some of you have noticed the apple watch on my wrist recently and
it's true i got so frustrated with Android's
craptastic power management for background tasks that when i reformatted
my Android daily driver galaxy s7 and
started carrying the iphone 7 as a stopgap solution along with a lightning
to three and a half millimeter adapter i never went back
but the iphone is far from flawless sure
symmetry is beauty but the ergonomics leave a lot to be
desired and iOS works damn well these
days even for heavy google service users like me
but it still has redonkulous limitations
like not being able to move icons around at will
so then will the galaxy s8 be enough to bring me
back let's find out
hp's new omen x line up comes equipped with Intel's seventh generation core i7
processor check it out at the link in the video description
meet the galaxy s8 samsung may have lacked the courage to
remove the three and a half millimeter jack but other than that it's got almost
everything you'd expect from a 2017 flagship with top of the line specs and
modern features like usb type-c wireless
charging and ip68 water resistance
this is indisputably the finest design
work ever from samsung's mobile division
and i remember like it was yesterday being blown away by the quantum leap
forward that they took with the s6 edge but that was nothing compared to this
i already liked the curved front and rear glass from the note 7 so i was
amped to see that return but when i first heard about some of the other
changes like the taller than usual 18
and a half by nine aspect ratio and the
decision to remove the hardware home button that's been a galaxy staple since
they first blatantly ripped off the iphone seven years ago
i was pretty skeptical but
what samsung has done here is amazing
for reasons that probably aren't immediately apparent
let's get back to the whole ripping off the iphone conversation
whether they actually did that all those years ago and to what degree
still hasn't been resolved but that's what's different with this
phone no objective person can make that
argument today both of the s8 and s8 plus are
significant steps forward from an aging
iphone design that's been with us for nearly three years now
the curved front and rear shape that made the note 7 the most holdable
phablet ever work just as well on the s8 plus and
then even better on a line of size device like the s8 and this together
with the tight integration of biometric authentication has managed to change
long time phone use habits of mine in a matter of hours an impressive feat
first is the way i access apps
i've dismissed samsung's previous efforts to make the curved screen useful
as contrived but as someone with only a handful of
frequently used apps and basically no friends
i can now do over 90 of what i would do on my phone including
capturing screenshots with a simple swipe from the right
second is the way i unlock my phone
i don't recommend samsung's uh facial
method could get a little messy for you if someone uses a picture to unlock your
phone but there's lots of other options and
between google's own smart locking based on location and sensor data
samsung's retina unlock that picks me up a good 60 plus percent of the time
during normal use and the rear fingerprint sensor it's
finally gotten to the point where nobody else can pick up my device and just
start using it but for me i'm not thinking about security while i
try to use it which is the holy grail of
biometric security though with that said i still would have
very much preferred the rumored fingerprint sensor under the on-screen
home button which leads us then into big change number three the way i interact
with the phone's home back and multitasking buttons which by
the way can be rearranged if you want now
yes i never missed my precious dedicated
buttons once unlike other Android phones that require
an extra press to unhide the buttons that then cover up valuable vertical
scrolling real estate or whatever content it is you're trying to enjoy
samsung's unique aspect ratio leaves enough room that it never feels like
they're in the way and even when they're hidden you can still access the home
button with a hard press from anywhere it is so
intuitive which isn't to say that there's nothing about the s8 that falls
behind the iphone apple's 3d touch pressure sensitive screen is just
so much better aside from the obvious it
covers the whole screen aspect the quality of the haptic feedback is an
area that samsung could definitely stand to improve
and while i'm whining now that apple's fixed it that single bottom speaker
without stereo backup from the earpiece speaker that's already there just use it
please is so 2015.
