Galaxy S8 Retail Price to Significantly Undercut Premium 'iPhone 8'

[symphara]

I've been on iOS for a long time and it works in 99% of apps.

Not on the iPad for sure. It runs iOS as well. In fact, I think there's only one app I use that supports the back swipe, and that's Safari. Off the top of my head I can tell you that Netflix, YouTube, Chrome, Twitch, Photos, not even their own Settings app doesn't support back swipe. It's usually a mish-mash of navigation, with the back button placed somewhere in the app, usually on top of the screen, just out of easy reach.

Honestly I think that today Google's software is just so strong that any phone that doesn't have Google Now integration is gimped, and this is getting worse now that Google Assistant is available on any recent Android phone.

Having using both iOS and Android, I think iOS has a very large deficit of functionality, extremely poor notifications, and it's not very customisable either (widgets being a huge issue). And every time I use it I immediately see that nearly everything requires more user actions (taps/swipes) on iOS to accomplish the same actions, on top of it requiring an external application like iTunes, which is more time consuming.

I can think of no advantage an iPhone has except its faster game loading performance (but I don't play games on my phone), and status signalling (which I despise).
[doublepost=1490088013][/doublepost]

can someonetell me how to get a gs7 for 400 or 450 like a bunch of people keep saying how the galaxies will drop a few months after release?

I went to Verizon today and the gs7 was 669 and they said they just dropped it 100 and also have the same deal on an iPhone 7

where are all these cheap gs7s?

In Switzerland for sure

I just checked on toppreise.ch: S7 starts at CHF445, S7 Edge at CHF528, unlocked. Same price in USD.

 

[Paul Dawkins]

Expand? You do know there are more definitions for theory than scientific theories right?

• an idea used to account for a situation or justify a course of action: my theory would be that the place has been seriously mismanaged.

Doesn't apply either

 

[Abazigal]

$500-1000 for a telephone!
People pay that for a status symbol or a fashion accessory, not a 'phone.
I refuse to be involved, my IQ has been slipping enough lately.

And the iPhone is being positioned as a way of life, so that sounds about right.

 

[NachoGrande]

The grass isn't always greener, and in many cases it's turning brown. Good luck moving to Android! I was back on iOS after two months.

No doubt, I had a G4 and I didn't like it. But , I'm not sure if I didn't like it or I wasn't used to the OS.

 

[symphara]

And the iPhone is being positioned as a way of life, so that sounds about right.

Hard to imagine a more vacuous existence than having your way of life positioned by a phone.

 

[itguy06]

Not on the iPad for sure. It runs iOS as well. In fact, I think there's only one app I use that supports the back swipe, and that's Safari. Off the top of my head I can tell you that Netflix, YouTube, Chrome, Twitch, Photos, not even their own Settings app doesn't support back swipe. It's usually a mish-mash of navigation, with the back button placed somewhere in the app, usually on top of the screen, just out of easy reach.

Considering this is a thread about the phone, I'd say tablet discussions are not relevant here. I have not had an iPad since early 2015 so I forget how it works. And like I said, Android apps are now including onscreen back buttons so it's becoming the norm across both platforms.

Honestly I think that today Google's software is just so strong that any phone that doesn't have Google Now integration is gimped, and this is getting worse now that Google Assistant is available on any recent Android phone.

These assistants, like VR is a party trick and I bet usage drops off quickly. Siri, Google now, Cortana, and Alexa are cool but IMHO talking to your stuff is fun for all of 10 minutes, then it's a pain in the rear. And Google Assistant still has requirements and many popular phones are not ready for it yet. I'd say it's certainly not a purchasing criteria for the majority of people.

Having using both iOS and Android, I think iOS has a very large deficit of functionality, extremely poor notifications, and it's not very customisable either (widgets being a huge issue). And every time I use it I immediately see that nearly everything requires more user actions (taps/swipes) on iOS to accomplish the same actions, on top of it requiring an external application like iTunes, which is more time consuming.

