Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+

the only reason I got the S9+ over my current S8 is that I A: got the S9+ for $300 after trade in of the S7 sitting in my drawer, and I can sell the S8 for $450 and make a small profit. There's barely an upgrade though.
 
braamer said:
Do you think it's worth trading in a Galaxy S7 to get $360 off the S9?
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Very much so. You probably won't get significantly better selling it yourself, and the S7 is old enough that an S9 upgrade is justifiable.
 
Aurelius said:
Very much so. You probably won't get significantly better selling it yourself, and the S7 is old enough that an S9 upgrade is justifiable.
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I'm debating getting the S9, or the buy 1 get 1 V30 at T-Mobile for $800. I'm not sure which route to go. I'm not a fan of TouchWiz, though.

On the flip-side, I got the phone for $340 last January when T-Mobile had a crazy sale, so at least I'll get more than I paid for it.
 
braamer said:
I'm debating getting the S9, or the buy 1 get 1 V30 at T-Mobile for $800. I'm not sure which route to go. I'm not a fan of TouchWiz, though.

On the flip-side, I got the phone for $340 last January when T-Mobile had a crazy sale, so at least I'll get more than I paid for it.
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As underrated as the V30 is, I'd still be tempted to go for the S9 just for the Snapdragon 845 and camera. The modern Samsung interface remains very much... Samsungy, but it's fine enough considering the hardware.
 
entropism said:
the only reason I got the S9+ over my current S8 is that I A: got the S9+ for $300 after trade in of the S7 sitting in my drawer, and I can sell the S8 for $450 and make a small profit. There's barely an upgrade though.
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Sounds like my situation- had an unused S7 edge... why the hell not? Like you said- not much of an upgrade.
 
Aurelius said:
As underrated as the V30 is, I'd still be tempted to go for the S9 just for the Snapdragon 845 and camera. The modern Samsung interface remains very much... Samsungy, but it's fine enough considering the hardware.
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One consideration is the curved screen- if you like glass screen protectors, I've yet to find a good curved one. The v30 has a nice flat screen, so you don't need to settle for a film screen protector like you would with the S9. It's not a deal killer for me, but certainly a dissatisfier.
 
braamer said:
I'm debating getting the S9, or the buy 1 get 1 V30 at T-Mobile for $800. I'm not sure which route to go. I'm not a fan of TouchWiz, though.

On the flip-side, I got the phone for $340 last January when T-Mobile had a crazy sale, so at least I'll get more than I paid for it.
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I have a V30 for my work phone and an S9+ for my personal phone. I'd take the S9+ but the V30s are really nice.
 
marshac said:
One consideration is the curved screen- if you like glass screen protectors, I've yet to find a good curved one.
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New company called Whitestone has one called the Whitestone Dome. Uses Loca glue to fill in the space between the glass and screen perfectly, and then it cures with UV light. Far & away the best solution, but it's expensive at $45.

Some people had success with cheaper protectors, cleaning the adhesive off, then using loca.
 
entropism said:
New company called Whitestone has one called the Whitestone Dome. Uses Loca glue to fill in the space between the glass and screen perfectly, and then it cures with UV light. Far & away the best solution, but it's expensive at $45.

Some people had success with cheaper protectors, cleaning the adhesive off, then using loca.
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Yeah, I hope someone develops a better solution for these curved screens than using these elaborate/expensive loca glue based protectors. This is one of the main reasons I hate the curved glass on many of the newer phones, but Samsung's are the worst because of their aggressive curve and are they're the most delicate phones because of them.

It's garbage that just because OEM's are choosing form over function now, that we have to pay 4-5 times more (not to mention making the install process significantly harder/longer as well) than we used to just to keep these increasingly overpriced phones adequately protected.
 
entropism said:
New company called Whitestone has one called the Whitestone Dome. Uses Loca glue to fill in the space between the glass and screen perfectly, and then it cures with UV light. Far & away the best solution, but it's expensive at $45.

Some people had success with cheaper protectors, cleaning the adhesive off, then using loca.
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How easy is it to remove a cracked protector with cured glue holding it in place?
 
It peels up pretty easy when you WANT to peel it up. Otherwise it stays on pretty securely.
 
Aurelius said:
As underrated as the V30 is, I'd still be tempted to go for the S9 just for the Snapdragon 845 and camera. The modern Samsung interface remains very much... Samsungy, but it's fine enough considering the hardware.
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I ended up going for the buy 1 get 1 V30 option. The S9 would have been $360 after trading in my S7, but I still would have needed to get my wife a phone. This way, I have the option to sell my S7 outright for $200-$250, which makes it about $600 total for both V30s.
 
braamer said:
I ended up going for the buy 1 get 1 V30 option. The S9 would have been $360 after trading in my S7, but I still would have needed to get my wife a phone. This way, I have the option to sell my S7 outright for $200-$250, which makes it about $600 total for both V30s.
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Certainly won't object to that. It's hard to beat getting two really good phones at a considerably better price.
 
