Using The Galaxy S8/S8+ In 2020

It's 2020 and phones have changed so much since they first appeared, they have simply turned more and more awesome over the years. Today, people have so much to choose from, there is probably a phone for everyone. Mid range phones these days are considered to be a better deal than flagships because they seem to provide better value than flagships do, but flagship phones still stand their position in the market and in the minds of people. Flagships still lure people more and are still preferred by a lot of them. There are people who prefer flagships but don't have a budget that could match their preference. What could be a better option for these people than to buy a former flagship? With phones getting better each year, their aging also improves. Smartphones from a year apart don't differ much in functionality but their price difference is quite big, this is why an old flagship could a be a better choice. 

Using The Galaxy S8/S8+ In 2020

Why You Should Get An Old Flagship Phone

I myself am one of those people who would prefer an old flagship phone over any of the latest mid range ones. To put it simply, flagship phones are products that could be classified as a company's best offering. Everything about them, from the display to the processor, is high quality and top of the line. There is also the cost cutting aspect to mid range and budget phones that prevents them from filling all the gaps and has the potential to downgrade user experience, while flagship phones don't share this aspect as much, they're able to fill all the gaps and provide a superior user experience. Gaps here refers to small features like wireless charging, water resistance, etc. these are features that define a flagship phone. Not only small features, mid range phones quite literally cut on everything else, almost everything about them is mediocre. There is huge difference between the display quality of a mid range phone and that of a flagship phone, same goes for processing power and camera experience. Understanding smartphone cameras is not as simple a thing as it might seem to people, camera specs mentioned on paper don't differ a lot in any phone these days, they might even sometimes appear to be better for a mid range phone. But the software is where it all starts differentiating and starts making more sense. Take Oneplus as an example, last year, the best phone they offered was the Oneplus 7 Pro, this year, it's the Oneplus 8 Pro, the most significant difference between these phones is that the 7 Pro was not a flagship and the 8 Pro is. With this, these phones differ so much from each other, almost all of these differences are what I have mentioned above, specially the camera quality. With the flagship title, Oneplus invested much more money in the camera software and was able to come up with a way better camera software than last year, this took their camera quality to the level where it now competes with that of iPhones ,as well as Pixel and Galaxy devices. Same thing goes for all other flagship, much more money is invested in the development of their components, be it the camera, the display or anything. Therefore, flagship phones that are not too old offer much better performance than mid range or budget phones, while their price is almost as low as that of a good mid range phone.

Using The Galaxy S8/S8+ In 2020

If you're interested in the Oneplus 8 Pro or the 7 Pro, check this article out: Oneplus 8 Pro, A Flagship?

Galaxy S8/S8+ Specifications

The Galaxy S8 comes with a 5.8 inches super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1440x2960 pixels, it comes either with a Exynos 8895 or a Snapdragon 835 chip depending on the region you live in, if you live in the US or in China, then you get the Snapdragon version. The S8 only has one storage variant, that is, 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, it also supports expandable storage up to 256GB, the phone has a single 12MP, f/1.7 camera at the back and a 8MP, f/1.7 camera at the front, the battery capacity is 3000mAh.

The S8+ does not differ a lot from the S8. It has a bigger 6.2 inches display, a bigger battery of 3500mAh and it comes in two storage variants, one with 4GB RAM, 64GB storage and the other with 6GB RAM, 128GB storage. The phones also come with a bunch of small enjoyable features, both phones have a headphone jack, which is a rare commodity in flagships these days, they have a rear mounted capacitive finger print sensor, have an iris scanner, both support 15W fast charging, they also come with a heart rate sensor and a pressure sensitive home button. You can get the S8 for around ₹50,000 or $225, the S8+ for around ₹56,000 to ₹66,000 or $264 to $549.

Experience

I own a Galaxy S8+, so, in this section I will talk about my experience using the S8+, but if you are interested in the S8 then you don't really have to worry much, as both phones are mostly similar to each other and their differences don't affect the user experience as much. 

