I love gadgets!
I spend my hard earned money on these, and so does innumerable others.
I buy gadgets when they’re fresh in the market upon their release.
Briefly, my smartphone purchase history -
Xperia Arc(2011), Samsung Galaxy S3(2012), Samsung Galaxy Note 2(2012), Samsung Galaxy S4(2013), HTC One M8(2014), Xperia Z2(2014), HTC One M8(2014)/Yes, twice!/, Samsung Galaxy Note 5(2015), OnePlus 3(2016). Current
Among these, the best were-
Xperia Arc(people used to get awestruck and ask me about it. smartphones were not common)
S3 and Note 2(people couldn’t believe that screens could be so big and again ask me about it!)
HTC One M8(pure quality & performance)
OnePlus 3(I was able to buy it fully with the money after selling my Note 5, and it’s a fabulous hardware)
Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ has been launched in India, with a hefty tag of?58k and?65k, and it’s not reasonable!
It’s nearly 10k more than US price! Justifying it with higher taxes in India isn’t reasonable, because, India gets Exynos variant(Samsung’s own processor) and not the costlier Snapdragon one.
The design of S8 is simply gorgeous. It looks like a phone from the future! Ooh that display! There’s a great camera!
The performance is aweso. Wait! It’will’ be awesome for around 2-3 months(may vary with type of usage). Samsung phones are bloated with their TouchWiz UI. They are making it look like it’s streamlined, but actually is not! Their average firmware size goes upto 2 GB in comparison with 700 MB for stock Android ones. And the phone is still having 4 GB RAM.
My Note 5 with my heavy usage slowed down, and had to undergo factory reset every 20-25 days. Given the premium price I paid for it, that wasn’t acceptable. For my OnePlus 3, that time frame goes up to 4 months!
There are already few reviews popping up for the sluggishness of S8, and you can’t be sure of how fast the phone is just by taking a fresh new phone in hand. Even a Micromax phone will seem smooth at that point of time.
Samsung with their aggressive advertisement will popularize these phones, but in the long run, people buying it with the hefty price tag are paying for these ad campaigns.
Yes, the customer support is good. But with a good phone, you never have to visit a service center. Till date, I only had to visit service center with my Note 2, Xperia Z2, and Note 5.
What happened with my Note 5 and the Consumer Forum documents I’m having with me along with inept Samsung support will be for another post, if you like! So, my final verdict.
If you’re rich, if 60k is not a big deal for you, definitely go for an S8+. I must suggest, buy an iPhone 7 Plus 128 GB too for the other pocket. It’ll balance out the uneven weight distribution you’ll be carrying.
But, if you’re someone like me, please wait for a few months. The prices should go down, You could even find better alternatives from the likes of OnePlus-like companies.
Or you could wait for the Note 8. The S Pen does make it a better all-rounder, and probably the fingerprint scanner will be someplace better!? Pray it won’t explode in your pants!
Cheers!