and furthermore while the 2960x1440
amoled display has impressive specs like
HDR support even with video enhancement off and the
cinema profile selected it still cranks color saturation in a way that might
appeal to average consumers but that looks very unnatural next to the iphone
the non-existent improvements to the camera are a sore spot for some people
but honestly for me i'm not that surprised that in spite of this sensor
hardware change not much has been done to image quality
or features here if you were happy with the lightning
fast if slightly processing heavy rear camera and wide angle selfie lens from
before then you'll be happy with them on the s8
and if you weren't then man come on
it must be hard being so damn difficult to please do you have any idea how hard
it is to build a 4k video camera that's smaller than your fingernail
sorry oops i actually didn't mean to put that right over top of the sensor i was
trying to unlock the phone or maybe i was trying to touch the heart rate
sensor uh okay so that is one fair
complaint to samsung's credit the oleophobic
coating on the camera glass is really good but you will end up with janky
pictures from time to time due to the unfortunate placement
of those sensors on either side let's talk software now the nougat
flavor of touchwiz or is it samsung experience whatever they're calling it
is still a mixed bag it's lighter and higher performance than ever with some
fantastic new innovations to app and
icon management better multitasking a
gorgeous new theme that makes the screen feel even more spacious than it is a
crop mode for the extra widescreen that already works on youtube and enough
great little customizations that i honestly think apple finally has to
respond with some customizations of their own in the next version of iOS
there is some bullcrap though that thing where it installs bloatware
and locks to the first carrier sim you insert well that's back for another
round of me hating it the always-on display
is in my mind pretty useless without a more detailed preview like what motorola
does when you press on the notifications swiping up and swiping down from
anywhere bringing up the app tray feels like a waste of a gesture to me
down should bring down your notifications the ambient light sensor
algorithm needs some serious work it was all over the place in my use and the
mobile hotspot button has been removed as an option from the quick settings for
some reason that is as inexplicable as it is infuriating to me
furthermore samsung's decision to disallow remapping of the bixby button
is a purely stubborn move that i hope
they reverse sooner rather than later without being offensive i hope
i feel a little bad for people whose lives are so predictable that their
digital assistant manages to do anything more useful than pop up a card from time
to time with some recent news i don't personally care about digital
assistance beyond setting a reminder or an alarm and
neither do a lot of people and if i did
i would just long press the home button and use google's
so final answer time will i switch
this phone's overall usability is
wonderful almost every objection
like the way that the bezel-less design makes edge keys a little more difficult
to reach while typing can be overcome with a pretty simple habit change but
my main issue with Android battery management remains
i mean look at this random notification that popped up informing me that gmail
was sucking back battery what i even went out of my way on this phone
to only sync up two of my google accounts a pretty typical loadout rather
than the five plus that are required to manage all of our youtube channels and
making matters worse than that when i go to investigate further all i get is a
black hole what kind of broken math is this
then the next day having changed nothing about the way i'm using the phone i've
got 30 left at the end of the day with a more normal battery life decreasing
curve here but equally opaque numbers
how is this not fixed by now
yes there are power saving modes but you know what kind of a solution that is
that's designing a crummy antenna and telling your users they're holding the
phone wrong i understand that google and samsung can't control the entire app
ecosystem but at the very least what i'm asking for is functioning tools so i can
diagnose the issue myself
so then yes i am switching to it it's really
gorgeous but the first time this is the hottest thing
in my pants when my wife walks into the room i'm going back to
the iphone
whoa how'd i get over here i guess i must be filming an ad pickup for you
guessed it d brand dbrand is the place
to go if you want a wicked awesome looking vinyl skin that fits your device
and just plain feels great they use high
quality authentic true textured 3m vinyl on every product they've got unrivaled
precision they ship worldwide on the cheap and
if you guys were impressed by the dragon
skin skin that i had on this phone
during this video you're not the only one this has got to be their best skin
yet it looks fantastic i don't know what
it is is it scales is it burnt wood is
it freaking it doesn't matter it looks fantastic and dramatically improves the
grippiness of the phone at the same time so check it out at the link in the video
description you can use their configurator to see exactly what your
device will look like before you buy and uh i guess i've really run out of
talking points here they're nice people or robots as it were
so thanks for watching guys if you disliked this video you can hit that button but if you liked it hit the like
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