Replacing a Samsung Galaxy S8+ Phone

Greg Blosser · Aug 5, 2021

I just upgraded from my S10+ to the S21+ yesterday. I'm still getting used to things but so far I'm impressed - everything is fast, from the general interface to the 5G. I'm not happy about the lack of SD card memory expansion, though. I'll let you know how things shake out as I get used to it.

glennhoffmania · Aug 5, 2021

Greg Blosser said:
I just upgraded from my S10+ to the S21+ yesterday. I'm still getting used to things but so far I'm impressed - everything is fast, from the general interface to the 5G. I'm not happy about the lack of SD card memory expansion, though. I'll let you know how things shake out as I get used to it.

I got the S20 last year and it's awesome. When I heard about the SD card it made me rethink sticking with Samsung though. For the S20 they got rid of the notification indicator light. Now they got rid of the SD card option. Those two things annoy me.

Pablo's TB Lover · Aug 5, 2021

I upgraded to a Galaxy S21 in March which I believe is the latest version still. Went with the original due to the lack of features in the plus that I absolutely had to have as well as being free as opposed to a $100-200 upgrade to the plus. I went from an S8+ too if I recall. Superficially, you'll notice the phone is ever so slightly smaller than the S8+ but the screen space is essentially the same. The edge of screen goes past the front camera lens all the way to the top of phone (this started with the S10). This battery also feels exponentially better; even 5 months old now, I can have a day filled with using the camera and other major apps and still have plenty of battery left at 11pm since my last charge ended at 6:30am.

For what you are looking for it should do just fine, the notification light removal was annoying for me as well though. I now find out much of the time if I miss a text or call by the vibration when picking up the phone rather than visually with the flashing light (before I unlock and see the screen), and it gets frigging aggravating.

glennhoffmania · Aug 5, 2021

By the way, if you want to still get a flashing notification light I use AODNotify. It lets you customize notifications so now I get a flashing light around the front camera. It has some glitches and you have to play around with the settings but it's made a huge difference.

Pablo's TB Lover · Aug 5, 2021

glennhoffmania said:
By the way, if you want to still get a flashing notification light I use AODNotify. It lets you customize notifications so now I get a flashing light around the front camera. It has some glitches and you have to play around with the settings but it's made a huge difference.

Thanks for the heads up!

Marceline · Aug 5, 2021

Do people really still need an sd card?

I was dead set on thinking I needed them forever. My current phone has 128gb built in storage and no SD card, and I don't think I've gotten it more than half full at any point. I keep a ton of music stored locally on the phone too.

Greg Blosser · Aug 6, 2021

Good point about the SD card. I don't even keep music on my phone - it's probably just holdover storage paranoia from the dark ages.

Anyway, I'm really digging the S12+. The on-screen interface is basically the same as the S10 and having both buttons on one side takes a little getting used to but is ultimately more convenient. I'm also still tweaking all of the customizable settings. 5G is definitley living up to the hype - I don't think I've experienced any lag yet and loading times are pretty much instantaneous except for, oddly, my Yahoo Fantasy app - that tends to time out pretty frequently, for some reason. Battery life seems very similar - maybe slightly better - to the S10 and the camera is great so far, as per usual. The aspect ratio selection setting has a lot of potential, as well.

So far, so good - I'm not overwhelmed with joy but no regrets yet. It basically feels like what it is - not a game-changer but a slightly spiffier version of an industry standard.

Oh, and you can totally bypass Bixby, which is a net positive in my book.

glennhoffmania · Aug 7, 2021

Joe Sixpack said:
Do people really still need an sd card?

I was dead set on thinking I needed them forever. My current phone has 128gb built in storage and no SD card, and I don't think I've gotten it more than half full at any point. I keep a ton of music stored locally on the phone too.

It's not as important as it used to be. But I like it as a backup. If my phone dies I can put the card in a new one and don't have to worry about how much space I have in my Google photos account.. Maybe it's not necessary but it's a nice option to have.

