Consumer Reports Rates Galaxy S8 Over iPhone 7 as 'iPhone 8' Rumored to Address Most Shortcomings

[nikicampos]

Am I the only one that thinks no bezels and rounded screen corners are terrible ideas from any practical standpoint. Sure, they look kinda cool, but that's it. Functionally they are chock full of compromises.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3158476/smartphones/smartphone-bezels.html

I seriously, truly hope Apple doesn't fall victim to the mob-trend mentality on those features in particular.

Thank you!!!! my thoughts exactly, I don't get this fascination for no bezels, I have no idea how a case works with that, I hate cases but after dropping my iPhone 4 too many times I just made peace with them and every iPhone since then had a case.

Also, why invent a new long resolution ratio, who said that the size of the physical phone has to be covered by the screen, couldn't they just made the phone shorter and keep the 16:9 ratio, I just hope Apple doesn't follow this trend, I really don't want black bars for months to come until the apps update to the new resolution.

 

[lazyrighteye]

Can't wait to see how the trolls spin this in Sept. Should be interesting.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

I'm going to go out on a limb. You didn't read the source article. Apparently, it was pointless read or you have a completely different definition of what a comparison is. In no way, shape, or form is this a comparison or match up. In that entire article the iPhone is mentioned in exactly 1 sentence and that sentence also references the LG G6. 1 sentence a comparison does not make. Kinda makes your argument moot. Sorry.

You are correct. My bad. My judgement was, as you suspect, based wholly from the MR headline. The CR review is just a review of the S8, which is obviously appropriate. I don't know why I fall for MR's out-of-context headlines. Lesson learned.

 

[techconc]

What does that have to do with being shallow. Do you never buy shoes or pants cuz you liked them. Would you buy an iPhone if it looked like a Nokia N80 in 2017? Ew

Consumer electronics are typically not considered fashion accessories. Maybe something like a smartwatch or other such "wearable" device would fall under that category. Do you purchase a dSLR camera based on what it looks like? Do you purchase a lawn mower based on what it looks like? As for the Nokia N80, that's not a great comparison because it's not a functional equivalent to today's smartphones. Having a big screen in front of the device is a function, regardless of what it looks like. The Nokia N80 doesn't have that function, so your question is irrelevant.

Make no mistake, I'm sure you're not alone for purchasing such things based on appearance primarily. However, that doesn't make it any less shallow. Either way, my bigger issue is your contradiction. There were phones that had smaller chins and foreheads that subjectively may have looked better at the time you bought your iPhone 7. Yet, you made the choice to go with the iPhone. To complain now about the looks is rather disingenuous as you had other choices before.

 

[simply258]

The funny thing is that the iPhone 8 will be what the iPhone 7 should have been, but one year later and probably overpriced as it's technology all the other manufacturers have been selling for almost a year already at a more reasonable price.

I disagree on the technology that all others have. First it's predicted to have fingerprint scanner on the screen, that alone is a big feat. Then with 2 rear cameras when the S8 has 1, force touch which almost no one has, and who knows what else Apple has up their sleeves.

 

[techconc]

I do think there is a difference between talking about it and actually doing it. Apple talked about it (at least there was a rumor about it) and Samsung actually did it. Doing actually speaks a lot louder and means a lot more. There is no reason that Apple waited except that is what they usually do or they couldn't make the new design work any quicker.

Except, they did a half baked version of the concept that put the fingerprint sensor on the back. Apple could have come to market sooner if they did a half baked implementation as well. You could say the same thing like the fingerprint sensor itself... Motorola did it first in a phone, but with a poor implementation. Google had Google Wallet before Apple Pay... then Google had to go back to the drawing board with AndroidPay, etc, etc... The point being, implementation matters. Being "first" is one thing, but being "first to get it right" is something else entirely.

 

[69Mustang]

You are correct. My bad. My judgement was, as you suspect, based wholly from the MR headline. The CR review is just a review of the S8, which is obviously appropriate. I don't know why I fall for MR's out-of-context headlines. Lesson learned.

Do not feel bad at all. We all do it from time to time. I'm definitely guilty of it more times than I'm willing to admit. Judging by most of the comments on this article, the headline got a lot of other people too. Let's face it, to some extent we're all triggered... and that's just the way they want us.

 

[SSDGUY]

As a iPhone user since the very beginning, in my opinion, the poor stability of iOS and virtually useless Siri voice recognition sets the bar to beat the iPhone pretty low these days.....

Something happened to Siri about year ago. Used to work quite well for me, but now it comes up with bizarre words that sound nothing like what I spoke. Yup. Virtually useless.

 

[epca12]

The funny thing is that the iPhone 8 will be what the iPhone 7 should have been, but one year later and probably overpriced as it's technology all the other manufacturers have been selling for almost a year already at a more reasonable price.

