I just can't justify the spend, so have ordered a S7 Edge for £470 from Amazon. 95% of the phone for 70% of the money.

Yep, I'm in this same situation, really very interested but that high price is off putting. In recent times I have been getting a little fed up of my S5 lagging - I like the screen and the HDMI out (via an MHL adapter) is handy. In the meanwhile I've given it a factory reset to see if any snappiness will come back. If it does, may hang on to see what happens in the market.

[Ste1987]

http://www.samsung.com/in/apps/samsung-dex/

Pretty intrigued by this. Estimated to retail at £129, which is not bad I think.

[Russ35]

Ste1987 said:

http://www.samsung.com/in/apps/samsung-dex/

Pretty intrigued by this. Estimated to retail at £129, which is not bad I think.

Nothing new, Microsoft have had it (Continuum) on the high end Windows phones for 18mnths, and I think somebody else had tried something similar before MS.

[HantsRat]

Nothing ground braking has been introduced on phones for a good few years.

I'll be sticking with my S6 for another couple of years. It does everything I need it to do. Can't really see much difference bar maybe a better camera and screen but who actually sits down and watches a film on a phone screen? And I can never notice the different between cameras.

It seems releasing a phone every year or 2 is just to please the sheep that MUST have the new device. Like those strange people that queue up outside the Apple store and camp over night for an iPod.

[clonmult]

Russ35 said:

Ste1987 said:

http://www.samsung.com/in/apps/samsung-dex/

Pretty intrigued by this. Estimated to retail at £129, which is not bad I think.

Nothing new, Microsoft have had it (Continuum) on the high end Windows phones for 18mnths, and I think somebody else had tried something similar before MS.

Continuum will likely be better, as the OS has been designed for it from the outset. Whereas Android apps are not designed for such usage. And they both suffer the same problem - if you've got to carry a dock, keyboard and mouse, why not just carry a laptop instead?

And I've been struck by the fact that Samsung have copied the various app icons from Symbian Belle. The S8 icons look almost identical to those that I have on my old Nokia 808.

[leglessAlex]

rscott said:

AJB88 said:

TheJimi said:

So, going off topic a tad, if one doesn't want a big phone, but wants a high spec device and android the answer is Pixel.

Right?

if you have £££ to spend then yes.

Or perhaps the OnePlus 3T ? Same processor and screen resolution as the Pixel, but considerably cheaper. My only concern is they're apparently very susceptible to moisture damage.

I actually just went from a OP3 to a Pixel XL and they aren't in the same league. Pixel has a higher quality feel, much better camera, smoother software and a higher resolution screen.

Unless you're talking about the regular Pixel which does have a 'low' res screen, but then it's a half inch smaller in the screen so not really the same size category.

[TheJimi]

leglessAlex said:

I actually just went from a OP3 to a Pixel XL and they aren't in the same league. Pixel has a higher quality feel, much better camera, smoother software and a higher resolution screen.

Unless you're talking about the regular Pixel which does have a 'low' res screen, but then it's a half inch smaller in the screen so not really the same size category.

Exactly. I specifically mentioned smaller size - the Pixel is that, the OnePlus isn't.