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Samsung Note 8

Lagwiz is not my imagination, or a thing of old Galaxy S4 days, it's still here with us today, and the reason I prefer the nexus / Pixel line if you like Android phones. I know this video is about the S8, not the Note 8, but wondering if the Note 8 suffers thse issues?

Start at the 6:41 mark

 
Since the S8 and Note is essentially the exact same phone, I'd bet ... yes.
 
I'll let you guys know after two months. The Note 8 is too new, and I know full well the performance degradation that sets in after a few months - and especially after major updates.

Anyway, this would be much less of a problem if Samsung didn't screw over North American buyers with locked bootloaders. Just slap on an AOSP/LineageOS/whatever-derived ROM and be done with it. But that isn't an option ever since the S7, sadly.

One thing I should point out when I say the Note 8 is surprisingly smooth (and I should emphasize, the point of that XDA article Zorachus linked is that Samsung no longer delivers EMBARASSINGLY BAD real-world performance with the Note 8, it has improved) is that I'm using Nova Launcher Prime, not the stock Samsung launcher. Some say that one change makes it feel that little bit smoother.

Other things, like the recents menu? Well, they need to add a bit of a delay to account for the double-tap "switch to last app" input. Same damn thing happens on iOS with the home button. However, given how Android does things UI-wise, it would probably make more sense to have the recents menu come up immediately on the first press and have it switch to the last open app rather than just closing if the second press came immediately after the first. It would lower the perception of lag significantly.

I also recall reading on an XDA comment somewhere that the reason Samsung phones tend to look janky by default is that they're a bit conservative with their CPU governor settings, such that it doesn't ramp up quickly enough and they prioritize lower power consumption (and thus more battery life) more than perceived smoothness, and that flashing a custom kernel that lets you adjust that tends to solve the problem - except you can't do that on North American Snapdragon variants because LOCKED BOOTLOADERS. I miss when Sprint and T-Mobile variants had unlocked bootloaders, really, but those devices had stock ROMs with even more glaring issues to fix that all but required custom ROMs and Xposed tweaks.

The important thing is that Samsung may finally be getting their act together here, and we won't feel as much need for a custom ROM with future flagships of theirs - so I would hope, anyway.

One more thing I should point out: I have a Wacom Cintiq Companion Hybrid in front of me, running a practically stock build of 4.2.1 Jelly Bean. (No, it never got updated past that.) Use this thing for a while, complete with its inexplicable, random freezes (Tegra driver bugs, maybe?) for simple things like pulling down the notifications tray, and the Note 8 is gonna feel wicked fast by comparison. "Stock Android" isn't a panacea by itself; optimization is everything.
 
Ive had mine now for close to 2 weeks and I adore it. Best smartphone Ive ever had and by far. My last was the Note5 and this is much better. The screen is absolutely stunning and even outside under the glaring sun, you can see the content very well. Everything about TW is silky smooth and quick. This is the first smartphone where I dont even feel the need to root and install other roms. There is nothing that this phone lacks. The cameras...Oh my...totally floored by the quality, the quickness, the options. Just one speaker but I was pleasantly surprised by the added volume and quality compared to the Note 5. I can now understand what I'm listening to at work where environmental sounds used to muffle out the maxed out sound from my last phone. Everything about this phone is better that my last. Battery holds me up till bed time when I plug it in at around 30%.
 
I've had my Note 8 for a few weeks now and about the only downside I can say (and this is really nitpicking) - is that the audio is a single speaker shooting out of the bottom. The screen, the cameras, the size, even the battery life - just about everything - other than the speaker is great. Though the audio crappiness is somewhat mitigated by the good quality AKG ear buds that they include, I'm guessing like me, most owners will use their own headphones / blue tooth sets.

As for lag, I don't play games on the phone and use it primarily for text / messaging and social media / media consumption, so maybe my app use isn't hardcore enough. Or maybe it's the +2 extra gigs of ram (6gb total) in the Note 8? /shrug

Lastly, I didn't think I would make much use of the stylus at first, but after messing around with it a little bit, it's actually quite functional and handy, especially the note jotting and pdf signing.

It's about as close to perfect a smartphone as I've ever had.

I can only hope they address the audio in the Note 9 or 10, maybe something like what the LG V30 has - which reviewers have said is pretty amazing.
 
When most of us say lag in a smartphone, it's typically response time. For example, touch response on lagwiz is not as good as stock or most other skins. Drag and screen transition are also choppy as a result of that. As nameless says, it could be that the CPU governors are too conservative to save battery life. But when HTC's Sense UI responds quick and fast and they have a better battery life per mAh than Lagwiz, I'm not sure it's just the governor.
 