It's better waiting a year as it's the iPhones 10th anniversary

 

[petsounds]

I didn't know that Consumer Reports now takes the reviewer's personal preference for aesthetics into account in their ratings. I thought they were supposed to rate based on features and reliability, and that's it. I guess that CR doesn't exist anymore.

 

[techconc]

Queue the comments against Consumer Reports:

1. "Does Consumer Reports even exist anymore"?
2. "Consumer Reports is not what it was in the last century."
3. "Consumer Reports ... <snark comment>"

Amusing, because Consumer Reports is vendor-neutral, and their evaluations, which you might disagree with, are driven by engineering and not driven by vendors' contributions -- direct or indirect.

Are they perfect? Absolutely, not. Far from it.

Being self-sustaining by their subscribers, Consumer Reports does have lapses that one has to account for:

No long-term testing under normal daily use.​

This applies mostly to cars, which have to be sold immediately after testing due to obvious reasons, forcing Consumer Reports to rely on their subscribers' yearly questionnaires, which might be biased. (Example: Will the owner of a Tesla ever say that their mechanicals or electronics are troublesome?)

Ratings may lag between products tested and new competitive products by several months.
​

This leads to cases of unequal ratings between new and older products, such as the S8 and iPhone(s). And, sometimes the products rated are no longer available.

However, when buying a car, a kitchen appliance, a mattress, etc. I check Consumer Reports to provide initial, but not final, guidance.

But that is just me.

Disclaimer: I have no personal relationship with Consumer Reports -- just a subscriber.

I think the point you're missing is this. Consumer reports used to be a respected publication. Having said that, there were certain product categories, namely consumer electronics in general, where even in it's heyday, they were simply incompetent.

What you may not realize is that CR got rid of their professional editorial staff back in 2013 and have been no more reliable than your typical blog site since that time. This sort of thing is well documented. Perhaps you should research this a bit before commenting further.
Example:
http://www.alternet.org/media/exposed-behind-brain-drain-consumer-reports
[doublepost=1497466967][/doublepost]

You think I would ever take my time to help someone like you, the irony of your post - imagine an Android user posting all that nonsense you just spouted. Also how is the phone, camera or safari browser 3rd party applications? Also, what do I have to gain with trolling or spouting BS exactly, I've been here since 2012, bought numerous Apple products and may do so in the future yet.
...

The problem is this. Anyone can comb the support pages for any product. Do you realize how many BS generalizations I could make about Android in general based on the support issues listed for any Android phone? If you're going to make generalizations, then, they should be repeatable. I should have the issues that you speak of. Yet, I don't. I can pull up my camera instantly and.... viola... no camera freezes, etc. There are literally a Billion iOS users. Of course some extremely small percentage of users will encounter some rare problem at some point in time. There isn't a product on this planet where that doesn't apply. However, the items that you speak of are certainly not typical. Why is it that I can't reproduce any of the issues you complain about? While I do believe there is a phenomenon whereby dumb things happen to dumb people, I seriously doubt the explanation is that simple. You are either extremely unlucky or more likely you are a troll that has posted based on some rare occurrence of an issue posted in a support forum somewhere. Again, if you want to play that game, than I can make the same irrelevant claims.
You know because apparently, every Samsung S8 has issues such as red tint screens, "dqa keeps stopping", auto rotate doesn't work, Google's launcher doesn't work, push notifications are delayed, Android auto issues, connectivity issues... you know, the proof that this is a major issue for all S8 devices are internet links to such problems, right?
http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-s8-problems-766990/

 

[bkayne]

I'm not sure I understand the need for the headline explaining away the 7's shortcomings. The 8 is not an available product. Imagine: "Consumer Reports Rates iPhone 7 over Galaxy S8 as 'Galaxy S9' Rumored to Address Most Shortcomings."

 

[jimbobb24]

The finger print sensor is on the back. Nothing else they say matters. Its a crap phone. I would never buy a phone made that stupidly. Apple be smarter - user experience first stupid big screen second.

Consumer reports used to test things- did they verify the water resistance? Independent tests online suggest the 7 has better water resistance RIGHT NOW.

 

[mrochester]

The S8 is a beautiful device but there's no way I could downgrade to Android from iOS.

 

[Porco]

Am I the only one that thinks no bezels and rounded screen corners are terrible ideas from any practical standpoint. Sure, they look kinda cool, but that's it. Functionally they are chock full of compromises.
[...]
I seriously, truly hope Apple doesn't fall victim to the mob-trend mentality on those features in particular.

I agree with you except I don't even think they look kinda cool. Just IMHO though. Choice is good, which is part of why I don't want Apple making phones that look too similar.

I think these look quite average to be honest, I don't really like the centered camera and stuff. But good luck to anyone who loves them. *shrugs*.

