Down to 2, s8 vs iphone x

I made a while back, I know, but I narrowed it down to two.

I'm seriously thinking of making the jump to android it seems like is easier to download tweaks to the phone or a modded app as oppose to ios especially now that jailbreak is probably dead. That and aux jack, but between two I think they are also arguably the best looking phones out there and most popular so novelty case and aftermarket products wouldn't be an issue finding (more so with iphone). However I've been on ios for 7 years and have used android very little between that time, so the transition maybe a bit weird.

So with that in mind, convince me brothas on which phone would be the better choice.

If I was to pick between the two today, I would choose the iPhone X. It's a newer, better phone. The Galaxy S9 will likely launch only 3~4 months after the iPhone X (assuming you can get your hands on one at launch).

If you're not taken up on the price, the Pixel 2 XL should have a 2:1 display, but it might only be using a Snapdragon 835, so SoC will be a bit dated. Google's event is in October for new Pixels.

The iPhone X has annihilated this year and next year's phones that aren't made by Apple. And in some ways, probably the phones the year after that.

If the cost isn't prohibitive, and you're already invested in Apple's ecosystem, there's no reason to look elsewhere.

Care to elaborate?

@NVIDIATI: Sure, I don't think non-Apple phones are going to enjoy the following benefits for at least a year if not years.

iPhone 8 3D sensing facial recognition tech 'two years ahead' of Android rivals

This analysis comes from the same source that accurately predicted the bulk of what the iPhone 8 would be (before the leaked GM of iOS 11). Compliments of KGI Research.

The first iPhone X and iPhone 8 benchmarks are here, and they’re a nightmare for Android

Apple's custom CPU and GPU packed in the A11 Bionic crushes everyone else. Considering the fact that any phone shipping this year with an 835 is similar in oomph to last year's iPhone 7 (on less optimized hardware), there's a lot of catching up to do. Maybe that Kirin 970 will be the miracle chip we've been promised. Not holding my breath.

ARKit will make Apple's iOS the largest AR platform in the world overnight

Nobody is going to match the reach and quality of augmented reality capabilities Apple is going to roll out next week. Every Apple device with at least an A9 (a chip from 2015), and there are a couple hundred million out there, will be capable of utilizing the technology.

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Depending on what they did with the 970, it may be the case that Apple has a long lead in regards to their neural engine on the A11 Bionic, as well.

Regardless of what happens with the 970 or any other non-Apple hardware in the next couple of years, nobody is even close to marrying hardware and software like Apple. To see someone offering a meaningful challenge in these areas above next year would be a surprise.

@musicalmac

The face recognition tech is a great application, we'll have to see how much of a benefit it will be down the road (or what others in the industry will have to offer). Otherwise, this is an area Apple seems to be leading.

I don't think anyone was promising a miracle with the Kirin 970, but in all fairness, its NPU has more than 2x the performance of the one in the A11 (600 GFLOPS vs 1,920 GFLOPS). If Apple's 30% GPU increase holds true, it will be hovering around the Snapdragon 835/Exynos 8895 (GFXBench Manhattan 3.1 Offscreen). This leaves CPU performance, I think Apple will maintain a strong single core advantage in 2018, nor Samsung or Qualcomm seem to have any large cores in their lineups, multi core is a different story. As Android is more accustom to multi-core use, it’s not always a direct comparison.

A bit off topic, but Huawei has been making some serious advancements with their SoCs over the past few years. It’s interesting to see how they’re starting to compete with flagship SoCs from major players.

While ARCore was a recent announcement, it's been worked on for over 2 years as Tango. In many ways it’s quite mature, the main difference being ARCore and ARKit lack the depth sensing that’s found in Tango. Google is promising over 100 million Android devices will support ARCore, but I suspect we’ll hear more about that at the Pixel announcement in early October. As for development, tools are out there for Android/iOS developers. If someone is making a project in Unreal or Unity, for example, it’s not so difficult to use it for ARCore or ARKit.

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AI/machine learning are areas Google has an excellent advantage, I’m interested to see how this continues to play out in future devices, especially now that we’re seeing dedicated hardware coming to SoCs for local processing. This is an area Google gets far too little credit for.

