Replace Galaxy S7, or switch to Pixel or iPhone? Wait for S8?

I currently have a Samsung Galaxy S7 on T-Mobile. I can't remember when we got our phones, probably last May. We've had a lot of issues with the S7's, my wife more than I have.

Neither of them work on the wireless very well, and my wife's phone started eating batteries like crazy. My S7 has issues where if it loses signal, when it regains signal it appears to be connected but it doesn't work. It says 4G LTE, but will not make or receive any calls or texts, and the browser says it is offline. I have to reboot the phone, and then it will be fine until I go somewhere it loses signal again.

T-Mobile says the phones are defective, and we should get them replaced (under warranty). My wife decided she had enough, and bought an iPhone 7 Plus. I haven't done anything with mine yet. I'm trying to decide if I should just get it replaced (will send a refurb), or just switch to something else. We usually do not replace phones this often, we usually wait at least two years between phones (which is arguably maybe too soon as well). I'm mostly looking at the iPhone 7 Plus, but am also interested in the Pixel, or possibly waiting to see what the S8 looks like (March?).

I should probably be ashamed to admit, but with the exception of a Palm Pilot phone and a Blackberry several years ago, I've owned nothing but Samsungs since my first cell phone in '98 or '99--so I guess I am somewhat biased. My work phone is a iPhone (6s?), and except for the fact that the screen scratches much easier than the Samsung and the charging port gets lint in it, the phone has been totally reliable and drama-free while I've had it. The Galaxy has a (maybe) better camera, screen, and processor, but the iPhone is just as quick. My wife so far really likes her new iPhone, and it's the first one she's owned.

So, for those with a little more phone diversity, what's the recommended course of action?

First off, I assume you mean wireless meaning wifi? Or cellular? If it's wifi, the S7s have issues with some 2.4Ghz networks. Switching to 5Ghz solves it. Damn near unusable when it's on a bad 2.4Ghz though.

Personally, I would have T-Mo replace yours. The Nougat update is coming in a few weeks, and it's really, really nice. Makes it feel like a whole new phone. Been on the beta for a few months now.

The Pixel is great. Good luck finding one. The S8 comes out in April, and looks to be really nice as well. Knowing T-Mobile, they'll have a trade in on the 7 to get the 8 nearly free, like they did for the iPhone.

As much as I've hated Samsung for the past 4 years, the S7 just blew me away with how consistantly good it was. You got lemons, and it sucks, but you can easily fix it.

As for the iPhone... it's a whole other beast. I'm using a 7 Plus right now over my S7, and frankly, I can't stand it. But, to each their own. Play with your wife's. See what you think. Me personally, I regret buying it.

Well I could use a Galaxy S7 so I'll send you my shipping address. I had a Galaxy S7 Active and I honestly miss that device, aside from it being so locked down (I like to muck around with custom ROMs/firmware/bootloaders/etc) it was a pretty awesome piece of hardware and since it's based on the same guts the Galaxy S7 is made of I can't imagine their being much difference aside from the GS7A having superior battery life because of the 4000 mAh cell it has.

But seriously, if the carrier says they're defective and is willing to replace them even with refurbs I'd take advantage of it myself, not sure why you wouldn't have done that second T-Mobile admitted it and offered that solution. Now, as for another device if you're that into Samsung then yes I'd say wait and see what the Galaxy S8 brings to the table. If your wife is happy with her iPhone that's great, now the question is what you're going to be happy with and I can tell you that the Pixel devices - at least the 128GB Pixel XL which is the best one Google offers - is practically impossible to get. Even if you put an order in right now for one you could be waiting well into March to get one delivered - there's a chance you might find one of the 32GB Pixel devices locally in a Verizon store (not the Pixel XL) and considering it's unlocked you could use it with T-Mobile right out of the box but even so I myself just don't consider the Pixel devices to be worth their actual retail cost.

If you're game for moving to the iPhone ecosphere as your wife apparently has, so be it, not like you don't have some experience with them because of your work phone as you already stated.

As for recommendations for other devices, good lord, there's just too much out there to really make that kind of suggestion, you'd have to be specific about what you actually require in a device, what you'd like to have, and what you simply have zero use for before I or most anyone else can do that.

RMA the phone (not sure why you wouldn't if you're having issues and they offered to) and wait a couple months for the S8 if you continue to have issues with the S7 replacement.

My mom has had a T-Mo S7 since they launched and the only issues she's had with it are due to WiFi calling sporadically not working while she's out of cell coverage (she misses a lot of calls due to this). Though she hasn't complained about that in the past few months, so it may have been fixed in a patch update or something. I've had similar issues on my 6P as well though, so WiFi calling seems to be a bit hit or miss on any phone.

As awesome as the Pixel may be, I personally don't care much for it, so I wouldn't try to replace the S7 with it. The S8 will have much better hardware and be on a newer chipset. Plus the Pixel is just about impossible to buy unless you want a base 32GB Pixel. This is coming from someone who doesn't normally buy Samsung phones too (last one I had was the Note 2, wife had a S4, S6, and Note 5 though).