Response times are snappy for me. I really dont feel that this phone is either laggy or choppy. Everything is smooth and snappy for me so far.
 
I've been on Android since the Nexus-One days. I was a proud owner of the N1 when it was new, and stood in line at the T-Mobile store the day the Nexus-S first came out ( second Nexus phone ). I have owned pretty much every Nexus phone, and also a lot of Samsung Galaxy phones over the years too. The S line I had the S2, S4, and S8+, and the Note's I had the Note II, and Note 5. Out of all those phones, for whatever year it was the Nexus of that year compared to the Galaxy or Note of the same year, was always smoother, less laggy, and less hiccups.

The S4 was a shit phone, and the Nexus 5 compared to it, was night and day smoother.

I bought the new T-Mobile Galaxy S8+ this Spring, and returned it a week later, it did indeed have real lag, and slight micro stutters FACT, not made up. It was not as smooth and lag free as the Pixel XL.

Another example, my Wife and I both bought brand new Note 5's the week they came out, and brand new they were amazing phones, fast, and smooth, and Touchwiz seemed much improved. And then I got the Nexus itch again, and picked up the Nexus 6P on a whim, and will admit it was even smoother, than the Note 5. While my Wife kept her Note 5, I noticed like six months in, it felt like an old Windows 95 PC, totally bloated and laggy, and stuttering. So I performed a full wipe, and complete system fresh install on her Note 5 and that helped a ton to make the phone smooth again. Fast forward three months later, and the lag was back again. Compare that to my nexus 6P, and six months in, it felt like the day it was brand new, still smooth, still very little to no lag.

I really love the hardware and cool designs Samsung has been doing lately. But fool me once, and not again. I just can't trust a Samsung Galaxy phone will still buttery smooth and lag free 6+ months on. I do not understand how a Pixel phone can, but a Galaxy cannot ?
 
Oh and the Galaxy S7 Edge, wow that phone performed liked the S4, and looked like something out of Gingerbread days.

I did not actually own the S7 Edge, but in my office, I was tasked with settings up everyone's brand new S7 Edge's they got earlier this year. Out of 8 brand new Sprint S7 Edge's all of them were lag city BIG TIME. I was really shocked just how much micro stutter and slight hiccups they all had. Granted this is during the setup process, so tons of background downloads and installations were all going on at the same time/ on these phones, but even after I had them all setup, totally updated, and the apps installed they liked, yes it smoothed out a lot better, but that slight hiccup was still there. Pull the notification shade down, and sometimes you'd get a half second delay. Or go the Play Store, and maybe a 1 second pause before it opens up. To me that's totally unacceptable, a modern smartphone should perform actions faster than a blink of an eye, and never lag, never pause for half a second, never hiccup, it should be smooooth ALWAYS. And to me, the only phones that are that smooth are rooted and ROM'd Nexus / Pixel phones.
 
I decided to return my Note 8. I like the phone, but I can see the samsung "lag" kick in after a while, as with other samsung phones I've owned. I'm going to look into the Google Pixel 2 XL and see how that is. I haven't used stock android in a long time and would like to see how smooth the OS can actually be.
 
CHANG3D said:
DxOMark has just released the Note 8 review. I'm guessing the ridiculous "DxOMark is biased" debates are over.

https://www.dxomark.com/samsung-galaxy-note-8-best-smartphone-zoom/

Score 94. Tied with the iPhone 8 Plus (higher photo score, but lesser video score)
Click to expand...

How does one tie with the iPhone with much better features and quality in pictures? Sorry, but many think DXO is biased towards Apple (reason they waited for the iPhone to drop), before testing the Note 8. Note 8 has custom camera settings, faster shutter, etc. LOL
 
refraxion said:
I decided to return my Note 8. I like the phone, but I can see the samsung "lag" kick in after a while, as with other samsung phones I've owned. I'm going to look into the Google Pixel 2 XL and see how that is. I haven't used stock android in a long time and would like to see how smooth the OS can actually be.
Click to expand...

Umm what lag? No one on Android Central has seen any lag from this phone yet. Sounds to me, you saw the Pixel 2 and making an excuse to get it.
 
NIZMOZ said:
How does one tie with the iPhone with much better features and quality in pictures? Sorry, but many think DXO is biased towards Apple (reason they waited for the iPhone to drop), before testing the Note 8. Note 8 has custom camera settings, faster shutter, etc. LOL
Click to expand...
complete utter BS... The Note 8 did score higher on pictures.
 