Depth sensing is coming to the Spectra ISP in next generation Snapdragon SoCs for early 2018. This essentially makes any phone with two cameras capable of passive depth sensing, or a single camera with an IR blaster/sensor capable of active depth sensing. In short, this makes these devices into Tango devices (with an active version being preferred), a much better form of AR. So at some point in the near future, devices that currently support ARCore and ARKit will be fragmented by this addition.

Example of a Tango smartphone with low-mid tier specs:

I don't think "annihilated" was the right word to use.

Dual-lens depth sensing vs dedicated 3D sensor with its own infrared flood-light, depth scanner and dot-overlay coupled with an on-board neural engine. Right. Annihilated is the proper word. Apple is about to push AR into the mainstream. Just like everything else they've brought to the table since day one with electromagnetic capacitive multi-touch (first few android phones laughably used resistive touch or capacitive screens with no multi-touch)

Still no 3D touch. Still couldn't get their own fingerprint sensor solution to match Apples high-quality solution. No signs of any facial recognition unlocking mechanism on par with Apples new Face ID. the ones on android so far are so laughable. Doesn't work at night, when you have a hat, glasses, grow a beard, and can be easily fooled by a photo. Still no multi-billion dollar peripheral and mod market to support any Android phone.

Annihilated is actually not a good enough description at this point. Android users will never admit how far behind they are.

I would have gone with iPhone X and that's what I suggest. I ordered an iPhone 8 Plus yesterday but that's because my 5C is almost dead. I can't wait over a month just to preorder an X.

@NVIDIATI: Oh I think it was.

@SOedipus: mine has so far been excellent. And screaming fast.

Yeah it's amazing. I'm really happy that I went with it.

@musicalmac

That article is painful to read for a few reasons:

1. How did they standardize the video tests? Why would the Note 8 and Galaxy S8+ have such a huge discrepancy using the exact same SoC? I don't doubt the iPhone being faster with memory than a Galaxy, but these tests leave a lot to the imagination.
2. They used Geekbench to compare x86 and ARM. Anandtech already showed that despite Geekbench scores, which show the A9X beating a Core m chip, the Core m (Y series) was faster.
3. Their graphics test is an OpenGL ES 2.0 benchmark from 2013. Futuremark's newest benchmark is Sling Shot (OpenGL ES 3.1), it shows the Snapdragon 835 to be close to the A11. Top mobile devices September 2017. A slightly older GFXBench 3.1 Manhattan Offscreen also shows similar results. The newer GFXBench 4.0 can't run on iOS as Metal was missing a number of the features required.

So saying that the iPhone X annihilated "next year's phones that aren't made by Apple" is just wrong, especially when some aspects, such as graphics, the A11 is producing similar results to an SoC from the start of this year.

I would stick with your current phone and wait to hear more about Pixel 2 or Surface Phone. iOS is too restrictive, and you can't make phone "yours". The result is every iOS phone is the same save for slight customizations in the widgets menu. I have a Pixel, and I customized its setup and widgets, so it's mine and looks beautiful.

@NVIDIATI: Well, if next year’s non-Apple made phones find flagship relevance again, I’ll be happy to give them my congratulations.

If.

Just do what sheep normally do, follow the best seller, which is currently the S7/S8.

How restrictive would the OS be on samsung s8? I'm guessing their phones can't be rooted most likely, but can I still modify apps? I was able to do it on jailbreak ios. I have never owned an android phone so I wouldn't know. Also can customize the skin on the s8, I'm assuming you could, but the freedom to personalize maybe more restricting than pixel or rooted phones, correct if I'm wrong. I have my sights set on that phone over the X right now.

I know the X is more powerful yaddah, but the I'm not a fan of the gesture as home button replacement I see that as even worse than virtual buttons.

I am currently using an iPhone 6 that is now a little over two years old. I would love to update to the iPhone X or iPhone 8, but still do not have any problems with my iPhone 6. I usually try to wait until I can justify an update, but I am not sure I can do that just yet. I am really looking at the X, but the price is just... too much!

@Bikouchu35: Why wouldn't you be able to root an S8? or even the Note 8? you can ALWAYS root.