 

[melendezest]

*SIGH*

Enough with the "Android doesn't update as often" etc garbage.

There is nothing I'm missing from my Android device. If I were to switch to iOS, however, I'd be missing A LOT.

Apple trickles down features at a snail-in-hot-tar's pace. Still waiting to see Android features in iOS for YEARS now.

So if you like iOS or dislike TouchWiz that's one thing, but to keep bringing up the updates as an Android or Sammy negative is BS. I get plenty of security updates on my Note5, and recently got Nougat on it (not that I needed it). The high level of customization and features already existing on Android means that OS updates are somewhat whoopteedoo (aside from Security ones, of course).

If you're actually interested in an Android-based opinion, this article is pretty decent:

http://www.androidauthority.com/touchwiz-galaxy-s8-best-android-skin-767995/

 

[elcrian]

I own both. I much prefer the S8 - design, features, no adapters, much more flexibility. Being able to use normal headphones, charging it with normal, standardized cables, customized home screens, changing default apps, all things I won't give up.

The only thing that is really horrible is Samsung's way of copying literally every. single. Google app. Every one of them, everything is on there twice. I have no clue how any of it works.

The notification system is also a joke, everything sends you notifications by default. I get two weather notifications. No clue how to turn them off. Yes, thank you, 90F in AZ, says so on my home screen already.

 

[techconc]

*SIGH*

Enough with the "Android doesn't update as often" etc garbage.

There is nothing I'm missing from my Android device. If I were to switch to iOS, however, I'd be missing A LOT.

Apple trickles down features at a snail-in-hot-tar's pace. Still waiting to see Android features in iOS for YEARS now.

..../

Sigh... It's not surprising that things as important as critical security updates aren't important to Android users. I get that... if they were important, you wouldn't be on Android in the first place. However, attempting to down play this reality just makes you look foolish. Also, before you go on about updates coming through the play store, let me know how that works for kernel level vulnerabilities.

You claim you'd be missing a lot by switching to iOS? Yet, you're unable to even provide a few examples to illustrate your point? I know, micro-managing the preferences to your various widgets is probably very important to you.

Apple trickles down features at a snail's pace....
Translation: Apple takes the time to implement features correctly and securely from the beginning rather than rushing to market just to claim to be first. There are countless examples of features coming first on Android that were implemented very poorly. Everything from fingerprint scanners, wallet payment systems, LTE chips that ran down the battery faster than the device could be charged, third party keyboards that send your private passwords and credentials up to third party servers, etc, etc.. the list goes on.

 

[DEman19901]

I agree. How do you even do any proper one-to-one comparison of phone with the current release strategies?

As an owner of a Galaxy S7 Edge and a iPHone 7, I don't see why the S8 would not be better than the iPhone 7 being that the S7 Edge already is.

 

[jpine]

Article needs correction.the Galaxy S7 or any galaxy never had battery issues.even the link you go to when pressing Galaxy S7 battery brings you to a nite 7 post.

I've had nothing BUT battery issues with my S7. It will not hold a charge for more than 30 hours with casual use. Using Maps or Waze GPS cuts that down to about 5 hours. Worst piece of tech I ever owned. My sister's BF has the same problems. I know I can't draw conclusions about an entire product line based on an n of 2, but I'm going back to the iPhone. The only question is if I suck it up for 6 months to get the 8 or get the 7 now. I'll probably wait.

 

[Technarchy]

I have a 7+ and Galaxy S8+.

The Samsung is pretty much the better device across the board.

 

[WatchFromAfar]

Next iPhone will be better than any androids and again it is the most secured and safest device in the planet.

So you can predict the future now? boy, you're smart......

 

[jasonklee]

Awwww yeah. That bezel-less display trumps whatever silly 3D Touch display Apple uses. Pressure sensitivity has no place on a TOUCH screen. And Apple wastes time and my storage with useless productively and creativity tools. No one cares about Pages, GarageBand, or whatever crap Apple shoves down our throats. Samsung wastes no time on such gimmicks.

And that display is waaaaaay more important than keeping a front-facing home button. Think about ergonomics and how-it-works design.

Samsung display > 3D Touch/front Home button.

Looks like we finally have an iPhone killer.

 

[admob71]

As an owner of a Galaxy S7 Edge and a iPHone 7, I don't see why the S8 would not be better than the iPhone 7 being that the S7 Edge already is.

Why stop there, the s6 which was really the first galaxy on the modern age trumped all over the ip6. To quote a Co worker, it makes my ip6 look pre historic. It's weird brand loyalty and blinkers that are the only thing keep g the iPhone sales up. If it didn't have that logo, it would sell no more than a run of the mill HTC.

 

[jca24]

consumer reports is junk
galaxy is junk
nuf said
Apple will knock it out of the park this fall.