Samsung Unveils Galaxy S8 and S8+ With Iris and Facial Recognition, No Home Button

[Shanghaichica]

iPad Pro? haha when Apple added the word Pro behind iPad I started to laugh.

What's Pro about that iPad?

I also don't get the pro name. The iPad is the best tablet on the market imo, but previous generations of iPad could use an external keyboard and you could use a stylus. I accept that they might not have been as precise as the Apple Pencil but a Wacom stylus will do the job. There isn't really anything apart from editing 4K video that my iPad Air 2 can't do that the pro 9.7 can do.

 

[Nuvi]

Samsung DEX desktop mirror of the smartphone is awesome. They are out for blood...i have to say, being an apple user....this is definitely best of samsung. tempting.

7s or what ever they plan to release based on rumors is now ancient. eek

Edit: they can't pull the 8 edition limited supply now. Or else just looks stupid. Since this is the same screen design they will use for new iPhones. Just my thought.

Apple needs to really deliver. Trying to sell three years old design as something new will fail. IMHO Apple can't release some special Edition model which is on par with competitors regular model. Dex is what iPad Pro should have been...

 

[Shanghaichica]

So a flagship S8 plus for about £750 or a flagship iPhone 8 for about £1000+

Problem is apple is going to charge a hefty price for 256, the S8 has a micro slot...

That's a hefty price difference .

If the iPhone 8/pro/X had a big enough screen then I would be able to bite the bullet and pay. However when I'm going to be settling for less screen space coupled with the fact that it is using tech that has been around for years on android then I don't think I'm prepared to pay £1,000 plus. The S8+ is a better deal and I can just keep hold of my 7 plus.

 

[Grey Area]

Why does everyone care how profitable their vendor is?

You are the one paying for those high margins and lack of innovation, after all.

Would you hire a plumber that way?

"This guy charges double and wears a $20,000 watch, but installs second-rate toilets. He is very successful so I gave him all our money." If that is your approach, PM me your number any time you need home improvement work done.

How about the vendor that spends every last dollar trying to make a better product, so they have nothing left over at the end and are barely still solvent? And the product does more and costs less?

I somewhat agree in that as a customer (not a shareholder) one should not get too proud or excited about the vendor's big profits, as they are not a feature that is directly beneficial to the customer, and obviously they come at the customer's expense.

That being said, big profits - and by extension, hopefully, big reserves - indicate good potential for long-term stability of the vendor. This may not be so important for many items, but when they require constant support, such as with cars or smartphones, then it is nice to know that the company will be around for years to come. And yes, Apple does not offer long-term support on the scale of car manufacturers, but compared to other smartphone makers they are pretty good.

And thus, while I do not like your rich plumber, I also would not feel good about relying on your barely solvent enthusiast vendor. Their heart is in the right place and I wish them all the best, but when I have to rely on a product, then I am pragmatic and go with something that has a decent long-term viability. I have had my share of niche phones - that great little waterproof Sony-Ericsson Android that cannot even download the old official updates any more because the servers no longer exist, the Nokia N9 (with the nicest mobile OS I have ever seen) that hardly works any more because the manufacturer is basically gone and 3rd-party makers do not bother updating their plugins. I am very sympathetic towards Jolla, but doubt I will ever get one of theirs - it would have to be as a hobby phone alongside a main phone from a stable manufacturer, and I don't want a phone as a hobby.

 

[niun]

That's certainly cool... but I'm wondering who will actually go for it.

Assuming you have a monitor, keyboard and mouse on your desk already... that means there's already a working computer hooked to it. So what happens to it?

Is your Android phone really going to replace that computer?

This would be great for hot desk scenarios, presentations etc and would cost a company peanuts for a few DeX docks rather than purchasing, supporting a PC/Mac.

The more I look at this the more I'm loving the idea of having an entire office on a phone that can give you a full desktop experience.

Will the next laptops be nothing more than a integrated, screen, keyboard, battery dock for your phone - with the phone replacing the touchpad?

Once again an area that Apple cannot explore due to locking themselves into the iPhone / iPad / Mac - iOS/MacOS BS.

 

[LeonardXW]

In due respect, your post also applies to apple these days. What's innovative about the 7? A missing headphone jack? Hardly, removing features is not innovation.

Sad truth, there is no leader anymore , it's everyone copying each other . Apple just had a larger Warchest, Apple Music is a great example of where more $$$$ does not mean a better product .