If it's completely free to replace it out of warranty, do so.

But with your wife on the iPhone, you might like to switch over to use better iMessage/FaceTime and also easily do location sharing as well as find missing iPhones.

I'm with CHANG3D -- it'd be worth getting an S7 replacement to see if it's any better, but you'll be just fine if you switch to an iPhone. I have an iPhone 7 as my main phone, and while I really like Android, I appreciate the relatively slick and hassle-free nature of the iPhone's experience

Having FaceTime and iMessage support for conversations with your wife will help as well. Yeah, Google Duo and Allo are similar, but you can tell the difference in terms of integration.

T-Mobile usually charges $20 for a replacement if you don't have insurance, $5 if you do. A lot of times they waive the fee though.

OK, I think I'll have them replace the phone, and wait for the software update and see what the S8 looks like. It does cost a few dollars, but good to know they might waive the fee and I'll try and get that. I know my phone has been connected to the 5Ghz wireless. I assume my wife's was, but it's entirely possible she was on 2.4 as mine was only buggy but hers was totally unusable.

I like certain things about the iPhone, and others I prefer in the Samsung. I really like the iPhone's voicemail system--much preferred over the call-in system on my Android. However, I generally prefer the Android's web browsing more and prefer Google maps (which I know can be installed). I haven't used voice control much on the iPhone, but it works pretty well on the Samsung.

Honestly, the iPhone I have nothing installed app-wise other than the VPN software my employer installed for email access. I use it a lot, but just for email, phone, text and camera. I've been impressed with its battery life and so forth, but with nothing running the Samsung might be closer too. I have quite a bit more installed on my Samsung, but also use the Android tablet more for general use than the phone. I miss having the Note 4, and would kind of like to have something a little larger again -- hence the iPhone Plus.

Facetime is nifty, but haven't really used it other than to play around. The messaging is nice, and the Samsungs were similar when we were texting, but it's not that big of an issue. My work phone has it, and since I don't often have my personal phone on me at work we now get the iPhone messaging benefits I guess.

Anyway, I'll see what they can do. If they have an inexpensive upgrade to the S8, that would probably be the best bet. I'd probably be fine either way, really, with still a slight preference towards Android.

Call in system? DUDE... You can either use the T-Mobile visual voicemail app, or take 10 minutes of effort and download Google Voice for your voicemail. It's miles ahead of anything else out there, and the whole voicemail-to-text translations on the iPhone gained their popularity years ago on Google voice.

I haven't seen anyone actually use the call in VM system on a smartphone in like... 3-4 years.

Cricket Visual Voice Mail / Cricket Basic Voice Mail (call in)

I use Visual Voice Mail and it would be nice if I could rely entirely on the app to access and manage my voice mail. Unfortunately due to synch problems between the two modes, I am forced to periodically access Cricket's Basic Voice mail to delete a build up of saved messages should I get close to reaching my maximum allotment of stored voice mail messages.

Cricket will be shortly upgrading their Voice Mail system and replacing it with a new one. Current subscribers should view the changes and learn what they have to do prior to the change.

Supersnake, as long as you have conditional call forwarding you can use a service to handle visual voicemail. Prepaid usually limits CCF, so that might be an issue. Try Google voice, or YouMail.

Great suggestion, thank you. Unfortunately Cricket doesn't offer CCF for any plan.
Will wait to see if Cricket's remodeled voice mail system fixes the synching issue.

entropism said:

Call in system? DUDE... You can either use the T-Mobile visual voicemail app, or take 10 minutes of effort and download Google Voice for your voicemail. It's miles ahead of anything else out there, and the whole voicemail-to-text translations on the iPhone gained their popularity years ago on Google voice.

I haven't seen anyone actually use the call in VM system on a smartphone in like... 3-4 years.

Click to expand...

I didn't have to do anything to get visual voice mail on my 6P on T-Mobile. I have a voicemail tab in my dialer where I see all my voice mails and can play them immediately. I would think the S7 would be the same way, but haven't looked at my mom's S7 to see. I do have the T-Mobile app and Google voice installed, but didn't do anything with them to configure voice mail.

Nope, that's a nexus feature. Well, a stock dialer feature. Doesn't work with most Android phones.

entropism said:

Call in system? DUDE... You can either use the T-Mobile visual voicemail app, or take 10 minutes of effort and download Google Voice for your voicemail. It's miles ahead of anything else out there, and the whole voicemail-to-text translations on the iPhone gained their popularity years ago on Google voice.

I haven't seen anyone actually use the call in VM system on a smartphone in like... 3-4 years.

Click to expand...

LOL, I haven't looked at Google Voice in quite some time. I haven't been on T-Mobile for all that long, but I sort of forgot about the app. I remember when I first got the phone I did something with it, but it wasn't working right or something so I just went back to the regular old voicemail. Since your post I've tried the visual voicemail app and it's working fine. It isn't quite as clean as the iPhone, but good enough.

Give 7.0 a try before your dump the S7. The update should be out for all 7 and s7 edge users