Galaxy S8 & S8+ Review – A PC Guy's Perspective
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
2,015 words · ~10 min read
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some of you have noticed the apple watch on my wrist recently and
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it's true i got so frustrated with Android's
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craptastic power management for background tasks that when i reformatted
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my Android daily driver galaxy s7 and
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started carrying the iphone 7 as a stopgap solution along with a lightning
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to three and a half millimeter adapter i never went back
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but the iphone is far from flawless sure
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symmetry is beauty but the ergonomics leave a lot to be
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desired and iOS works damn well these
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days even for heavy google service users like me
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but it still has redonkulous limitations
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like not being able to move icons around at will
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so then will the galaxy s8 be enough to bring me
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back let's find out
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hp's new omen x line up comes equipped with Intel's seventh generation core i7
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processor check it out at the link in the video description
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meet the galaxy s8 samsung may have lacked the courage to
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remove the three and a half millimeter jack but other than that it's got almost
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everything you'd expect from a 2017 flagship with top of the line specs and
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modern features like usb type-c wireless
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charging and ip68 water resistance
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this is indisputably the finest design
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work ever from samsung's mobile division
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and i remember like it was yesterday being blown away by the quantum leap
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forward that they took with the s6 edge but that was nothing compared to this
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i already liked the curved front and rear glass from the note 7 so i was
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amped to see that return but when i first heard about some of the other
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changes like the taller than usual 18
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and a half by nine aspect ratio and the
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decision to remove the hardware home button that's been a galaxy staple since
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they first blatantly ripped off the iphone seven years ago
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i was pretty skeptical but
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what samsung has done here is amazing
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for reasons that probably aren't immediately apparent
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let's get back to the whole ripping off the iphone conversation
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whether they actually did that all those years ago and to what degree
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still hasn't been resolved but that's what's different with this
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phone no objective person can make that
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argument today both of the s8 and s8 plus are
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significant steps forward from an aging
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iphone design that's been with us for nearly three years now
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the curved front and rear shape that made the note 7 the most holdable
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phablet ever work just as well on the s8 plus and
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then even better on a line of size device like the s8 and this together
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with the tight integration of biometric authentication has managed to change
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long time phone use habits of mine in a matter of hours an impressive feat
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first is the way i access apps
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i've dismissed samsung's previous efforts to make the curved screen useful
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as contrived but as someone with only a handful of
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frequently used apps and basically no friends
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i can now do over 90 of what i would do on my phone including
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capturing screenshots with a simple swipe from the right
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second is the way i unlock my phone
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i don't recommend samsung's uh facial
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method could get a little messy for you if someone uses a picture to unlock your
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phone but there's lots of other options and
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between google's own smart locking based on location and sensor data
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samsung's retina unlock that picks me up a good 60 plus percent of the time
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during normal use and the rear fingerprint sensor it's
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finally gotten to the point where nobody else can pick up my device and just
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start using it but for me i'm not thinking about security while i
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try to use it which is the holy grail of
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biometric security though with that said i still would have
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very much preferred the rumored fingerprint sensor under the on-screen
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home button which leads us then into big change number three the way i interact
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with the phone's home back and multitasking buttons which by
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the way can be rearranged if you want now
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yes i never missed my precious dedicated
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buttons once unlike other Android phones that require
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an extra press to unhide the buttons that then cover up valuable vertical
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scrolling real estate or whatever content it is you're trying to enjoy
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samsung's unique aspect ratio leaves enough room that it never feels like
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they're in the way and even when they're hidden you can still access the home
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button with a hard press from anywhere it is so
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intuitive which isn't to say that there's nothing about the s8 that falls
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behind the iphone apple's 3d touch pressure sensitive screen is just
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so much better aside from the obvious it
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covers the whole screen aspect the quality of the haptic feedback is an
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area that samsung could definitely stand to improve
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and while i'm whining now that apple's fixed it that single bottom speaker
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without stereo backup from the earpiece speaker that's already there just use it
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please is so 2015.