I'm playing with Android for the 3rd time (previous were Droid X and GS5) now on a ZTE Axon 7 and it has matured quite well. There are a lot of things iOS could learn from it. Homescreen widgets are one - they are crazy useful. As are some of the little things like where you can tell it you're car's BT connection and while you are there the phone won't need a PIN or fingerprint. Some of the other functionality is good but needs work, like split screen on the phone, and a few others that I forget as I'm only on day 3.

I don't find notifications to be any better or worse in the platform other than iOS really F'ed up widgets/notifications with iOS 10. It is interesting how Android is moving to be more like iOS though....

 

[MacQork]

I can think of no advantage an iPhone has except its faster game loading performance (but I don't play games on my phone), and status signalling (which I despise).

If you feel comfortable to sell your soul to Google if you see fit. I wouldn't trust Google to handle my phone. At least Apple claims to protect privacy and has given us 0 reason to doubt that. With Google you ARE the product. That would be a major plus for an iPhone imo

 

[symphara]

Considering this is a thread about the phone, I'd say tablet discussions are not relevant here. I have not had an iPad since early 2015 so I forget how it works. And like I said, Android apps are now including onscreen back buttons so it's becoming the norm across both platforms.

I doubt that iPad and iPhone apps are that different in respect to the back command. The truth is that iOS has no standard way to do this, it never had, the "back swipe" is a clunky band-aid that doesn't universally work and it was poorly thought out to begin with. The gesture is too complicated. Just like the "Back to" app return is clunky and poorly thought out. They were trying so hard to replicate this basic Android functionality without doing it like in Android, but the problem is that probably Android has the optimal solution, so they failed miserably.

Android apps aren't moving to on-screen buttons. Perhaps you've seen one, but there's no "move" in general. To begin with, the most important apps are those made by Google (Inbox/Gmail/Maps/Photos/News/Now/Hangouts/etc) and those have no on-screen back buttons. I doubt it's accepted by the Material Design standard either.

These assistants, like VR is a party trick and I bet usage drops off quickly. Siri, Google now, Cortana, and Alexa are cool but IMHO talking to your stuff is fun for all of 10 minutes, then it's a pain in the rear.

I don't see how they're "a pain in the rear". In the worst case you never interact with them. I personally use voice search all the time, it's very precise and faster than typing, and Google Assistant looks genuinely useful.

I'm playing with Android for the 3rd time (previous were Droid X and GS5) now on a ZTE Axon 7 and it has matured quite well. There are a lot of things iOS could learn from it. Homescreen widgets are one - they are crazy useful. As are some of the little things like where you can tell it you're car's BT connection and while you are there the phone won't need a PIN or fingerprint. Some of the other functionality is good but needs work, like split screen on the phone, and a few others that I forget as I'm only on day 3.

I don't find notifications to be any better or worse in the platform other than iOS really F'ed up widgets/notifications with iOS 10. It is interesting how Android is moving to be more like iOS though....

It's not. iOS is heavily copying Android (notifications, widgets, the "Back to" etc), the problem is that it's copying it badly, since Apple is trying to avoid looking like they ran out of ideas a long time ago (hence ludicrous crap like "force touch" and the Macbook OLED strip, both ergonomically awful) and they're playing catch-up.
[doublepost=1490096413][/doublepost]

If you feel comfortable to sell your soul to Google if you see fit. I wouldn't trust Google to handle my phone. At least Apple claims to protect privacy and has given us 0 reason to doubt that. With Google you ARE the product. That would be a major plus for an iPhone imo

I haven't sold my soul to anyone, and using Google software doesn't make it so. I don't mind the fact they collect data - it's mutually useful in this case.

Apple claims many things and has repeatedly come up short on every claim they made. They're just full of ****.

Using a gimped, grossly overpriced, mediocre phone just to avoid letting Google know what I like reading on the web (which they do anyway if you use Google Search) seems rather stupid.

 

[andy.ringwood]

Strictly speaking of the design, it looks like the phone of the future we've all envisioned for years. And I like it, a lot.

No. The top and bottom still have massive bezels. Once you see the iPhone 8, you'll want it straight away. That phone will be bezel-less.
[doublepost=1490098442][/doublepost]Oh and test the battery this time Samsung! I've seen your advert, each phone goes through a thorough process...