I have been using the S8+ for around seven months now and let me make it very clear, I absolutely love the phone. Now, I got it in the first place because it appeared to me to be an almost perfect phone and to this day, the only things about it that bother me a little are that it doesn't have stereo speakers and that I couldn't get the 6GB RAM version. The 4GB RAM on my phone doesn't actually affect my experience though, but it just feels a bit of an older standard when I see that phones these days are going up to 12 and 16GB of RAM. About the software, Samsung first used to give its customers the TouchWiz skin, but then they introduced the One UI, now it might not be better than some other, more optimized skins out there, but it sure is a huge, huge improvement from TouchWiz. To be honest, it's actually quite good, the way they have designed it to make the user experience better as phones are getting taller and taller is really good, they've probably put a lot of thought on keeping the reachability factor alive. I happen to have the Exynos version, the performance it offers is quite good, I don't really have a lot of  complaints from it, but I do think that the Snapdragon version would offer better performance and better battery efficiency. The display on the phone is so good, I have just one word for it, flawless, it's just flawless, I think the fact that it doesn't have a notch or a hole punch is an underrated one in itself, this is also one of the reasons I got the phone, I wanted a display that is beautiful and doesn't have any notch or hole punch, just clean display. The camera performance is okay, not too good, the camera app is quite versatile, which is good thing, it offers a lot of interesting modes that are fun to use, but I can't say that I really love the camera performance on this phone though it's a lot better than a lot of phones out there. A quick tip here, I use a Google camera port on my phone and it just drastically improves camera performance, to the point where I have no complaints from it, it just delivers phenomenal photos. Here is the link for the port if you're interested in it, it also supports a lot of other phones, check it out, your phone might just be there too. The pressure sensitive home button on the S8+ has become one my favourite features of it, it is just so convenient to have, I almost always use it to wake the phone up, instead of the power button, it also is a really cool feature to have. It's a feature that I think more phones should have. The iris scanner on the phone is a pretty unique feature to have, it looks and feels really cool and it's just good to have multiple options to unlock your phone than to have just one. The scanner works pretty good, it sometimes fails if there is dirt over it and in dark conditions, but the good thing is that you can use it alongside the fingerprint sensor, so, pretty good overall. The iris scanner also really fun to show off ,by the way, a lot of times people get awestruck when I tell them about it. The heart rate sensor is something that you don't use a lot, but I think that it's just good to have, plus it's something that Samsung has stopped putting in their phones, so it's kind of an advantage that just a few phones have now.

Conclusion

The S8 and the S8+ are really good phones to get. There are some areas in which they lag behind, but it's just a natural thing that happens when things get old. They still offer better performance and experience than a lot of phones that we see today, which come for a similar price. One thing that you can be assured of after getting one of these phones is that you won't be disappointed. 

Galaxy S9/S9+

There's one more phone that you can consider, which is really similar to the S8/S8+, but is better. If you have the budget for it, the Galaxy S9 or the S9+ is an even better option to pick, it provides more value than the S8/S8+. It covers all the gaps left open by the S8, many people have complaints about the placement of the fingerprint sensor on the S8/S8+, which was placed at the side of the camera, many a times, people would end up smudging their camera lens while trying to reach for the fingerprint sensor. The S9 solves this problem by placing the sensor below the rear camera, with that it comes with stereo speakers and there's is a second, 12MP, f/2.4 2x telephoto camera at the back of the S9+. It also comes with a better processor, the Exynos 9810 or the Snapdragon 845. So, it's basically a small improvement over the S8/S8+. If you could afford it, I recommend getting an S9/S9+ over the S8 or an S8+. You can get the S9 for around ₹25,000 to ₹66,000 or $284 to $999, the S9+ starting from around ₹30,000 or $297.

Using The Galaxy S8/S8+ In 2020

Links: 
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Galaxy S8+
Galaxy S9 
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