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and furthermore while the 2960x1440
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amoled display has impressive specs like
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HDR support even with video enhancement off and the
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cinema profile selected it still cranks color saturation in a way that might
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appeal to average consumers but that looks very unnatural next to the iphone
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the non-existent improvements to the camera are a sore spot for some people
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but honestly for me i'm not that surprised that in spite of this sensor
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hardware change not much has been done to image quality
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or features here if you were happy with the lightning
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fast if slightly processing heavy rear camera and wide angle selfie lens from
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before then you'll be happy with them on the s8
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and if you weren't then man come on
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it must be hard being so damn difficult to please do you have any idea how hard
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it is to build a 4k video camera that's smaller than your fingernail
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sorry oops i actually didn't mean to put that right over top of the sensor i was
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trying to unlock the phone or maybe i was trying to touch the heart rate
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sensor uh okay so that is one fair
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complaint to samsung's credit the oleophobic
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coating on the camera glass is really good but you will end up with janky
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pictures from time to time due to the unfortunate placement
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of those sensors on either side let's talk software now the nougat
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flavor of touchwiz or is it samsung experience whatever they're calling it
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is still a mixed bag it's lighter and higher performance than ever with some
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fantastic new innovations to app and
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icon management better multitasking a
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gorgeous new theme that makes the screen feel even more spacious than it is a
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crop mode for the extra widescreen that already works on youtube and enough
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great little customizations that i honestly think apple finally has to
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respond with some customizations of their own in the next version of iOS
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there is some bullcrap though that thing where it installs bloatware
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and locks to the first carrier sim you insert well that's back for another
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round of me hating it the always-on display
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is in my mind pretty useless without a more detailed preview like what motorola
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does when you press on the notifications swiping up and swiping down from
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anywhere bringing up the app tray feels like a waste of a gesture to me
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down should bring down your notifications the ambient light sensor
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algorithm needs some serious work it was all over the place in my use and the
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mobile hotspot button has been removed as an option from the quick settings for
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some reason that is as inexplicable as it is infuriating to me
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furthermore samsung's decision to disallow remapping of the bixby button
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is a purely stubborn move that i hope
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they reverse sooner rather than later without being offensive i hope
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i feel a little bad for people whose lives are so predictable that their
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digital assistant manages to do anything more useful than pop up a card from time
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to time with some recent news i don't personally care about digital
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assistance beyond setting a reminder or an alarm and
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neither do a lot of people and if i did
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i would just long press the home button and use google's
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so final answer time will i switch
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this phone's overall usability is
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wonderful almost every objection
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like the way that the bezel-less design makes edge keys a little more difficult
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to reach while typing can be overcome with a pretty simple habit change but
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my main issue with Android battery management remains
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i mean look at this random notification that popped up informing me that gmail
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was sucking back battery what i even went out of my way on this phone
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to only sync up two of my google accounts a pretty typical loadout rather
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than the five plus that are required to manage all of our youtube channels and
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making matters worse than that when i go to investigate further all i get is a
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black hole what kind of broken math is this
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then the next day having changed nothing about the way i'm using the phone i've
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got 30 left at the end of the day with a more normal battery life decreasing
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curve here but equally opaque numbers
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how is this not fixed by now
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yes there are power saving modes but you know what kind of a solution that is
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that's designing a crummy antenna and telling your users they're holding the
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phone wrong i understand that google and samsung can't control the entire app
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ecosystem but at the very least what i'm asking for is functioning tools so i can
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diagnose the issue myself
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so then yes i am switching to it it's really
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gorgeous but the first time this is the hottest thing
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in my pants when my wife walks into the room i'm going back to
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the iphone
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whoa how'd i get over here i guess i must be filming an ad pickup for you
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guessed it d brand dbrand is the place
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to go if you want a wicked awesome looking vinyl skin that fits your device
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and just plain feels great they use high
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quality authentic true textured 3m vinyl on every product they've got unrivaled
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precision they ship worldwide on the cheap and
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if you guys were impressed by the dragon
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skin skin that i had on this phone
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during this video you're not the only one this has got to be their best skin
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yet it looks fantastic i don't know what
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it is is it scales is it burnt wood is
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it freaking it doesn't matter it looks fantastic and dramatically improves the
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grippiness of the phone at the same time so check it out at the link in the video
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description you can use their configurator to see exactly what your
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device will look like before you buy and uh i guess i've really run out of
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talking points here they're nice people or robots as it were
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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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button get subscribed maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff we
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featured at the link in the video description also down there is our merch
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store which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum where you can join up and talk tech it's a pretty
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cool place to hang out