Transistor
Banned
The jump to the Snapdragon 835 alone makes it worth it. Seriously, that SOC is an absolute beast, not just for performance, but for battery.
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What's the best Android phone?
- Thread starter FireBeaver
- Start date
The jump to the Snapdragon 835 alone makes it worth it. Seriously, that SOC is an absolute beast, not just for performance, but for battery.
nicoga3000
Saint Nic
My wife was a diehard Apple fan. She now owns the S8 and swears that she will never go back to Apple.
What does the Note 8 offer over the S8? Just the S pen nonsense?
What does the Note 8 offer over the S8? Just the S pen nonsense?
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
That makes a huge selling point for me. I guess I know what I want for my birthday!
Greatest Ever
Member
Does the S8/S8+ get rid of the hitching so easily found on old S line phones? I'm thinking of going for the Note 8's 6GB RAM because of that.
jm89
Member
Also dual camera and more ram.
whatsinaname
Member
Dual camera. Larger screen. (Though the 8+ has that too).
The Faceless Master
Member
it may be nonsense to others but it's something that many have fallen hard for.
camera, battery and ram too.
Greatest Ever
Member
What about less hitches and all? I know I'm a broken record but I nearly jumped off Samsung entirely after my S6 edge's software has let me down critically in very sensitive situations.
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
What does hitching mean in this context?
Greatest Ever
Member
So my S6 edge lags in 90% of commands now, some taking a few seconds, some delayed by up to 20. The battery life is basura, the keyboard will somehow get locked, the clock suddenly doesn't display on the home screen, swiping down for notifications takes a bit, etc.
Closing an application for example will skip the animation awkwardly, then go to my home screen, freeze for a bit, then the background "fixes" itself (because it tilts with the phone) to the correct orientation. It's all extremely awkward, and now whenever I get a phone call at 30% or lower battery I can swipe all I want but my phone won't pick it up, then says I missed it, then die, almost immediately.
I hate my phone now, and I need to upgrade, but I don't like Apple's hardware. iMessage looks awesome knowing my friends, but I view a lot of content on my phone and a nice, bright, punchy screen means a lot to me. Spending hundreds of dollars on a 6s, 7, or 8 just feels like a downgrade and while the X looks cool, I don't want to drop $1000 on an Apple phone.
Transistor
Banned
When's your birthday? I'd suggest holding off until the OP5T is announced. Beast specced phone for less than $500
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
That sounds like what happened to my S5 when I upgraded the OS.
I don't have any of these issues with my S7 (and plan to never take a major OS upgrade again).
Ignatz Mouse
Banned
Around Christmas.
adamantypants
Member
Samsung has really lightened up their TouchWiz interface (do they still use it?) so it shouldn't really be an issue. It wasn't necessarily that the ram was to blame for the hitching; if you switched to a 3rd party launcher the phones would run wayyyyy smoother. Not to mention every update to Android makes the whole OS run smoother.
Greatest Ever
Member
Man Google Doze really gave me hope and the general sparse nature of updates to Samsung phones made me upgrade immediately almost every time. Might have been the mistake.
It's called GraceUX or the Samsung User Experience, TouchWiz is just unfortunately sticking to Samsung in every review out there. Some demons you can't get rid of I guess.
I don't ever use third party launchers (have full Nova launcher, think it's way too ugly even with my favorite icon packs), plus updates and Samsung phones might as well be oil and water. I dunno, maybe it's the pessimist in me.
Khalifa Jayy
Banned
Note 8 is glorious. I love mine more each day.
Caayn
Member
What? So you're saying that the best Android phone right now doesn't have a 3.5mm jack, no expandable storage, no wireless charging, etc. *cough Pixel 2*. That's a lot of features it misses while being the "best" Android phone. But hey, it scores nice in synthetic benchmarks so that's nice I guess.
I'll keep my "terrible" Nokia 8 which does feature a 3.5mm jack and expandable storage (which currently houses my second sim card).