 

[symphara]

No. The top and bottom still have massive bezels. Once you see the iPhone 8, you'll want it straight away. That phone will be bezel-less.

The bezel-less iPhone 8 is vapourware right now, my guess it will stay so and Apple will deliver only an incremental update on the same crap and present it as "magical", "most advanced evah", and idiots worldwide will queue to pay $1000 for it. If it works, why change the recipe? Apple knows it's immoral not to part fools from their money.

And if you think the S8 has "massive" bezels, the ones on the iPhones must appear to you of downright gargantuan, near-biblical proportions.

 

[I7guy]

The bezel-less iPhone 8 is vapourware right now, my guess it will stay so and Apple will deliver only an incremental update on the same crap and present it as "magical", "most advanced evah", and idiots worldwide will queue to pay $1000 for it. If it works, why change the recipe? Apple knows it's immoral not to part fools from their money.

And if you think the S8 has "massive" bezels, the ones on the iPhones must appear to you of downright gargantuan, near-biblical proportions.

Right. Let's not identify our customer base and fail to give them what they want. That's a sure-fire way of avoiding the issue of "having idiots queue worldwide to pay $1000 for a phone".

 

[Nick A]

No. The top and bottom still have massive bezels. Once you see the iPhone 8, you'll want it straight away. That phone will be bezel-less.
[doublepost=1490098442][/doublepost]Oh and test the battery this time Samsung! I've seen your advert, each phone goes through a thorough process...

No phone will be completely bezzeless. You have to put the ear piece, front-facing camera, front-facing microphone, proximity sensor and ambient light sensor somewhere.

 

[andy.ringwood]

No phone will be completely bezzeless. You have to put the ear piece, front-facing camera, front-facing microphone, proximity sensor and ambient light sensor somewhere.

Nope. Can be done under the screen.
[doublepost=1490102461][/doublepost]

The bezel-less iPhone 8 is vapourware right now, my guess it will stay so and Apple will deliver only an incremental update on the same crap and present it as "magical", "most advanced evah", and idiots worldwide will queue to pay $1000 for it. If it works, why change the recipe? Apple knows it's immoral not to part fools from their money.

And if you think the S8 has "massive" bezels, the ones on the iPhones must appear to you of downright gargantuan, near-biblical proportions.

Yes. The iPhone 7 has enormous bezels. But the S8 will compete with the iPhone 8 so there's no point in comparing the iPhone 7 to the S8.

 

[unplugme71]

Samsung: "We've made the next S8 more affordable to compete with the iPhone 8 by using our refurbished batteries from last time. It's a lower cost option with less QC. But don't worry, we aren't going through that battery disaster again folks!"

 

[Tycho24]

You can replace "cheap" by "much better value".

I used iOS and Android, and I wouldn't dream of having an iOS phone. I think the OS is just horrible.

The iOS notifications are awful. On Android they're superb. No comparison. And notifications are the most important thing on a smartphone.

The thought of swiping to one particular screen, starting the Settings app, selecting WiFi or Bluetooth every time I need to connect to something (which is very often), makes me nauseous. On Android you simply long-press the symbol in the drop-down.

The lack of the back button makes navigation all around clunkier.

The absolute need to use the steaming piece of crap that is iTunes every time I want to transfer music to my phone is enough to say never.

Then the hardware itself is crappy. They have a choice of a 4.7" screen, which is just too small today, or a 5.5" in a huge body. Not mentioning the blast from the past that is the SE.

I wouldn't buy an iPhone for just about any money. If the iPhone 7 would cost the same as the Nexus 5X, I'd get the latter with no regrets. Thankfully, there are a lot of good choices out there.

If you ever decide to come back, you may be surprised at the OS improvements in the 4+ years or whatever since you've seen the iOS UI.
Four years ago, iOS 7 added the quick touch controls for wifi/bt.
I hope the rumored 5.1" screen in a body the size of the current 4.7" phone appeals to you as well!
The "swipe right" to go back is pleasant also, and imo, superior to a back "button".
At any rate- even if it doesn't float your boat, as you say, there's myriad choices- just wanted to make it clear that you may indeed prefer for a bunch of reasons, but the particular ones you mentioned are long outdated 'complaints".

