Samsung galaxy s8 review

That’s the first thing Samsung’s sản phẩm manager said to me before introducing the company’s new flagship Galaxy S8 last month. He’s not wrong: the modern concept of the smartphone has been around for a decade now, and the differences between devices are exceedingly incremental. It doesn’t help that virtually every smartphone looks the same, too.

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So for the Galaxy S8, Samsung made an effort lớn vì chưng something different. It combined everything it did in the past few generations of its phones và added some new ideas lớn produce something different from everything else on the shelf of the average phone store today.

Of course, Samsung had to lớn do this, because for the past six months it’s been dealing with the biggest public crisis any electronics company has faced in modern times. The cảnh báo 7, the last major phone it released, had a crucial kiến thiết flaw that caused its battery khổng lồ spontaneously catch fire. Samsung had lớn rehotline the phone twice & then was finally forced khổng lồ cancel the lưu ý 7 entirely.

Samsung faces two challenges with the Galaxy S8

Now Samsung faces two challenges with the Galaxy S8: create a new phone that will get people excited, & at the same time make them forget about all of those other phones catching fire just last year.

After using both the $7trăng tròn to $750 Galaxy S8 và its larger sibling, the $840 to lớn $850 Galaxy S8 Plus, for the past week, I can say with certainty that these are phones worth getting excited about. They are easily the best phones released so far this year, và may turn out to lớn be the best phones of the year, period.

They might even be good enough to lớn make you forget all about the chú ý 7 and its fiery batteries.

Design và display

The most common reaction I heard from people who saw the S8 units I’ve been testing is "wow." That’s because the S8 is a stunning device khổng lồ look at and hold. It truly doesn’t look lượt thích any other phone you might have sầu used before, & it’s refined & polished lớn a literal shine.

The big reason the S8 looks so different from any other phone is its new screen, which Samsung has dubbed the "Infinity Display." It features a new 18.5:9 aspect ratio that’s similar khổng lồ the 18:9 screen on the LG G6, but taller & skinnier than the traditional 16:9 screens the vast majority of other smartphones have. On the Galaxy S8, it measures 5.8 inches diagonally from rounded corner khổng lồ rounded corner; on the S8 Plus it expands to 6.2 inches in the same dimension.

The taller aspect ratio means that in terms of raw screen area, the S8 và S8 Plus aren"t as big as their diagonal measurements imply. But don"t let the complicated math take away from the bottom line: they are huge screens in very small bodies. Putting an S8 side-by-side with an iPhone 7 almost feels unfair khổng lồ the iPhone — the Samsung’s screen is just so much larger, yet the phone’s overall dimensions are practically the same.

That screen is pushed khổng lồ the outer edges of the phone’s frame, taking up 83 percent of the front panel & leaving very little bezel above & below it. In addition, the sides are curved, finishing off the infinity pool effect and making it feel lượt thích you’re holding just a display. Samsung is going all-in on curved screens this year — it’s the company’s big differentiator — & you can’t buy a "flat" version of the S8 at all.

Going all-in on curved screens is a risky move that pays off

The company’s commitment to curved screens serves both aesthetic & practical purposes. Not only are the curved edges beautiful khổng lồ behold, they allow Samsung to make the phone narrower than if it had a flat display. A narrower phone is easier khổng lồ use in one h& và both the S8 and S8 Plus are much easier to handle than other phones with similar-sized displays.

Earlier Samsung phones with curved screens had a tendency lớn register touches on the sides of the display when you didn’t intover them, making the curved thiết kế more frustrating than it should have sầu been. But the company has largely addressed this issue with the S8, as the curves are not as aggressive & the glass blends seamlessly into the metal frame of the phone. I didn’t have an issue with errant touches with either the S8 or the S8 Plus in my time with them.

Photo lớn by James Baremê mệt / The Verge That new taller và skinnier screen shape does cause some problems, however. I appreciate the narrower width overall, but the height of the screen can make it difficult to reach the notification tray with my thumb, even on the smaller S8. And then there’s the issue of ứng dụng compatibility. Many apps work just fine on this new screen shape, but a number of popular ones, such as Pocket, Netflix, Speedkiểm tra, Dark Sky, và Spotify don’t automatically stretch to fill the screen, leaving blachồng borders above sầu và below the app. You can force these apps lớn fill the screen with a couple button taps (recent apps, then the circular button that appears on the ứng dụng in the carousel) và I haven’t seen any issues with most regular apps.