The indicator light bothers me more. Why would they get rid of that?

johnmd20 · Aug 7, 2021

glennhoffmania said:
It's not as important as it used to be. But I like it as a backup. If my phone dies I can put the card in a new one and don't have to worry about how much space I have in my Google photos account.. Maybe it's not necessary but it's a nice option to have.

The indicator light bothers me more. Why would they get rid of that?

Losing the indicator light was one of the worst things to happen to cell phones. It is Apple's fault, I assume.

Marceline · Aug 8, 2021

glennhoffmania said:
It's not as important as it used to be. But I like it as a backup. If my phone dies I can put the card in a new one and don't have to worry about how much space I have in my Google photos account.. Maybe it's not necessary but it's a nice option to have.

The indicator light bothers me more. Why would they get rid of that?

Yeah, good point about the photos, although unless the phone is completely dead (like won't power on at all) you could always go pull the photos off with a data cable.

If you're super paranoid like I am, you can just hook up with the data cable once every couple months and back everything up that way. Yes it's less convenient but oh well.

Indicator light being removed is absolutely awful, agreed, and also the headphone jack. If I were in charge of Samsung the next phone would have all those things plus a removable battery. I don't care if it was a brick as a result.

Marceline · Aug 9, 2021

Bleedred said:
So this old man concludes that given the no headphone jack, in order to listen to music when I'm running, I need earpods, is that the correct interpretation?

If you like your wired earbuds you can get something like this to attach them:
View: https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Adapter-Female-Samsung-Devices/dp/B08Z3B5QL3/

glennhoffmania · Aug 9, 2021

That's what I did. The earphones it comes with suck. The adapter works fine. I still can't get past the notification light.

Max Power · Aug 9, 2021

glennhoffmania said:
That's what I did. The earphones it comes with suck. The adapter works fine. I still can't get past the notification light.

The always on screen shows notifications. I think that's supposed to take the place of the light.

SumnerH · Aug 9, 2021

Joe Sixpack said:
Do people really still need an sd card?

I was dead set on thinking I needed them forever. My current phone has 128gb built in storage and no SD card, and I don't think I've gotten it more than half full at any point. I keep a ton of music stored locally on the phone too.

When I travel I like to bring along the next few episodes of whatever shows I'm watching and a few movies to watch. I also have a bunch of podcasts that are waiting many episodes deep at any given time. That plus all my books and music is over 128GB easily.

SumnerH · Aug 9, 2021

Joe Sixpack said:
Yeah, good point about the photos, although unless the phone is completely dead (like won't power on at all) you could always go pull the photos off with a data cable.

If you're super paranoid like I am, you can just hook up with the data cable once every couple months and back everything up that way. Yes it's less convenient but oh well.

I sync them to my computer over wifi, more convenient than plugging in a cable. I use syncthing to transfer in both directions (movies/music/podcasts to phone and tablet, photos and downloads from phone/tablet to desktop).

All my media libraries (podcasts, movies/tv, music, books) are handled on the desktop and mirrored out to the other devices whenever I'm home, so they're always in sync everywhere and I'm not relying on streaming or mobile data for them normally (but I can sync over mobile data if I need to for some reason--e.g. on longer trips when I want to pick up recent podcast episodes).

Marceline · Aug 9, 2021

SumnerH said:
When I travel I like to bring along the next few episodes of whatever shows I'm watching and a few movies to watch. I also have a bunch of podcasts that are waiting many episodes deep at any given time. That plus all my books and music is over 128GB easily.

I mean I do all that too, plus I actually use my phone for photos, and I've never run into space issues on my 128gb. I get it but your use case is easily a top 1% type of scenario.

The vast majority of people really don't need an sd card any more. Plus that's why they sell 256gb phones.

Replacing a Samsung Galaxy S8+ Phone

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