I agree removing headphone jack is a smart move. Everything is wireless now. Once you put on wireless earphone, you will not revert back even though you know that there is deplete in sound quality. Wireless is truly convenient. You should try it man

 

[IslandLife]

Ok, all you Samsung/Android lovers. You have a reason to live again. Please take your love fest and Apple bashing somewhere else where you can pat each other on the back and rejoice amongst yourselves and leave this Mac centric site to people that have a genuine interest in Apple, Macs, iPhones, etc. But, that's probably asking too much, isn't it?

 

[grkm3]

What does your claim have anything to do with my post?

The original poster's claim was:

I showed data that is contrary to that claim, against an older SoC, the A9.
If you have data that showed otherwise, please do so.

ok and here is real world exynos optimized results.this phone came out almost a year before the iPhone 7 and is doing just fine.watch the video and see for yourself.

 

[niun]

Once you put on wireless earphone, you will not revert back even though you know that there is deplete in sound quality.

The very reason why I'll never go wireless. Sound Quality is THE MOST IMPORTANT factor when it comes to myself and audio.

 

[H2SO4]

Ok, all you Samsung/Android lovers. You have a reason to live again. Please take your love fest and Apple bashing somewhere else where you can pat each other on the back and rejoice amongst yourselves and leave this Mac centric site to people that have a genuine interest in Apple, Macs, iPhones, etc. But, that's probably asking too much, isn't it?

Being an Android lover means you can't love the iPhone too then?

 

[Abazigal]

AppleTV is the most crashy and infurating device I have used since Windows 95. I have had several and they are garbage.

They also don't do the basics like "receive what the iPhone is trying to send" or "show me the content I want to watch". Or "play a movie without crashing in the middle of it." I don't know how that "just works". I

iOS (your first three examples) is famous for being endlessly hit and miss. Sometimes updates kill it. Sometimes updates kill the battery life. Sometimes i just slows down irreparably for no reason -- typically right before new hardware is released. Sometimes it's horrible and you want to downgrade but you're not allowed. Sometimes an update kills facetime (an advertised feature) and you can never get it back until you buy another thousand dollar cellphone or sue the vendor. Ridiculous.

All of those issues are extensively documented by millions of users and class-action participants. There is nothing "just works" about it.

The only thing that Apple is worse at than software are services. I am a paid iCloud user -- I joined when it was dot mac. The uptime record is atrocious. It gets features and then they are taken away. SEARCH is garbage. I can't search my own mailbox in the web client. It's horrible and does not get better, unlike commodity free services. And I have to pay for the privilege of using it!

https://www.macrumors.com/2011/05/07/steve-jobs-reaction-to-mobileme-launch-and-other-anecdotes/

Photos were storable in the cloud for awhile and then they weren't. Then I had to upgrade my cloud database to a format that precluded my iPad and my iPhoto from accessing my photos. Totally insane.

I could go on, and you know it. You are willfully ignoring Apple's terrible, horrible track record when you say that Apple products "just work".

I know a guy with a Mercedes who has exactly the same delusion. It's in the shop constantly, but he goes on about the quality of his high-end luxury car.

EDIT now more of their horrible product history is coming to mind. Airport and Airport Extreme = sometimes work sometimes no work. Year after year, generation after generation. Eventually they just stopped trying and quietly phased them out. Time machine same thing -- fails to back up for no reason, fails to restore for no reason.

Anecdote: I once took a failed time machine restore to the Apple store for help because I was panicking. User had backed up a lifetime of photos on an Apple time capsule using Time Machine and a high-spec CTO MBP which promptly failed.

I was told by multiple people at the Apple store (and you can check this out) that Apple does not offer support or guidance for Time Machine because the liability to Apple is too great.

So the developer and vendor of a bad product, designed to help people with disaster recovery, has (or had in around 2012) a policy to refuse to support the product if it malfunctions during a disaster recovery.

And in classical Apple style, the dialog box offered no information about the error or how it could be recovered.

(I got the data back eventually but without the help of Apple or Time Machine.)

The emperor has no clothes, people.

All I can say is I haven't had any of the negative experiences you listed above. I don't use airport routers. iCloud works well enough for me. My Apple TV mirrors my iPad in my classroom reliably enough (I have taught this way every day for several years already). My Apple devices generally play well with one another.

It's not perfect, but it really has been "it just works" for most part.

 

[Cloudsurfer]

I hope Apple will pull through and put the fingerprint sensor under the glass. It's just a horrible location on the back, especially next to the camera.

 

[I7guy]

So you would pay $5000 for an iPhone and not say it's overpriced?

That's called hyperbole, silly comment.

 

[ariusbb]

I hope Apple will pull through and put the fingerprint sensor under the glass. It's just a horrible location on the back, especially next to the camera.

Yes not a good location - but I guess their idea is you will look at the screen and the iris scanner will just detect you and unlock.
So we will have to wait when the devices hit the street to see how much of an issue this actually is...