Games, on the other hvà, are a bit different. Super Mario Run, for example, does not use the entire screen, and if I force it to lớn, elements will be cut off on the left and right sides of the screen, making it hard khổng lồ hit some of the buttons in the menus & non-gameplay areas. My colleague Vlad Savov experienced a similar issue on the S8 Plus with Egg Inc. Playing a game in the 16:9 aspect ratio it was designed for is not a terrible experience — you still have quite a large display canvas to lớn play on — but until developers update their apps and games for this new tall và skinny world, you won’t be able lớn make use of all the screen you’re buying with the S8. Fortunately, Google is encouraging developers lớn get on board, as it seems like this shape will be popular with phones going forward.

Samsung bills the new aspect ratio as better suited for watching widescreen đoạn phim, và notes that the viewing area is 36 percent larger on the S8 compared to lớn the S7 playing the same 21:9 video clip. Sure enough, watching the new Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer on the S8 is an impressive experience, as the nội dung spans edge to lớn edge on the phone’s screen. The S8 can automatically detect 21:9 video và present it as large as it can be without cutting off any of the content, but I only found it working on clips I watched in YouTube. Movies played in Google Play Movies did not automatically use the full screen, though I could hit a button khổng lồ vì chưng so, while đoạn phim in Netflix remained locked khổng lồ 16:9 no matter what. As with games, this is an issue that will probably be solved in due time, but if you’re an early adopter of an S8, most of the đoạn phim you’re likely lớn watch on it won’t be taking advantage of all the screen has to offer.

Despite those early-adopter issues, I’m a fan of the new shape and the fact that it lets me have a much larger display without making the S8 too unwieldy to lớn use. On top of that, the Quad HD Super AMOLED panel is wonderfully vibrant and sharp, and it’s very bright, even outdoors under direct sunlight. It’s no exaggeration lớn say this is the best điện thoại thông minh display I’ve sầu ever seen.

The new screen shape dictates many of the other hardware features on the S8. Because the screen dominates the front of the device, there is no room for Samsung’s traditional home button, so the company followed the path of almost every other Android smartphone maker & utilized on-screen virtual buttons for home, baông xã, và recent apps on the S8.

Samsung also made the area of the screen where the home button appears pressure sensitive, so you can push harder on it to lớn wake the display or go bachồng khổng lồ the home screen at any point, even in full-screen apps where the trang chính button isn’t visually displayed. It’s not unlike the iPhone’s Force Touch feature, but it’s limited khổng lồ just the spot where a home button would have sầu been if the screen wasn’t there taking its place. It’s a clever solution and provides virtually the same experience as a physical trang chính button, so longtime Samsung users should feel... right at trang chính with it.

Of course, without a home button, there’s no fingerprint scanner on the front of the phone. Samsung addresses this by putting the reader on the baông chồng of the device, which is something Google, Huawei, LG, & others have done for some time. But instead of placing the fingerprint scanner below the camera, near the middle of the phone where your index finger naturally rests, Samsung installed it far up the bachồng of the phone and right next to the camera.

The high placement of the scanner makes it difficult & awkward to reach with my index finger, even on the smaller S8. I have to practically perkhung finger stretches before I can reach it with any sort of regularity on the S8 Plus. Second, because it is right next to the camera và has a similar shape and feel khổng lồ the camera module, I frequently touch the camera lens instead of the fingerprint scanner, smearing the lens with all of my lovely finger oils. The placement is a real shame, because otherwise, the fingerprint scanner is one of the faskiểm tra và most responsive sầu I’ve used. Samsung has also included Pixel-lượt thích gestures on it, so you can swipe down on the scanner to lớn reveal the notification tray, provided you can ever actually reach it.

To ảo diệu for the fingerprint scanner’s exceedingly poor placement (Samsung told me that it is where it is because the battery prevented it from being put below the camera), the S8 has two other biometric means of unlocking the phone. The iris scanning that first debuted on the ill-fated chú ý 7 makes its return, và while I"m sure it"s very secure, it’s awkward to use, requiring me to hold the phone uncomfortably cthua to my face and open my eyes comically wide to trigger it.

New for the S8 is a face-scanning feature that is supposed to lớn be the most convenient method of unlocking the phone. I say "supposed to be" because in practice, it almost never worked for me, despite being very impressive sầu in demos before the phone’s launch. More often than not, the face scanner would not see me at all, leaving me staring at the phone awkwardly, waiting for something to lớn happen, before eventually capitulating & putting my pattern in. Samsung also says the face-scanning feature isn’t as secure as the iris or fingerprint methods, so not only is it slower & less reliable khổng lồ use, it’s less secure, too.