 

[itguy06]

Android apps aren't moving to on-screen buttons. Perhaps you've seen one, but there's no "move" in general. To begin with, the most important apps are those made by Google (Inbox/Gmail/Maps/Photos/News/Now/Hangouts/etc) and those have no on-screen back buttons. I doubt it's accepted by the Material Design standard either.

Well then you need to update your apps or perhaps stop spreading FUD...
I just opened my phone and on 7.1.1:

• Gmail app has on screen back when reading an e-mail
• Android Pay does when viewing a card
• Google Keep has it when viewing a note
• Play store has it when viewing lists of apps

Would you like me to go on?

As a matter of fact it is part of Material Design: https://material.io/guidelines/patterns/navigation.html#navigation-defining-your-navigation

 

[symphara]

Well then you need to update your apps or perhaps stop spreading FUD...
I just opened my phone and on 7.1.1:

• Gmail app has on screen back when reading an e-mail
• Android Pay does when viewing a card
• Google Keep has it when viewing a note
• Play store has it when viewing lists of apps

Would you like me to go on?

As a matter of fact it is part of Material Design: https://material.io/guidelines/patterns/navigation.html#navigation-defining-your-navigation

Well I just checked and Inbox doesn't have it, Chrome doesn't have it, News doesn't have it, Flixster doesn't have it, Podkicker doesn't have it, IMDB doesn't have it - just briefly looked through my apps - so I really don't see a pattern here.

Plus, none actually needs it (I don't even notice it), since on-top-of-the-screen-Back and swipe-screen-Back are both clearly worse than under-your-thumb-Back.

Navigation on iOS is just worse. The gesture is slower and requires more motion. It's as clear as daylight, and no matter how much lipstick on a pig you put, it doesn't make it into a beautiful princess.

If you ever decide to come back, you may be surprised at the OS improvements in the 4+ years or whatever since you've seen the iOS UI.

I have an iPad so I'm familiar with the "improvements". Yeah, it's playing catch-up with Android, the problem is that Android keeps moving. With every year I think Android gets further away in terms of richness of UI functionality, while Apple is struggling to copy without looking like they copy, and always end up with some worse, more awkward implementation.

Just look at the widgets. I laugh every time I think about it. They moved them from one idiotically impractical location (notification tab) to another idiotic location (leftmost screen), just because letting people simply put them where they want would be too much like Android, even if actually useful.

Four years ago, iOS 7 added the quick touch controls for wifi/bt.

If you're referring to those that you can use to turn on/off WiFi and Bluetooth, you'll be surprised to know perhaps that on Android, you not only have that functionality but long-pressing either gets you straight into the respective settings page. Really useful.

Also, the drop-down with the commands is generally customizable, unlike iOS's Control Center. So you can add things like WiFi Hotspot, Data on/off etc. Stuff people need.

 

[calzon65]

Apple was certainly a huge beneficiary of the previous Samsung screw up, but if Samsung gets the S8 right, and it doesn't catch fire and/or blow up, the S8 may cut into Apple's market share.

I continue to use/love my iPhone mostly because of IOS and the eco system, but there is little doubt that Android continues to evolve/improve. Don't forget, it was Apple's Macintosh that ushered in the mouse-driven windowing world of desktop operating systems (yea yea yea I know all about SunOS, HP, Intergraph and their windowing operating systems I used them too), but the point is that Microsoft eventually eclipsed Apple with a windowing mouse-driven operating system that dominates the desktop today. Android could do the same thing to IOS.

 

[itguy06]

Well I just checked and Inbox doesn't have it, Chrome doesn't have it, News doesn't have it, Flixster doesn't have it, Podkicker doesn't have it, IMDB doesn't have it - just briefly looked through my apps - so I really don't see a pattern here.

