14 DAY TRIAL // The Samsung Galaxy S8 is without a doubt one of the most anticipated products of 2017, together with the new iPhone (whatever its name will be), but this time, the South Koreans have decided to go for a completely new approach that catches Apple off guard: an (almost) bezel-less display with no home button.
At first glance, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is clearly revolutionary, but you need to unlock it and light up the display to unleash the full beast.
Stunning display
First and foremost, the plus model, which is simply called Galaxy S8+, comes with a monster display, and given Samsung’s new approach without a home button and smaller bezels, it’s all about the screen this time. The Galaxy S8+ has a screen-to-body ratio of no less than 84 percent, and this is a huge improvement from 71 percent on the Galaxy S7 edge and from the outdated-looking iPhone 7 Plus which stays at 67.7 percent, just like its predecessor.
The body of the phone overall brings no surprises, and the S8 comes with the same exquisite and high attention to detail as the other Samsung flagships, and the phone feels compact and sturdy despite its dimensions.
When you see it for the first time, everything seems to be a little bit too narrow, but this is just the impression that the Infinity Display gives you. It’s all just a matter of time until getting used to the look, and once you discover its advantages, you never want to go back.
As said, unlocking the phone and turning on the display is the moment when you understand what the S8+ is all about. My God, this display is stunning! The 6.2-inch Quad HD+ Super AMOLED screen has a resolution of 2960x1440 pixels and 529 ppi, making everything look crisp and crystal clear no matter if you’re watching a video, browse your photos, or play games.
Hello Bixby, bye Bixby
The one thing that’s a bit weird is the 18:5.9 wide aspect ratio, which could make some videos look uncanny on your screen. On YouTube, for example, the Galaxy S8 zooms in the video to fill the entire screen, and while the differences are barely noticeable at first, they could affect the viewing experience, as you might not be able to see some of the content at the top and the bottom of the videos, for instance.
Even though there’s no button on the front, it doesn’t necessarily mean there are no buttons at all. The Galaxy S8 still comes with side buttons for volume and lock, plus a brand-new Bixby button that can be remapped to whatever you want.
This is actually one of the best things about it because you can quickly access a feature or app with the press of a button, as it was the case of older Nokia phones that came with a dedicated camera button.
One of the most criticized changes before the launch was the new position of the fingerprint sensor. While at first glance it does seem to be a bad choice, reaching the fingerprint sensor is not that hard, though there’s another setback here: you often put the finger on the camera, and this is one of the reasons Samsung displays a reminder every once in a while telling you to clean the lens before taking a new photo.
As for the face and iris recognition, they do seem to work alright, and the configuration is a quite straightforward process, but it’s already been proved that tricking the face recognition system to log in with the picture of the owner is not at all difficult.
“The odd fingerprint sensor on the back is not so odd.”
In terms of cameras, the Galaxy S8+ is again a monster and we’ll detail everything in a separate article that we’ll link it here when it’s published (it’s live, read the Camera Wars: Samsung Galaxy S8+ vs. iPhone 7 Plus vs. Google Pixel XL).
But what you need to know right now is that the S8+ features no dual-camera setup like the iPhone 7 Plus, but instead it uses the S7 edge hardware with several improvements. The main camera is a 12-megapixel unit with Dual Pixel technology, F1.7 aperture, 1.4 um pixel size, 1/2.55 pixel size, 77 FOV, 8x digital zoom, and raw shooting support.
And last but not least, it’s the performance of the S8+. This phone is a true monster, and this is one of the reasons it can also double as a PC when using the DeX feature with the dedicated adapter. Power comes from a Snapdragon 835 processor, which is paired with 4GB of RAM, leading to a mix that provides performance without absolutely any compromise.
A workhorse in all regards
Everything runs smoothly with no slowdown whatsoever, and the best way to experience this is by running the most demanding games in the Google Play Store.
If there’s something that we need to complain about, it’s the mono speaker, as for some reason, Samsung didn’t want to offer stereo sound on the S8. This becomes a more painful drawback when watching videos or playing games, with the natural position of the hands covering the speaker and thus affecting the sound level, sometime bringing it to the minimum.
All in all, there’s absolutely no doubt that this is one of the most, if not the most powerful phone out there. We’re leaving some room for a slight change of mind, though we don’t expect it, as we’re now reviewing the Samsung Galaxy S8+ in every little detail and will publish an in-depth look at the phone in the coming weeks.