Aside from that major stumble, the rest of the S8’s hardware is practically flawless. The fit và finish is unparalleled, và the curved display is matched by a symmetrically curved back glass panel. All of this glass does make the phone a bit of a fingerprint magnet, and it’s going khổng lồ be more prone to scratching & damage than an all-aluminum phone. But the glass bachồng allows for Samsung’s wireless charging, và like last year’s S7, the S8 is water resistant khổng lồ IP68 standards, so it can withst& 1.5 meters of submersion for up to 30 minutes at a time. In practical terms, that means you don’t have sầu lớn worry about your phone getting ruined when one of your tipsy friends spills their beer all over it at happy hour.

The S8 and S8 Plus use USB Type-C ports for wired charging and data transfer, & both phones include a standard 3.5mm tai nghe jaông xã. Samsung is also throwing in a mix of AKG-branded wired headphones with the S8 models (the company recently purchased AKG’s parent company, Harman), which sound fine. They are better than Apple’s EarPods by a good mile, and are comfortable & easy to lớn wear. But the headphones are more lượt thích a nice bonus than a reason khổng lồ buy the phone, và they are certainly not worth the $99 Samsung claims they are.

Overall, apart from the fingerprint scanner, the theme of the S8’s hardware is polish, both literally và figuratively. It’s a glossy, metal-and-glass monument lớn Samsung’s manufacturing capabilities, & it’s just really, really nice.

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Software

Software is where Samsung is known less for polish & more for clumsiness. In a refreshing change of pace, the software on the S8 is, dare I say, good. It’s not perfect, but it doesn’t send me running lớn the Play Store for a new launcher & ibé paông chồng the instant I turn the phone on.

Built on Android 7.0 Nougat, the S8’s software is remarkably restrained for Samsung. This is reflected by the simple trang chính screen, which features just a handful of ứng dụng shortcuts & a nice big weather widget front and center. A quiông chồng swipe up & I’m in my tiện ích tray, a swipe up again and I’m baông xã to lớn the trang chủ screen.

The settings menu is similarly straightforward and easy lớn navigate, và includes a search function lớn find anything within it. Should you dig deep into the settings, you can find an endless array of options & configurations, from customizing the order of the on-screen buttons lớn themes that can alter the appearance of virtually every aspect of the phone. (There are plenty of Pixel-style themes already available if you aren’t a bạn of Samsung’s default color palette.)

Other touches, lượt thích the sliông xã, pill-shaped notification bubble that pops up at the top of the screen when an alert comes in, or the customizable always-on display are things I wish were available in all versions of Android, not just Samsung’s.

The big new software feature for the S8 is Samsung’s riff on a virtual assistant, called Bixby. Samsung thinks Bixby is so important to this device that it put a dedicated button on the side of the phone that only launches Bixby. That would be fine if Bixby was anything lớn get excited about, but in its current state, it doesn’t vị much at all.

Pushing the Bixby button twice will launch Bixby trang chủ, a home page screen panel that displays various cards và information based on your routines và interests. It can plug into third-buổi tiệc nhỏ services such as Twitter, Facebook, Spotify, & Foursquare, and can tell you the weather, upcoming appointments, news updates, or reminders you’ve sầu set. Unfortunately, none of this is hugely different from what we’ve sầu seen from Google, Smartphone HTC, & others doing on their trang chủ screens for years. Samsung says Bixby is designed lớn learn your habits and will adapt over time, but it’s likely that I haven’t been using the phones long enough for this lớn take measurable effect, because I haven’t really seen much in the way of personalization.

Pholớn by James Baretê mê / The Verge Bixby also shows up in the camera and gallery tiện ích, providing functionality that’s very similar to lớn what Amazon already offers in its app and what Google Goggles has done for years. Called Bixby Vision, it uses computer vision to lớn identify an object or text and then links you to similar images on Pinterest or options to buy more of the same product from Amazon. It uses Google Translate khổng lồ translate text, much like how the proper Google Translate app does. It can also identify landmarks and provide link và facts about them or tell you all about the bottle of wine you’re about to lớn open.

I pointed the S8’s camera at a banana và launched Bixby Vision and a few seconds later, it provided me with a danh mục of ways lớn buy more bananas from Amazon. It did the same for a bag of Tostitos chips. Pointing Bixby Vision at a succulent led me to lớn a danh sách of images of similar plants on Pinterest.

All of that is exactly what Samsung says Bixby Vision would vày, but I’m struggling khổng lồ figure out just why I’d ever use it for these features. It’s often just quicker khổng lồ tìm kiếm Amazon directly for the sản phẩm I want or use Google khổng lồ find images of something.