Over the past 6-8 months I've had a Galaxy S8+, a LG V30, a Pixel 2 XL, and a iPhone X. Each one has their strengths and their weaknesses. But in my opinion, ever single phone was damn good and I would've likely been happy with any of them (but alas, I always like to try everything). Can't really go wrong with purchasing the majority of the flagships at this point.
 
exlink said:
Over the past 6-8 months I've had a Galaxy S8+, a LG V30, a Pixel 2 XL, and a iPhone X. Each one has their strengths and their weaknesses. But in my opinion, ever single phone was damn good and I would've likely been happy with any of them (but alas, I always like to try everything). Can't really go wrong with purchasing the majority of the flagships at this point.
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QFT
 
I don't fault anyone for wanting the V30, that thing is damn near the perfect form factor (for me). My only gripes are that you can't root the US carrier versions, and LG is kind of awful with OS updates.
 
I have the S9 for several days. I had been using my iPhone 7 plus in parallel for the first two days to get things transferred over. And then I spent the next few days with just the S9 itself. The most frustrating thing about the S9 are that the apps are simply not made with the same quality as they do for iOS; but being able to set default apps made it so much simpler! The default edge bar position is placed at such a stupid location. Why is it at the center of the screen where people are most likely to scroll? (I moved it up.) LastPass autofill integration doesn't always work; but at least LastPass autofill could work the easy way instead of the hard way. The keyboard haptic feedback is not as natural from my old iPhone; but GBoard keyboard is so much better to control. The haptic feedback having a weird delay makes the touch response feel even more laggier; this is the most annoying thing about the phone right now. I only have Iris scan and fingerprint for security. I wish the fingerprint reader was lower and that I don't need to take off my glasses for Iris scan. And that's just my early observation of it.
 
CHANG3D said:
I have the S9 for several days. I had been using my iPhone 7 plus in parallel for the first two days to get things transferred over. And then I spent the next few days with just the S9 itself. The most frustrating thing about the S9 are that the apps are simply not made with the same quality as they do for iOS; but being able to set default apps made it so much simpler! The default edge bar position is placed at such a stupid location. Why is it at the center of the screen where people are most likely to scroll? (I moved it up.) LastPass autofill integration doesn't always work; but at least LastPass autofill could work the easy way instead of the hard way. The keyboard haptic feedback is not as natural from my old iPhone; but GBoard keyboard is so much better to control. The haptic feedback having a weird delay makes the touch response feel even more laggier; this is the most annoying thing about the phone right now. I only have Iris scan and fingerprint for security. I wish the fingerprint reader was lower and that I don't need to take off my glasses for Iris scan. And that's just my early observation of it.
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On Android phones I tend to turn off haptic feedback as a rule. It's just this constant, annoying buzz. I actually enjoy it on an iPhone, because it's much subtler and more varied... they tend to be thumps and ticks instead of buzzes.
 
CHANG3D said:
I have the S9 for several days. I had been using my iPhone 7 plus in parallel for the first two days to get things transferred over. And then I spent the next few days with just the S9 itself. The most frustrating thing about the S9 are that the apps are simply not made with the same quality as they do for iOS; but being able to set default apps made it so much simpler! The default edge bar position is placed at such a stupid location. Why is it at the center of the screen where people are most likely to scroll? (I moved it up.) LastPass autofill integration doesn't always work; but at least LastPass autofill could work the easy way instead of the hard way. The keyboard haptic feedback is not as natural from my old iPhone; but GBoard keyboard is so much better to control. The haptic feedback having a weird delay makes the touch response feel even more laggier; this is the most annoying thing about the phone right now. I only have Iris scan and fingerprint for security. I wish the fingerprint reader was lower and that I don't need to take off my glasses for Iris scan. And that's just my early observation of it.
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Umm, at least lastpass autofill does work where on the iPhone it doesn't work at all.
 
NIZMOZ said:
Umm, at least lastpass autofill does work where on the iPhone it doesn't work at all.
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I sure said it already!
Aurelius said:
On Android phones I tend to turn off haptic feedback as a rule. It's just this constant, annoying buzz. I actually enjoy it on an iPhone, because it's much subtler and more varied... they tend to be thumps and ticks instead of buzzes.
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I turned the haptic down to something weak so the "feedback stutter" is less pronounced. I'm old; I need some feedback.