Plus, none actually needs it (I don't even notice it), since on-top-of-the-screen-Back and swipe-screen-Back are both clearly worse than under-your-thumb-Back.

Navigation on iOS is just worse. The gesture is slower and requires more motion. It's as clear as daylight, and no matter how much lipstick on a pig you put, it doesn't make it into a beautiful princess.

Those are the apps you use and many of the apps I use do have it. The fact that Google is heading in that direction is telling as most apps follow the design guidelines of the host OS.

You like what you like and I like what I like. Neither solution is inherently more or less efficient than the other. Swiping requires a gesture as does moving your finger to hit a "physical" back button. You are letting your bias take hold...

 

[symphara]

Those are the apps you use and many of the apps I use do have it. The fact that Google is heading in that direction is telling as most apps follow the design guidelines of the host OS.

You like what you like and I like what I like. Neither solution is inherently more or less efficient than the other. Swiping requires a gesture as does moving your finger to hit a "physical" back button. You are letting your bias take hold...

Sorry, your answer is illogical. First, you don't actually know if Google is heading in that direction. I don't believe it does at all. Chrome doesn't support back-swipe not even on iOS. Second, it's simply not relevant, since Android does have an universal and easily accessible back command.

Saying that "neither solution is inherently more or less efficient" is a cheap cop-out. It's pretty clear that ergonomically the normal Android back button is more efficient. There's less movement required to do it.

Anyone can test it. Even if you have an iPhone, imagine your back button is either to the side of the home button, or low on the screen. It activates with a tap, and one tap is easier than swiping from the left side of the screen, which I decidedly find not only less ergonomic but actually awkward and inconvenient.

Same with placing back commands on top of the screen (in apps or the status bar, as iOS does to jump back one app). It's much more awkward and inconvenient, and the bigger the screen, the more so it is.

 

[itguy06]

Sorry, your answer is illogical. First, you don't actually know if Google is heading in that direction. I don't believe it does at all. Chrome doesn't support back-swipe not even on iOS. Second, it's simply not relevant, since Android does have an universal and easily accessible back command.

Where would they put a back button in Chrome? Wouldn't work well at the top. And Google's other apps are migrating to it where it's appropriate. They discuss it prominently in the Material Design guidelines. So yes, they are moving in that direction. Despite your false assertion that they are not.

Saying that "neither solution is inherently more or less efficient" is a cheap cop-out. It's pretty clear that ergonomically the normal Android back button is more efficient. There's less movement required to do it.

That's BS from your bias, plain and simple. To go back on iOS I have to move my left hand and swipe over. On android I have to move either a left finger or right finger (depending if I'm using a Samsung device or anyone else). Roughly the same motion.

It activates with a tap, and one tap is easier than swiping from the left side of the screen, which I decidedly find not only less ergonomic but actually awkward and inconvenient.

Same with placing back commands on top of the screen (in apps or the status bar, as iOS does to jump back one app). It's much more awkward and inconvenient, and the bigger the screen, the more so it is.

It's your bias. And that's fine - everyone has their own preferences. Both are valid and use the same amount of effort!!!

 

[macs4nw]

Quite interesting that they're going to hit a $1000 price.

If Apple can do it, Samsung will never be far behind.....

 

[lowendlinux]

The only two companies I'd feel comfortable with spending ~$1k for a phone with are Apple and Google. I know there are diehard Galaxy folks out there I wonder how this price increase will sit with them?

 

[_Refurbished_]

No doubt, I had a G4 and I didn't like it. But , I'm not sure if I didn't like it or I wasn't used to the OS.

G4 twins! I had a G4 as well. I did like it, but Android wasn't nearly as polished as iOS for my needs. I also never realized how important iMessage was. Sending grainy, unwatchable videos via text was a deal-breaker for me. Also, trying to use my phone while Skyping would bring the entire system to a crawl. I can seamlessly navigate my phone while on Facetime. It was a lot of the "little" things added together that made me quickly switch back to iOS.

Within the next few years, though, Android's quirks should be ironed out. It's definitely better than I thought it was.

 

[grkm3]

best looking phone I've seen