Bixby’s real promise is that it will be a new kind of voice assistant, one that will help you vì things on your phone quicker & easier. But Bixby’s voice features are not available on the S8 yet, và I have not been able to kiểm tra them. Samsung says that voice control will arrive sầu "later this spring," but has not put a firm date on when exactly that is.

Adding insult to lớn injury, it’s not possible khổng lồ remap the Bixby button on the S8 lớn vị something more useful. (I was unable khổng lồ get this haông xã working on my T-Smartphone nhận xét unit.)

Some of Samsung’s bad software history shows up in other ways on the S8. The company has been criticized for years for duplicating many of the same apps Google offers, và the S8 has many redundant apps. I’m of two minds about this: believe sầu it or not, some of Samsung’s apps are actually better than Google’s (I’ll take Samsung’s faster, more extensible browser over Google Chrome any day of the week, and Samsung Pay has legitimate advantages over Android Pay), but many are not. I certainly don’t need two tiện ích stores, two tin nhắn clients, or two gallery apps on my brand-new phone. A simple solution khổng lồ this would be to let me choose which versions I want, by either adding a step during cài đặt or letting me fully uninstall the unwanted apps, but neither option is available. (You can disable the apps you don’t want, but you cannot fully remove sầu them from the phone.)

On top of all that, my T-điện thoại đánh giá units include six more preinstalled apps, the worst of which is the insidious & useless Lookout security ứng dụng that pops up a notification every time you install a new tiện ích until you dig inlớn its settings and turn it off.

I will note that these things don’t completely ruin my experience with the S8, & many of them are easy khổng lồ live with or ignore. The forthcoming unlocked version should address the carrier ứng dụng issue, at the very least. But the S8 would be even better if it didn’t still have sầu these annoying software problems.

Performance

Unsurprisingly, the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus have a veritable murderers’ row of specs và features on the inside, some of which are so forward-looking you can’t even take advantage of them yet (and I was unable lớn test). The models sold in the US and a handful of other Western markets are the first phones lớn feature Qualcomm’s SnapLong 835 processor, while the rest of the world gets Samsung’s own similarly equipped Exynos processor. Either processor makes the S8 fast và responsive sầu, but so is virtually every other premium phone you can buy, và the S8 isn’t noticeably faster or quicker than a Google Pixel, LG G6, or iPhone 7. The big question is how fast will the S8 be after a few months of use, as Samsung phones are notorious for slowing down over time, but I can’t answer that yet.

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus Specs

Processor

US: Qualcomm SnapLong 835 Octa core (2.35 GHz Quad + 1.7 GHZ Quad)International: Samsung Exynos Octa core (2.35 GHz Quad + 1.9 GHZ Quad)

Display

Galaxy S8: 5.8-inch OLED, 2960 x 1440, 570ppiGalaxy S8 Plus: 6.2-inch OLED, 2960 x 1440, 529ppi

Cameras

Rear: 12 megapx, OIS, F1.7Front: 8 megapixel, tự động hóa focus, F1.7

Batteries

Galaxy S8: 3,000 mAhGalaxy S8 Plus: 3,500 mAh

Dimensions

Galaxy S8: 148.9 x 68.1 x 8 milimet, 155gGalaxy S8 Plus: 159.5 x 73.4 x 8.1 milimet, 173g

Other specs

Android 7.0 NougatUSB-C, 3.5mm tai nghe jackNFC & MST for Samsung PayIP68 water & dust resistantWireless chargingLTE Cat.16công nghệ Bluetooth không dây 5.0, can stream khổng lồ two devicesWi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac

That processor is paired with 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot for expansion, and a radio capable of both gigabit LTE and gigabit Wi-Fi. The S8 is the first gigabit LTE smartphone you can buy, but until we have actual gigabit networks to lớn use it on, that doesn’t matter all that much. (US carriers are expected lớn deploy their first gigabit networks before the kết thúc of this year.) The S8 is also the first phone to lớn come with công nghệ Bluetooth không dây 5.0, which promises better range & the ability to lớn deliver audio to lớn two different Bluetooth devices at the same time. I was able to get the same tuy nhiên from YouTube to simultaneously play out of two sets of Công nghệ Bluetooth headphones, though you could also use it to have two Bluetooth không dây speakers play the same audio.