Six months from now... you think Samsung will finally have Oreo pushed out to their flagships by then? Such an update could easily make or break perceived smoothness, as I've mentioned before. Feature updates have a knack for doing that on any OS - yes, even iOS.

Anyway, I've noticed that these sort of discussions generally have two sorts of people involved:
-"Stock Android is the only way to go! Everything else is lag city!"
-"Stock Android has no features! Samsung actually makes Android useful with their additions!"

My view is basically "I like the additional Samsung features like much better multi-windowing, Samsung Pay MST, and of course, the Wacom pen, but WTF is up with their optimization?" To make matters worse, it's very likely that owners of older flagships don't get the software features from a later model just so Samsung can entice people to upgrade, unless the chaps at XDA-developers make a ROM port (which requires an unlocked bootloader, so US Snapdragon variants need not apply). I feel like the Note 4 getting the Note 5 and later Air command menu with Marshmallow was a bit of a fluke here.

But other things, like the camera? No camera2 API for you! No system-wide themes for you, either! No cutting down the system DPI from a stupid-huge 640 to 560! (Thank goodness the Note 8 lets you do that just from developer options, not that the default really needs adjustment IMHO.) Is it really too much to ask to backport stuff that doesn't rely on new hardware missing from older models?

It's too soon to tell if they'll pull the same crap with the Note 8, but we'll see in a year or two from now. Until then, I'll just enjoy it for what it is: a surprisingly smooth experience that generally holds its stuff in RAM in the background and does nearly everything my Note 4 did, but more responsive. Especially the camera. Hoo boy, I think I missed a few spur-of-the-moment shots with my Note 4's camera just because of how long the camera app took to load up and show me a viewfinder.
 
NIZMOZ said:
Umm what lag? No one on Android Central has seen any lag from this phone yet. Sounds to me, you saw the Pixel 2 and making an excuse to get it.
Click to expand...

Excuse? It is already showing stutters on the phone. I've owned Samsung phones since the GS3 up to Note 5. I know what I'm talking about. I also have owned Sony and HTC phones as well in between those other phones.

I'd say I have a pretty good gauge of what happens to Samsung phones.
 
refraxion said:
Excuse? It is already showing stutters on the phone. I've owned Samsung phones since the GS3 up to Note 5. I know what I'm talking about. I also have owned Sony and HTC phones as well in between those other phones.

I'd say I have a pretty good gauge of what happens to Samsung phones.
Click to expand...

Really? Please provide us a video proving it. It's probably the app.
 
NIZMOZ said:
Really? Please provide us a video proving it. It's probably the app.
Click to expand...

I'm not going to bother. I have a Galaxy S8 (work phone) as well as a Note 8 (put it back and awaiting my shipping a label) and I'm currently typing on my Note 5. I don't have to prove to someone what I know when I use these Samsung phones. I love their designs, I hate TouchWiz lag. Was hoping Note 8 would be different, but it isn't quite there yet.

Tell me, how many Samsung phones have you used? and by your logic, you should prove to me in a video that there ISN'T lag/stutter compared to other android phones like the OP5.
 
refraxion said:
I'm not going to bother. I have a Galaxy S8 (work phone) as well as a Note 8 (put it back and awaiting my shipping a label) and I'm currently typing on my Note 5. I don't have to prove to someone what I know when I use these Samsung phones. I love their designs, I hate TouchWiz lag. Was hoping Note 8 would be different, but it isn't quite there yet.

Tell me, how many Samsung phones have you used? and by your logic, you should prove to me in a video that there ISN'T lag/stutter compared to other android phones like the OP5.
Click to expand...

I really cant fathom how you can come to that conclusion. I have the Note 8...theres no lag at all period...Maybe you have a defective unit or something but my Note 8 is the snappiest smartphone Ive ever had....No stutter, no lag. Everything is smooth. No crashes, no reboots...This phone has been flawless so far for me.
 
Well, after a week of using my Note 8 there are a couple of things that stand out to me. First, wow, battery life. Even without using any battery saving features it is lasting significantly longer than my S7 did. I am charging it every two days or so when I get down to around 20% left. Last night I got down to 20% and put it on the charger after 2 days and 16 hours since the last charge. Admittedly I am a pretty light user but it still seems to last twice as long as my S7 did with the same level of use.

