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Author Topic: Case for Samsung S8 Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 12-04-2017 06:33 PM                        I got new Samsung S8 phones for my wife and myself a week ago. (They were on sale.) I then immediately ordered Otterbox Defender cases and screen covers for them which arrived today. I've used Otterbox Defender cases on my phones for some years and have always figured they are expensive but worth it. They have wrecked them for the S8; the Otterbox screen protector is made of something they call "Alpha Glass" and they make the touch screen almost completely unresponsive, especially near the edges. So I've just finished packing the cases back up to return them. Unfortunately, now I have no cases for these phones and they are so slippery and small that I'm afraid I'll break or drop it. Do any of you have a suggestion for a case for a S8 that doesn't make the phone unusable? I've always thought the Otterbox was pretty much the perfect case -- complete protection and a belt clip too. But not any more. They seem to have hardened it to make it even tougher but at the expense of making it pretty much unusable.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-04-2017 07:26 PM                     It isn't Otter box, it is the S8. It is the damn curved screen that seemingly precludes using a normal screen protector. Any air gap and it isn't responsive. Furthermore the screen protector will fall off since they can only be held on with double stick tape. Keep the Otter box Defender. Then us a liquid product like Gadget Guard Black Ice. You'll have the best of both worlds.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 12-04-2017 07:50 PM                        I have an S8 with an OtterBox Commuter, which I like. I have tried several different screen protectors and none of the glass protectors work because of the curved screen. They all wind up with a loss of sensitivity in the middle of the screen. I had a film screen protector for a while because I figured some protection was better than none. Ultimately I took off the screen protector and just hope I don't drop the phone screen down. At least the profile of the OtterBox prevents the screen from coming in contact with any surface when placed face down. The main worry is dropping it and having it land on something directly on the screen. Over the years I've had pretty good luck with not dropping phones. Although I don't really love the bulk of the OtterBox, it does give me a much better grip than with no case.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 12-05-2017 12:24 AM                        Thanks, guys. I've decided to keep the Otterbox cases and return only the screen covers. The phones are certainly a lot easier to handle in the Otterbox than they are out of it. I'm not afraid it's going to slip out of my hand and fall on the floor now that it's in a case. Man, those things have a slick finish -- adding some kind of a texture to them would make them a lot easier to handle if you don't have a case. I got the cases from Amazon since the local phone dealer guy doesn't sell Otterboxes any more, but I'll pop into his store tomorrow and see what he has in the way of a simple screen cover thing that will fit these phones. If I put a cheap stick-on screen cover on and that gets scratched or messed up I can just rip it off and replace it. If the screen gets scratched, then that's pretty much it. So I think I'll be happier with some kind of a screen cover even if it doesn't amount to much.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 12-05-2017 12:42 AM                     At first the subject line of this thread had me thinking "here is a case in favor of buying a Samsung Galaxy S8," but I'm a little relived that isn't the case. I'm rocking a 2+ year old Samsung Note 5, which might actually be one of the last really good phones Samsung has made. Y'all know I'm personally not a big Apple fan, but now I have a large iPad Pro® (with Apple Pencil™) so the evil empire has established a beach head. But associating a Gmail account with one's Apple ID must be like an atheist visiting church as a type of agnostic history lesson, right? Anyway, Samsung seems to be trying real hard to piss off lots of Android customers. I simply will not buy a phone with one of those tapered, curved screens. Whoever thought of this gimmick must not even use mobile phones regularly. When you buy a new phone one of the first steps you take is getting a protective case for it and a good screen protector. During one visit to a Sam's Club one of the sales guys happened to see me using my old-ish Note 5 and was hell bent on getting me to upgrade to a Note 8. I simply wasn't interested. Not only did the curved edges of the screen sour me on that phone, but the damned thing didn't even have a native resolution that made any sense. Yeah, 2960x1440 is more than that 2560x1440 