I'm not saying that the Nokia8 is the best Android phone
Days like these...
Have a Blessed Day
I suggest the V30 or a G6 (which you can get for about $500) is comparable to an S8.
I'm going with the V30 as soon as the unlocked versions are available.
I'm going with the V30 as soon as the unlocked versions are available.
Kadin
Member
6GB of RAM versus 4GB as well, although I don't know how big a difference that is to the average user.
Jzero
Member
Definitely don't buy anything motorola. Buy a first gen pixel.
The Faceless Master
Member
that sounds like a defective device.
Greatest Ever
Member
Shit's two years old, who knows.
RoadHazard
Gold Member
Probably the Pixel 2 XL. Definitely not perfect, but I'd take it over any Samsung device for the vastly superior software experience.
Outside of Google with its own Nexus/Pixel line and Android One devices, does any OEM currently provide better update support than Samsung (on flagships, at least)?
Tried a factory reset yet?
TheBryanJZX90
Member
What's the best Android phone for around $200? I definitely don't need a flagship phone (and you probably don't either!) I've been using phones that cost $50-100 for years without complaints. But if there's a good phone around $200, maybe I'll splurge?
In the US, there are no $200 phones with responsible updates. If you're okay with security vulnerabilities out the wazoo, the Moto G5 (or one of its variants) is probably your best option.
Transistor
Banned
OnePlus has been bang-up on keeping their promises as far as release schedules. However, they do deprecate older devices faster than some manufacturers
Could always find a decent Moto or something like that for $200 and put LineageOS on it.
Honestly if it had stereo speakers and a non curved screen it would be the perfect phone for me.
Mushroomer25
Member
S8, absolutely. The battery life is tremendous, the screen is stunning, and it's actually got a headphone jack. Plus, easy access to VR (if you want to get into that sort of thing) and the best mobile payment option (IMO).
Bixby and the other bloatware sucks, but it's easily subverted/ignored.
Bixby and the other bloatware sucks, but it's easily subverted/ignored.
The Faceless Master
Member
the difference is apps they haven't opened in a long time will still pop right back up because they're still in RAM.
Its huge in my experience.
Apps no longer refreshes after a few opened apps.
Tons of stuff in youtube for comparison.
If you click the pen out while the screen is off it's turns the screen into a notepad and saves your notes when you turn on your screen or put the pen back in.
If I'm at a foreign restaurant and the menu isn't translated, I can take a picture of the menu, hover over the words with the pen and it translates the menu for me.
I can take cropped screenshots and draw on top of stuff like a website or scene from YouTube.
Arthr2ShdsJcksn
Banned
G5 plus. Does smart phone things. No frills $230.
Grabbed a couple LG G5s for around that price recently, it's still getting updates and probably will for another year. It's a great phone at that price.
I second this, I just got mine Sunday, replaced my S7 Edge with it and I'm more than pleased. 5.9" screen, long battery life that doesn't drain for unknown reasons, really nice sounding stereo speakers, comparable camera to what I had on the S7, ultra smooth performance, SD card slot, headphone jack, IR blaster (you don't see these much anymore), USB-C super charging for your 4,000 mAh battery that will charge in 90 mins, comes with it's own slim case for you to use if you like, factory affixed screen protector. Supposed to have machine learning and learn what apps you use the most and keep everything feeling snappy so it never feels like the phone gets old. And Amazon sells them currently for $450,
Rubik8
Member
There are also many v30 owners with perfect screens. I am one of them. That said, I'm very impressed with this phone.
Huawei phones are definitely nice on paper but their software tend to have some very strange quirks and some apps simply don't work outright or breaks frequently probably due to them changing how the OS works fundamentally. Google voice never worked properly for dialing out on Honor 8 for example and they had no intent to fix it. I had racked up some bill for international calls because I thought it dialed out from Google Voice. After getting burnt once I'll never trust them again on that front.