 

[Gilligan's last elephant]

Do you really want to be that petty to say once a cell phone maker uses a word, no other can use it w/out scorn?


The iPhone Red? Whoops.
http://www.mphone.co.uk/acatalog/2760-red_sim_free.html Nokia did it first. Sorry.

This is common with people living in the walled garden drinking the Kool-aid. Apple does everything first.

 

[ovo6]

good looking phone and os looks a bit better but don't impressed me too much I can tell apple gonna **** on Samsung already hopefully we do get a 5.8 AMOLED with about the same size as the 4.7

 

[Gilligan's last elephant]

Is that a real issue for anyone though? Isn't it just a matter of picking your apps and digital assistant of choice and then that taps into the OS or is it limited by Google.

It is that simple. And one can remove the icons from the home screens so they are never an issue. User is also free to select which apps are default apps as well. Am i correct in understanding that with iOS, the user cannot select Google Maps as their default maps app over Apple apps. Now that would be a painful user experience.

 

[redbeard331]

So a flagship S8 plus for about £750 or a flagship iPhone 8 for about £1000+

Problem is apple is going to charge a hefty price for 256, the S8 has a micro slot...

That's a hefty price difference .

Quite amazing how so many here are literally pulling these prices out of their asses, you're comparing the price of the smallest storage base model to a RUMORED price for a future Apple FLAGSHIP model. No wonder Trump is president.

 

[WarDialer]

Dedicated assistant button on the side, WTF? Home button plus fingerprint scanner on the back? Ick. What's with the rounded corners of the screen too?

I don't get why this is so awesome to some people.

Design isn't just how it looks but how it works e.g. how you use it, and this looks clunky as all get out to actually use. And I love my iPhone 7 plus (just upgraded from iPhone 6s Plus, because the lightning port was all loosey-goosey and would barely charge anymore).

I need my phone to just work and not have to fumble around to find the home button/finger scanner on the back and smudge up the camera cover or have two email clients and calendars and web browsers and stuff wasting time and fighting for control. I already have my personal mail in Mail and Calendar for uh, calendar stuff, and Outlook for work email/calendar on my MacBook pro. Four email accounts and three calendars, I don't want or need MORE juggling on my phone.

I have Skull Candy Hesh2 wireless headphones, I don't need a headphone port anymore, so who cares if it has one (as far as my needs are concerned). Ima toss the lightning to headphone jack adapter in a drawer and forget about it. Its 2017, lets move on to better solutions already.

Ick.

 

[redbeard331]

Lots of phones look better than the iPhone in terms of design - but when you factor in the OS, that's where the iPhone shines and other Android phone makers fall flat.

Nothing can match the aesthetics's of a iphone 7 in matte or jet black. Nothing.

 

[Wanted797]

Am I even on a Apple website? Samsung post and everyone is happy not one hate comment. Apple release new product you better duck for cover.

 

[shanos]

"Oh, they said you were i-Class, but that was just a lie..."

Actually, no. That looks like a really nice phone. Not for me, as the screen/size is too big for my hands, but nice design & specs.

Don't think the size should be an issue mate, S8 dimensions are 148.9 x 68.1 x 8 mm vs the iphone 7 which is 138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1 mm
making the S8 just 1cm taller but the iphone is 1cm wider, the S8 is under 1mm thicker.

considering that you get a 5.8" screen vs the iphones 4.7" for the exchange of a very slightly longer but also less wide phone.

The extra 1.1" diagonal screen size will make this a great device for consuming media or reading emails etc.

 

[Abazigal]

So you would pay $5000 for an iPhone and not say it's overpriced?

Depends on what I can get out of the iPhone, would it not?

 

[shanos]

Am I even on a Apple website? Samsung post and everyone is happy not one hate comment. Apple release new product you better duck for cover.

Apple need to bring their AAA game on this one or I think their 10th anniversary could be a bit of a let down lol
Love or hate Samsung and Android, this is a design game changer, you can bet johny Ives is not a happy bunny today!
Even companies like Xiaomi are bringing out phones that have designs to make a lot of iphone owners envious (my current Mi5 looks nicer than my iphone 6 and with phones like the mi mix, the pressure is really on Apple to not F it up or rehash another iphone 6/6s/7.

The biggest problem I see for them is that they will be following Samsungs lead on the curved screens, innovation through imitation will not be enough.
The tables have turned in Samsungs favour, Apple may have invented the original phone with icons and rounded corners, but samsung have kicked and screamed their way to a great position with the S8

 

[jamisonbaines]

It looks great but I have no desire to buy one,