In response to the question :is it worth it. I guess it all depends on what someone is looking for.
I pre-ordered because of the 2 promo deals, the $99 one was what I wanted, could care less about the VR... Of course ya'll know what happened with the promo mess. Been using cell phones since 1990, the brick phone days. Never pre-ordering previously because I like to see if the kinks are worked out. But I've been looking for a new phone for 18 mos to replace my S5. Desperately needing more than 16 G internal and since I have had a consistent problem with battery life on both the S3 and S5, I wanted something with removable batteries. Another requirement of mine was a good rear camera. Researched, researched, researched. I thought maybe that the LG V 20 might be my answer. But after testing it in store 3-4 times, I found the camera totally lacking in quality. Same with the Pixel plus it didn't meet my other needs.
So finally had to give in and since I am used to the Samsung interface here I am.
I've been using S8 for 3 wks + 1 day now. The first 2 wks of my S8 life were spent just dealing with the settings and familiarizing myself with phone. About 5 days into phone there was some kind of system update, not sure if it was Samsung or TMO. After that my phone started giving me alerts that there was an issue with the SD card not being formatted. Phone was also randomly shutting down and rebooting itself. Both issues were noted on Samsung forums and other tech reports. Without me doing a single thing including any fixes from Samsung both issues have magically stopped happening the past 5-6 days. And if I did shut it down overnight when I turn back on certain apps on SD card
appear blanked out on home screens unable to open, but if I go to the Apps drawer I am able to open those apps. Then they will once again appear normally on home screens. Weird.
I'll be generous and start with the good points : 1) Bright, crisp screen display
2) fast, really fast (but I came from the S5 so difficult to compare)
3) camera shots are extremely crisp, bright and clear. Definitely a learning curve for making the most of the camera's settings.
4) space glorious space on internal memory.
5) ability to add a 256g SD (even if I am winding up paying a lot for a decent one rather than the infamous $99 offer or really the bait n switch trick)
6)Charging : very fast using the plug n cable it came with. One hour and 35 minutes from 9% to 100 %, as long as I have the screen off and don't touch it. Longer if I start reading news, etc. I noticed that when charging once power is at 100 %, the little icon that shows its charging disappears. I'm assuming that means that it can't do damage to the battery. MORE ON BATTERY BELOW
7) like the way it fits in my left hand due to its narrow stature. More on that below.
The Bad or what I'm unhappy with:
1) the battery life sucks. Yesterday tur