Second, the wifi reception is significantly better than any other device I've ever owned. It is now usable in every room of my house. At the furthest reaches on 2.4GHz my down speeds drop to about 10mbps, but that is good enough that I don't have to change to a closer router. Even better is that it keeps an adequate connection when I get into my car. It used to piss me off that I would get into my car and try to use maps for navigation but my S7 couldn't figure out that the wifi was too weak and wouldn't automatically switch to mobile so I would have to turn off wifi. Now that isn't a problem. Heck, it is still good enough to stream my music when I walk over to my separate garage to work out.

These aren't exactly groundbreaking improvements, but unlike most new smartphone features, they are things that affect my everyday usage which makes them far more important to me.

Oh and I got rid of that crappy Skinomi protector and went with one from Omoton that had worse reviews but they weren't fake. Outside of some poorly written instructions it is significantly better. Not as good as tempered glass, but it was also only like $7 for a two pack.
 
refraxion said:
I'm not going to bother. I have a Galaxy S8 (work phone) as well as a Note 8 (put it back and awaiting my shipping a label) and I'm currently typing on my Note 5. I don't have to prove to someone what I know when I use these Samsung phones. I love their designs, I hate TouchWiz lag. Was hoping Note 8 would be different, but it isn't quite there yet.

Tell me, how many Samsung phones have you used? and by your logic, you should prove to me in a video that there ISN'T lag/stutter compared to other android phones like the OP5.
Click to expand...

Because you know it isn't true. The Note 8 doesn't lag. The S8 does due to lower memory, but so far on Android Central, the poll shows no lag at all from any owner.

Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket, Galaxy S3, S4, S5, S7 Edge, Note 3, Note 4, Note 5, Note 7, Note 8. All of them had some form of lag except the Note 8.
 
How is the GPS on the Note 8? I've had plenty of Samsung phones before, and every single one of them have mediocre to non-existant GPS.

Captivate: no to terrible GPS
Galaxy S3: barely functioning GPS
Note 3: mediocre GPS
Note 4: ok GPS

On the contrary, I've had almost every Nexus devices. On every single Nexus device, including my current Nexus 6P, GPS is outrageously good and highly accurate, even while I'm inside a building. I regularly see 20 satellites and fix onto a minimum of 6, with a peak accuracy of 3 meters.

Would anyone with a Note 8 be kind enough to tell me their experiences with GPS on the Note 8? Also, it would be great if you could post a screenshot of GPS Status so I can actually see how the GPS works, that'd be very helpful.
 
jyi786 said:
How is the GPS on the Note 8? I've had plenty of Samsung phones before, and every single one of them have mediocre to non-existant GPS.

Captivate: no to terrible GPS
Galaxy S3: barely functioning GPS
Note 3: mediocre GPS
Note 4: ok GPS

On the contrary, I've had almost every Nexus devices. On every single Nexus device, including my current Nexus 6P, GPS is outrageously good and highly accurate, even while I'm inside a building. I regularly see 20 satellites and fix onto a minimum of 6, with a peak accuracy of 3 meters.

Would anyone with a Note 8 be kind enough to tell me their experiences with GPS on the Note 8? Also, it would be great if you could post a screenshot of GPS Status so I can actually see how the GPS works, that'd be very helpful.
Click to expand...

I've only used it once and didn't notice any issues with it. I guided me in Google Maps to my place accurately.
 
jyi786 said:
How is the GPS on the Note 8? I've had plenty of Samsung phones before, and every single one of them have mediocre to non-existant GPS.

Captivate: no to terrible GPS
Galaxy S3: barely functioning GPS
Note 3: mediocre GPS
Note 4: ok GPS

On the contrary, I've had almost every Nexus devices. On every single Nexus device, including my current Nexus 6P, GPS is outrageously good and highly accurate, even while I'm inside a building. I regularly see 20 satellites and fix onto a minimum of 6, with a peak accuracy of 3 meters.

Would anyone with a Note 8 be kind enough to tell me their experiences with GPS on the Note 8? Also, it would be great if you could post a screenshot of GPS Status so I can actually see how the GPS works, that'd be very helpful.
Click to expand...

I'm indoors in a super old house (probably lead paint and such) and I'm fixed on 19 out of 21 sattelites with 3M accuracy. Of course it varies as I walk around, but yeah, seems strong enough.

The only times I've had problems with Samsung phones recently (S7, Note 5, Note Edge, S4) was when I would try to start navigating when I got in my car and I was just barely in wifi range and Maps would try to use wifi to load and to determine my location instead of using GPS. Once I turned wifi off to force it to use mobile it would be fine.