As for the rest of the lag, like I mentioned for the other recent Touchwiz's, it's the touchscreen response stutter/delay that I find "laggy." The delays haptic feedback make it feel more pronounced as said earlier, but tuning the strength lower made it feel better, but the stutter is definitely still there. Scrolling up and down on a browser or twitter, it feels like the S9 is just slightly behind and jumpy instead of a smooth transition (though this could also be 3rd party faults). It definitely vastly improved from the old days where it was unbearable. (My animations are 0.5x after adjusting it in DevMode in case folks are wondering)

Does anyone know if the top microphone is supposed to work as a voice recorder? Seems like only the bottom microphone works. Nevermind. Got it to work in "interview" mode.
 
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I am putting a nail in the coffin on the S9 until I see at the very least root. I cannot handle another phone that keeps bugging me about Volume loudness. Small annoyance but enough for me to stay away from it. Having to hack the bixby button with an extra app is more foolishness. Really bummed, because I like the style the most and the thing is the latest and greatest. My only real option now is the google pixel 2 but the lack of inductive charging is also a facepalm. Why can't I have my pie and eat it too.
 
Bixby actually works pretty well. I don't really use any of the voice bullshit, but I tried it just to give it a shot. It worked every time.
 
TwistedMetalGear said:
There's a number of apps on the play store that will do it. I believe bxActions is the most popular.
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You also use another launcher if you use bxActions and others, or else it'll be kind of dumb every time you swipe (all the way) right.
 
One week since I got the S9. Yesterday it had gotten so laggy that it reminds of the bad iOS updates from a few months ago... I restarted the phone, and problems solved. Today it started lagging like crazy again. So here's another restart.

I've just disabled all of Bixby and switched over to Nova Launcher. Here's hoping turning that Bixby off and not having to use the default launcher that updates Bixby will help. If I have to restart my S9 on a daily bases, fuck it.

Another thing I miss from iPhone, payment integration inside apps. For example, McDonald's on iPhone you can pay with Apple Pay. On Android, even if you have Google Pay or Samsung Pay, neither is integrated. Heck, even PayPal or Visa Checkout would have been appreciated. I'm sure some other apps may have Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Visa Checkout, PayPal, or others integrated. But without a mega push to one of the secure payment methods like Apple pushed Apple Pay, I don't suppose developers support any of these other platforms.
 
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So far so good after getting rid of bixby for the most part. The reason why I suspect it was bixby is that Samsung experience/Touchwiz started slowly lagging whenever I accidentally hit the bixby button. Then I disabled the button, and it didn't help. Which I suspect is the launcher itself having Bixby embedded. I don't know if it's that switching to Nova fixed the problem. Or maybe whatever background shit bixby was running finished. But I don't think I'll want to deal with bixby as part of the launcher ever.
 
Looks like Exynos misfired badly. You get to have worse real-life performance along with less battery life unless you exclusively play Geekbench.
 
I finally got my AT&T S9+ unlocked, and flashed to T-Mobile firmware. Running solid for me so far, no complaints.
 
Phone crashed and restarted by itself for the first time today. Here's what was happening before. Unlocking phone took too long; long enough to go back to sleep and lock itself. In the off chance that it did unlock, the apps took a while to load, like trying opening app, wait-wait-wait-wait, load or the screen goes back to sleep for inactivity and locking. So it restarted itself after the light for iris unlock come on a few times while fingerprint unlock was unresponsive. The display stay on time was set to 15 seconds with smart stay; it never reverted back to normal 30s after battery saving was turned off. At this rate, it is still better than the awful iOS 11 updates. So I'm not giving up on the phone yet.

However, that said, what might actually make me want to give up on the phone is the "phone" itself. Sometimes when I receive incoming phone calls if I'm already on the phone doing something, it takes awhile for the phone to pick up after I swipe pick up. It's like I swipe right to pick up, wait-wait-wait-wait, pick up! I missed a call from this already.
 
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I got a S9 for work and was starting to like it, however the amount of notifications this thing generates is beyond ridiculous. Like holy shit, you can't even use the phone after you first get it, it is just busy spamming you with everything you don't care about. Also fuck this Bixby button, you can't disable it without signing up for a Samsung account. The phone opened Bixby once when I got off a call after not pressing the screen or any buttons, wtf. I tried to reproduce this and can't do it on demand.

Yesterday the phone sent me a notification telling me to reboot because it had been more than seven days since I rebooted. REALLY?!? Back to iOS it is.
 
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