One spec that hasn’t changed since last year is the S8’s main camera, which is a 12-megapixel sensor behind a f/1.7 optically stabilized lens thiết đặt. Samsung has beefed up its software processing, using similar techniques as Apple và Google khổng lồ provide better detailed images in low light, but the differences between this year’s camera & last year’s are negligible at best.

That’s not a bad thing at all, as the S7 had one of the better cameras you could buy in 2016. The S8 continues that, và is capable of taking tremendous images in both good & poor lighting. The camera opens very quickly (double tap the power button khổng lồ open it from anywhere), it focuses exceptionally fast, & is able to lớn balance tricky exposures well. A backlit portrait of my young daughter that tripped up the iPhone 7’s metering system was handled by the S8 just fine, producing an image with a bright face & evenly exposed background, compared to lớn the darker, flat picture the iPhone took.

Samsung’s camera ứng dụng is simple to lớn use, yet loaded with powerful features if you want them. It’s easy to lớn use one-handed, as you can drag the shutter button left or right khổng lồ zoom in or out or swipe up or down to switch between front & rear cameras. Various filters và manual controls are a horizontal swipe away — including Snapchat-lượt thích lenses built right inlớn the camera app, which are simultaneously terrifying and endlessly fun.

Photo by James Baremê mẩn / The Verge The front camera did get a hardware improvement, stepping up khổng lồ a higher-resolution 8-megapixel sensor & gaining autofocus, which is apparently something that front-facing cameras have sầu always lacked and nobody toàn thân realized it. Autofocus is great, it ensures that your face is in focus whether you’re taking a solo selfie cthua thảm up or putting the S8 on a selfie stiông xã khổng lồ capture an entire group. If anything, this year’s camera updates speak lớn how important the front-facing camera is at this point, as it’s frequently used more often than a phone’s rear camera.

While Samsung loaded the S8 up with forward-looking specs & hardware, it (understandably) was more conservative sầu with the batteries inside the phones. The smaller S8 has a 3,000mAh battery, while the S8 Plus jumps khổng lồ a 3,500mAh cell. Both of those are actually smaller in capađô thị than the battery in last year’s S7 Edge, but Samsung says they feature a new kiến thiết that allows them lớn maintain their charge capađô thị for much longer than older batteries. That means that two years from now, the S8’s battery should still provide 95 percent of its stated capacity. Of course, I have sầu not been able to lớn chạy thử this claim.

Galaxy S8 & S8 Plus camera samples:

I did chạy thử the battery life between charges and found the S8 lớn be on par with last year’s S7, while the S8 Plus provided about the same stamina as the S7 Edge. The smaller Mã Sản Phẩm can last an entire day between charges if you’re a light user, but if you use your phone a lot, you will likely have sầu to lớn charge it at some point in the day. The larger S8 Plus might be the better option for heavy users — it was more likely to lớn last me a full day before it needed lớn be plugged in. Both phones include fast wired và wireless charging, which makes it convenient to lớn charge them when necessary, but neither really pushes the boundaries of smartphone battery life as we know it.

Many people simply want khổng lồ know if these phone’s batteries will succumb to lớn the same issues as the cảnh báo 7’s, and khổng lồ be perfectly honest, I don’t know if that will be the case or not. However, I’d be surprised if they did catch fire — Samsung has put a lot of time, money, & effort into lớn making sure the S8’s battery is safe, and if the Note 7 situation were khổng lồ repeat itself, the company would be facing a death sentence in the court of public opinion.

That court of public opinion is extremely important lớn Samsung, as it tries to lớn move out of Apple’s shadow & st& out on its own.

Luckily for Samsung, the Galaxy S8 và S8 Plus are excellent devices to lớn begin the work of rehabilitating its image. They are the best Android phones you can buy right now, with stunning displays, beautiful thiết kế, và great performance.

They aren’t perfect, though. There are few things that might make you think twice about upgrading, such as that terribly placed fingerprint scanner and only average battery life. But the shortcomings, as notable as they are, are far outweighed by achievements like its toweringly large screen and reliably good camera. I wouldn’t hesitate khổng lồ recommkết thúc these phones to lớn anyone in the market for one.

The S8 is so well-executed it has a chance lớn win over people who "aren’t excited by new phones anymore"

There"s an irony in Samsung"s fundamentally iterative sầu design: it"s so very well executed that it has a chance khổng lồ win over people who "aren’t excited by new phones anymore." Overall, the S8 is a relatively conservative và predictable device — anyone that has been paying attention khổng lồ Samsung’s designs over the past couple of years could see that this is where the company was headed. But it did take risks by pushing forward with an unproven screen shape và going all-in on curved designs, which haven’t been universally liked in the past.