I guess it is just surprising that you have a question about this as it seems like most GPS chips are pretty standard. I mean, it's not going to get better until new chips are out. Broadcom is supposed to have one that will be accurate within 30CM.

Oh and of course results will vary with location. I am about 10 miles away from any skyscrapers or parking garages, so outside of interference from my walls or roof there really isn't anything to cause problems.
 
Gorilla said:
I guess it is just surprising that you have a question about this as it seems like most GPS chips are pretty standard. I mean, it's not going to get better until new chips are out. Broadcom is supposed to have one that will be accurate within 30CM.
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree it's a bit surprising asking about it, but after the difficulties I had with GPS and the common denominator being Samsung phones, I just thought I'd ask before splurging $1K. Being a flashaholic, I have done my fair share of trying to get the GPS to work consistently on my Samsung phones, so I'd like to have it work OOTB with no problems.

NIZMOZ said:
How can you tell how many satellites you see?
Click to expand...

Install this and run it.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2&hl=en
 
NIZMOZ said:
This tell you anything?
Click to expand...

Yes, it sure does. Looks like the GPS doesn't have issues with satellite fixing, but still seems to have issues with "drifting". I'm assuming you are sitting still right? The GPS is reporting you moving at 2.2km/h. All my Samsung phones had that issue.

If it settles down after about 15 seconds and reports 0, that should be fine, but if it still randomly shoots around, that's a problem.
 
jyi786 said:
Yes, it sure does. Looks like the GPS doesn't have issues with satellite fixing, but still seems to have issues with "drifting". I'm assuming you are sitting still right? The GPS is reporting you moving at 2.2km/h. All my Samsung phones had that issue.

If it settles down after about 15 seconds and reports 0, that should be fine, but if it still randomly shoots around, that's a problem.
Click to expand...

For what it's worth I'm not seeing any drift, though I'm also fixed on 19 satellites instead of 8.
 
Gorilla said:
For what it's worth I'm not seeing any drift, though I'm also fixed on 19 satellites instead of 8.
Click to expand...

Wow, 19? Impressive.

I guess there's an important question I also left out. Which variant are you running? The Snapdragon or Exynos?

Personally I'll be going for the Exynos, as I'll be able to unlock and root it out of the box.
 
jyi786 said:
How is the GPS on the Note 8? I've had plenty of Samsung phones before, and every single one of them have mediocre to non-existant GPS.

Captivate: no to terrible GPS
Galaxy S3: barely functioning GPS
Note 3: mediocre GPS
Note 4: ok GPS

On the contrary, I've had almost every Nexus devices. On every single Nexus device, including my current Nexus 6P, GPS is outrageously good and highly accurate, even while I'm inside a building. I regularly see 20 satellites and fix onto a minimum of 6, with a peak accuracy of 3 meters.

Would anyone with a Note 8 be kind enough to tell me their experiences with GPS on the Note 8? Also, it would be great if you could post a screenshot of GPS Status so I can actually see how the GPS works, that'd be very helpful.
Click to expand...
That’s interesting my Note 3 was my best GPS device at the time. Now that I think about it that was the only thing I enjoyed on it.
 
Curious the long term use of the Note 8 further down the road. I agree the Exynos + 6GB RAM seems to be what a lag free Galaxy phone needs. But how will your Note 8's be several months from now ?

My long standing issue with Galaxy phones, isn't fresh brand new out of the box, they always perform like champs brand new. Super fast and smooth when new. It's 4 to 6 months down the road after longer time Lagwiz starts to creep in, and the slight stutters come up more often.

The Galaxy S8+ is doing that. Read forums on the S8 lately, lag is coming up more often after months being mostly smooth
 
NIZMOZ said:
Because you know it isn't true. The Note 8 doesn't lag. The S8 does due to lower memory, but so far on Android Central, the poll shows no lag at all from any owner.

Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket, Galaxy S3, S4, S5, S7 Edge, Note 3, Note 4, Note 5, Note 7, Note 8. All of them had some form of lag except the Note 8.
Click to expand...
low standards = no lag. Evidently the lag of the "Galaxy S II Skyrocket, Galaxy S3, S4, S5, S7 Edge, Note 3, Note 4, Note 5, (and) Note 7" didn't stop you from getting another Galaxy anything. And seriously, you kept the FireNote 7?!?

Also it hasn't even been two months with Note 8. And we're all talking about how lagwiz will lag over time. Let's revisit this in February.
 
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