Going from Samsung S5 to S8

After two years of saving Verizon Device Dollar rewards, I had collected a $120 discount that I could use at the Verizon online store. I narrowed my search to Samsung phones between $100-$200. This of course will only show pre-owned phones. I had a choice between the S9+, S8+, and the S8. I discovered that the plus versions are much larger and weigh about an ounce more than the non-plus phones. My only choice for a pre-owned phone from Verizon was the S8. The price was $149.99 for one in great condition, plus a $35 setup fee. I decided to save a few bucks and went with the “Very Good” condition for $141.99. The total price after applying my $120 Device Dollar discount was $71.12. The retail price for an S8 was around $750 when it came out in 2017. As of today, the Verizon trade-in price on an S8 is only $22. I added a JETech Shockproof Case from Amazon for $9.99

The phone arrived in a few days and was in perfect condition. No visible scratches, but the wear could be on the battery. The USB-C port allows this phone to be charged with the same charger that we use on our Apple iPad Pro. It's been a few years since I activated a phone on Verizon's network. The instructions that came with the phone said to turn off the old phone, visit vzw.com/support, and turn on the new phone and follow the onscreen instructions. The first issue I encountered was the phone asking for an account PIN number, which I didn't have. I logged into my Verizon account and remembered that there was an option under "Manage this device" that allows you to transfer your phone number to a new device. That worked much better, and the system switched my old S5 to the S8 without any trouble.

The S5 was my girlfriends old phone (she now has an S7). The S5 only has 16GB of internal memory and the battery needed to be charged several times during the day. The S8 has 64GB of memory and came with Android version 9 installed. The first thing I noticed after switching to the S8 was the taller and narrower screen compared to the S5. The phone had very good reviews when it came out. But the 18.5:9 aspect ratio of the OLED screen, was often a point of discussion. I had to bump up the font size and turned on bold font to make text easier to read. Still, when reading news or playing games, sometimes the text is still very small. Otherwise, the technical specs on the S8 are a noticeable improvement. Along with the S7, the S8 has a non-removeable battery. The glass front and back are not designed to be opened. This makes any kind of repair very difficult, unless you are an experienced technician. Hopefully, this pre-owned S8 will provide a few years of trouble-free service.