resolution of my phone, but just what the fuck content anywhere is authored in that resolution setting? At least the setting on my current phone isn't such an odd-ball setting. The sales droid tried persuading me with the pitch that there are liquid based screen protectors available now. Really? Ok, so you're spraying some liquid shit onto the screen. The stuff hardens and is then permanent, right? The sales guy nodded yes to that. Alright, what if you drop and scratch the living shit out of that liquid sprayed-on surface? What do you do then? He had no answer for that. If you buy a tempered glass protector or a cheaper clear plastic screen protector you can at least remove the fucking thing if you crack or scratch it. This liquid screen protector shit seems to defeat its own purpose if the gunk cannot be removed if it gets blemished. I have liked my Note 5 and would buy a more modern version of it. But as long as Samsung is selling these tapered curved edge screens I'll be looking elsewhere. I still dislike the iPhone for all the shit I cannot do to customize it or be able to move files on/off the device easily. I have these same complaints about the iPad Pro. That new "file manager" in iOS 11 is kind of a joke. Every iPhone user I know here in Lawton has a lame-ass default ringtone. At least my phone is entertaining and unique when it receives a phone call or text message. So maybe I'll try hard to stick with the Android platform. But Samsung must get back to making flat screens. quote: Frank Cox Man, those things have a slick finish -- adding some kind of a texture to them would make them a lot easier to handle if you don't have a case. That factor reinforces the importance of the first steps after buying a new phone. Get a new case and screen protector on it ASAP. Even my old Note 5 phone has a slick-as-wet-snot glass back to it. Handling any new high dollar phone is like handling a very expensive, wet ice cube. I think phone designers and mobile electronics executives are probably laughing their asses off at us for the hell they've created. Oh, wait, let me back that up a bit. The people who wanted mobile phones designed as jewelry are the fuck-wits who created this hell. I'd like a phone that doesn't need a third party, after market case to protect it. 10+ years ago, before the iPhone, some phone manufacturers actually did make phones tough like that. One of my cousins had a basic phone with a rubberized, pachmayr grip. He dropped that phone out of his truck driving down the Interstate and it survived. There's no way in hell any modern Apple or Samsung phone would live through that, and probably not even in an Otterbox case either.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 12-05-2017 01:13 AM                        Take a look at a Sonim XP7. Now that's a brick. I personally don't use my phone for watching any kind of video. It's too small for that, IMHO. My phone's main purposes in life are to be a phone (shock and surprise there), an occasional web browser to read news or whatnot when I'm waiting around somewhere, and to be a remote terminal so I can log into my computers to look up, change or get stuff when I'm not sitting in front of them. (Termux is the app you want for that purpose.) Firefox certainly has a lot more get up and go than it did on my S5 that I just replaced with this S8. Off and on, I occasionally experiment a bit with vnc to my phone and haven't been really happy with the results so far, though. Oh yeah, and my ringtone is the Pacman theme. I used to use the coin inserted GULP! sound for incoming texts but that's not loud enough in some locations so I had to reluctantly give that idea up.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-05-2017 06:29 AM                     On the S8, I started out with the Otterbox defender case with a Zagg screen protector and lived through the non-responsiveness. My wife, based on my experience went with the S7 (still available) with a traditional flat screen (you know, one that puts function over style). The first time my phone hit the deck (it was in the kitchen when pulling off of its charging cable) and the Zagg popped off. So, in addition to not letting the phone work well, it sucked as as screen protector too! I then did some research and found out about the liquid screen protectors. There is Qmadix "First Defense" which even has a $100 guarantee against your screen breaking and there is the Gadget Guard Black Ice (available both with and without the $100 insurance; the + version has the insurance. http://www.qmadix.com/screen-protection/invisible-first-defense-liquid-glass.asp https://www.gadgetguard.com/liquid-plus-screen-protection.html I happened to get the Gadget Guard. I've been 100% satisfied with my setup. You get perfect sensitivity, no scratches/cracks and no smudges either. It is like Rain-X. nothing sticks to it.  |  IP: Logged

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