Galaxy S8 Overview: The Best Phone You Can Buy

Galaxy S8 Overview: The Best Phone You Can Buy

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ are the very best Android phones you can buy. Starting at a reasonably steep $750 and $850, respectively, Samsung’s new flagship phones forge a good looking new path for smartphone design by stripping away ugly bezels with their respective 5.8- and 6.2-inch infinity shows, and these are the primary handsets to boast Qualcomm’s beastly Snapdragon 835 processor for fast performance.

Several months after the Galaxy's S8 launch, Samsung’s new Bixby digital assistant is absolutely available though nonetheless hit or miss, and we’re not fans of the fingerprint sensor’s location. However while you add in excellent battery life and enhancements to a camera that was already prime-notch, you will have two winning handsets with the Galaxy S8 and S8+.

No offense to the LG G6, but the Galaxy S8 exemplifies a bezel-free phone executed right. Samsung didn’t just take away the bezels on this phone; it crafted an area-age work of art with a new infinity display that stretches from edge to edge. The Galaxy S8 not only has a slightly greater screen-to-body ratio than LG’s phone but in addition seems to be sleeker because of the way in which the Gorilla Glass curves toward the edges on the entrance and back. Different Android phones appear like blah, flat slabs by comparison. The S8 can be thinner and narrower than the G6.

The screen on the S8 is 5.eight inches, versus 6.2 inches on the S8+. But aside from the difference in show dimension, the S8 and S8+ have the same design. General, we want the bigger screen on the S8+, but if you have small palms, you’ll probably end up repositioning the phone in your hand to succeed in sure buttons, together with the house button, which is now a virtual button instead of a physical key. The button worked nicely in our testing, providing solid haptic feedback. It’s flanked by the Current Apps and Back buttons.

What’s remarkable in regards to the Galaxy S8 is how a lot more screen real estate it provides you compared with the S7, while nonetheless providing a compact and lightweight design. The S8’s 5.8-inch screen is housed in a 5.5-ounce, 2.7-inch-huge chassis, whereas the 5.1-inch S7 weighed 5.four ounces and had the identical width. The S8 is taller, nevertheless it’s still simple to use with one hand.
With its 6.2-inch screen, the 6.1-ounce S8+ is heftier than the 5.5-ounce, 5.5-inch S7 Edge. But the S8+ makes the iPhone 8 Plus (6.2 x 3.1 x 0.29 inches, 7.thirteen ounces) look positively bloated. Plus, unlike the latest iPhones, the S8 and S8+ have headphone jacks.
No matter which size you select, it gained’t be long before you see fingerprint smudges on the back of the phone. The smudges had been especially prominent on the midnight black version of the S8 and S8+, however you too can choose the lighter orchid grey or arctic silver, which don’t show smudges as easily.

We have been worried that the fingerprint sensor’s placement proper next to the digital camera on the back of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ might be a problem. And it was, initially. Because the sensor is pretty narrow, it’s difficult to target it without looking. We bought used to it after a couple of days, but we nonetheless wish it had been beneath the lens.