The Samsung Galaxy S8 is one of the best phones in the market with its huge screen on a small surface, and the perfect combination of glass and metal and now, two version of the S8 are offered. The first one comes with a 5.8-inch screen, whereas the larger S8 Plus sports a 6.2-inch display. These devices can be pre-ordered from March 30, but the price hasn’t been announced yet – we expect it to be about $720. You will be able to opt for black, gray or silver version, whereas gold and blue will probably arrive later on. The Samsung Galaxy S8 will go on sale in the US on April 21.
Galaxy S8 Hardware
The screen of the new S8 is massive, and it curves around the left and right edge, and this is something known as the “infinity display” among the company members. This makes the phone look as if it has no bezels, whereas the four corners are gently curved as well, thus adding elegance and durability. The South Korean manufacturer fulfilled a promise of inserting a large display in a small body, and there are no touch issues like on the Galaxy S7 Edge, but they might appear as the phone’s days go by.
Generally speaking, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is well-designed with no bumps, except the camera one, while most of its design is taken from the S7 and Note 7 and perfected. Instead of the regular hardware home button, the new S8 comes with software buttons, and it also has haptic feedback, similar to the one you can find on iPhones, in order to create a virtual feeling of pressing a home button.
Consequently, the fingerprint sensor has moved to the back side, which is not so convenient. It is positioned rather high and next to the camera, so you might get your camera an occasional tap. Since the phone is made almost entirely out of glass, you will see fingerprints on the back as well, but they are not so prominent. The USB-C port and 3.5mm headphone jack are located on the bottom, whereas volume buttons and power are on the different sides.
Samsung Galaxy S8 Specs
Samsung offers both Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon 835 or company’s Exynos, depends on a region you live in. Both of these setups improve power consumption and are extremely fast. Screens on both S8 and S8 Plus have the resolution of 2960 x 1440, and the S8 is the way to go because it is smaller, but its display is still large enough. In addition, the new flagship has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage which could be expanded with an SD card.
Battery
We cannot help but mention the issues with last phone batteries which caught fire. Ever since then, new safety checks are introduced, but Samsung will still have to cope with all the exploding phone jokes. Be that as it may, the new S8 and the S8 Plus are going to feature a 3,000 mAh and 3,500 mAh battery, respectively. These are the same batteries as before, but according to Samsung, they have improved the chemistry to help them last longer after they have been used for some time. Moreover, Samsung offers Qualcomm Quick Charge and support for both major wireless charging standards.
Cameras
The manufacturer claims that the software has been enhanced for better picture quality, but the new gadget will feature the same 12-megapixel sensor with OIS. Although the camera is identical to the one on the S7, it is faster, but what is interesting is that the S8 Plus will have this camera as well, instead of a bigger one.
The front camera now comes with an 8-megapixel sensor, and it has autofocus. Switching between the two cameras is fun and easy, and you can even swipe over for kajillion photo gimmick settings some of which are really neat. If you like taking photos, you can really have fun with the new S8.
Software
Never has Samsung had any problems with hardware, but for software, there have been a lot of bad ideas. You can find numerous weird features which are unnecessary, but the functionality and the feel have always been good. Some of the parts such as the iris scanning, face detect system are truly great. This face detection system is so quick and accurate on the new Samsung Galaxy S8, but it is less secure than other ways of unlocking your phone.
There is a new feature called DeX which you can use to plug your S8 into a monitor, keyboard, and mouse for a full desktop mode. The downside is that only Android apps are shown instead of a full desktop browser, and it is not as exciting as it initially sounds.
Bixby
Bixby is the new personal assistant which is easy to activate – you just need to press the button on the side which takes you to Bixby Home then press and hold it to turn on Bixby’s voice. There is even a small button on the camera app for Bixby’s augmented reality features. This feature is a slightly different personal assistant because it helps you use the device in your hands and it doesn’t answer random questions.
Some of the requests you can ask Bixby to do is to rotate the photo or send it to someone, for instance. The aim is that “anything you can control with touch, you can also control with voice.” Your new helper is slightly limited because it can only work with apps that support it and it doesn’t do any screen reading to try to guess what is on the screen, so it is far from artificial intelligence.
You can use it to set alarms, and there is even Bixby Home which provides a random set of info such as fitness data, news, and weather, to name a few. But the best is Bixby’s camera feature which turns your camera into a photo search machine. You can point your camera at anything and once activated, this feature will identify it and suggest web searches.
