Samsung Galaxy S8 (Plus) Review: Screen you look at forever!
Samsung wants to make the Galaxy S8 forget the note 7 debacles. The South Korean manufacturer mainly uses three new features: Bixby, DeX, and Infinity. In the short test, especially one of these three "Samsung Angels" shows weaknesses. Is the Samsung Galaxy S8 still flying high?
The sparrows whistle it away from all the secrecy already from the rooftops: Samsung sets with the Galaxy S8 on a new design. The upheaval is not quite as radical as its time when switching from the Galaxy S5 to the Galaxy S6. However, it is distinctive. Samsung has made the Galaxy S8 the goal, as much as possible to place a display in as small a case as possible.
The Galaxy S8 screen measures a mere 5.8 inches, while the sister model Galaxy S8 Plus takes it to 6.2 inches. However, the dimensions of the devices correspond to those of a 5.5-inch or 5.7-inch smartphone. How is that possible? For both smartphones, Samsung has an edge display with curved display edges on the left and right, which extends almost over the entire front. Samsung calls the screen, therefore, Infinity display.
Infinity Display
The home button had to give way, instead of pressing a square button back to the start screen. A vibration motor below the glass should give you the feeling that you would press a real button. In the shortest time, we noticed nothing. According to Samsung, the strength of this feedback should be adjusted in the settings of the smartphone. We will test it again in the detailed test.
Samsung wants to make the Galaxy S8 forget the note 7 debacles. The South Korean manufacturer mainly uses three new features: Bixby, DeX, and Infinity. In the short test, especially one of these three "Samsung Angels" shows weaknesses. Is the Samsung Galaxy S8 still flying high?
The sparrows whistle it away from all the secrecy already from the rooftops: Samsung sets with the Galaxy S8 on a new design. The upheaval is not quite as radical as its time when switching from the Galaxy S5 to the Galaxy S6. However, it is distinctive. Samsung has made the Galaxy S8 the goal, as much as possible to place a display in as small a case as possible.
The Galaxy S8 screen measures a mere 5.8 inches, while the sister model Galaxy S8 Plus takes it to 6.2 inches. However, the dimensions of the devices correspond to those of a 5.5-inch or 5.7-inch smartphone. How is that possible? For both smartphones, Samsung has an edge display with curved display edges on the left and right, which extends almost over the entire front. Samsung calls the screen, therefore, Infinity display.
The home button had to give way, instead of pressing a square button back to the start screen. A vibration motor below the glass should give you the feeling that you would press a real button. In the shortest time, we noticed nothing. According to Samsung, the strength of this feedback should be adjusted in the settings of the smartphone. We will test it again in the detailed test.
Samsung Galaxy S8 in the shortest
"Great screen, in the handy format" - does this saying familiar to you? Samsung is not the first manufacturer to try out 2017 at the balancing act from small housing and large screen. Already on the MWC presented competitor LG with the LG G6 a compact 5.7-inch smartphone. In comparison, the Galaxy S8 but still a corner cooler. This is, on the one hand, the edge screen, the LG G6 is missing, and on the other hand, the S8 is still a little more compact.
However, the screen of the Galaxy S8 in the short test did not look as bright and colorful as used by other Samsung smartphones. Whether this was only the settings of the demonstrators or whether this is a general problem, the detailed test must show in the editorial department.
At the resolution of the display, Samsung has compared to the Galaxy S7 does not really change something. With 2.960 x 1.440 pixels, it is slightly higher than the previous version. The Galaxy S8 does not offer a 4K screen like the Sony Xperia XZ Premium. The screen can display HDR content.
Unfavorable position for the fingerprint printer
By eliminating the home button Samsung had to reposition the fingerprint scanner. You'll find the sensor on the back, right next to the camera, if you hold the smartphone in your hand. The position is not optimal. The sensor is difficult to touch. It is located somewhat deeper in the housing, the depression is however only minimal and barely noticeable.
Why Samsung has not placed the scanner just below the camera, as well as LG or Huawei already for years make?
As a Samsung employee revealed on the edge of the unpacked event, this is not possible due to the internal structure of the device. Samsung would have had to reduce the battery in this case and with 3000 (Galaxy S8) and 3500mAh (S8 Plus), the capacity of the Galaxy S8-Akkus is enormous in the face of the enormous screen anyway.
According to rumors, the scanner on the back was not actually planned, Samsung wanted to integrate it into the display glass. The development of such a sensor apparently cost more time than expected, which is why it was postponed. Probably we will find in the note 8 or at the latest in the Galaxy S9 the scanner again in the usual position on the front.
Maybe you will use the fingerprint scanner in the future but only rarely. Finally, the Galaxy S8 is equipped with a combination of iris scanner and facial recognition. It should unlock the smartphone immediately when you look at the screen. In the shortest time, this worked reliably. How well the feature is real, can only a detailed test under different lighting conditions clarify.
Bixby: the unfinished assistant
However, not only does the trend towards the larger screen with Samsung Galaxy S8 with. The topic "Artificial Intelligence" also affects Samsung such as HTC and Huawei. Samsung's solution here is called Bixby. The software enjoys a high priority at Samsung and is to change over the next years the interactions with numerous Samsung devices. Therefore, Samsung Bixby revealed before the Galaxy S8 launch in a long blog contribution.
At first glance, Bixby is a simple assistant like Siri, Cortana, S Voice and Co. Boring? Not at all. A closer look shows that Bixby can do a lot more than his colleagues. In this way, it is able to control numerous applications on the smartphone completely and understands the context of your voice commands.
Samsung demonstrated this in the demo with the command "Show my screen on the TV". Bixby himself then established a connection to the TV in the demo room and reflected via Miracast the smartphone screen. The assistant can also access the camera via Bixby Vision. On command, he then detects objects in front of the lens and can display further information to them, or he can tell you where you can buy these objects on the net.
This reminds of the Firefly feature of Amazon's FirePhone, was in the shortest but unfortunately synonymous fault-prone. In the demo of Samsung, Bixby recognized a bottle of wine on the label, when we let Bixby scan the Galaxy S7 Edge, the assistant did not know what a smartphone is there before the lens. Bixy did not even realize it was a smartphone. Pity!
Anyway, there is still plenty to do for Samsung at Bixby. For the market launch of the Galaxy S8, Bixby is only available in English and Korean. Other languages will follow. Samsung prioritizes Spanish and Chinese. It is only afterward that they want to deal with localization in Seoul in other countries such as Germany. Currently, you can control via Bixby only ten Samsung apps - including Gallery, Calendar, and Contacts. App developers should be able to integrate Bixby into their applications. It remains to be seen, however, whether developers will do so.
Samsung DeX
For some years, Samsung is trying to build an ecosystem around its devices. If the manufacturer concentrated on services such as Chat On, accessories such as the VR glasses Gear VR are now in the foreground. In the Galaxy S8, Samsung expands its range of accessories with an interesting docking station.
Via the so-called Dex-Dock, you can connect the Galaxy S8 to an HDMI monitor. On this, you will not see the conventional smartphone screen, but a special Android version called "Samsung DeX". It remembers the look and function of the Windows desktop and is operated by mouse and keyboard. These can be connected via Bluetooth to the smartphone or connected via USB to the Dex Dock. Also, an Ethernet port provides the dock.
The DeX dock makes the Galaxy S8 shorthand so a kind of PC. The concept is not new. Microsoft has a similar feature on some Windows 10 Mobile devices with Continuum. Compared with Continuum, Samsung offers DeX but some advantages.
So apps do not need to be customized. According to Samsung, all Android apps under DeX should be able to run. The exception is games, which are purely on touch screen control. Via Citrix-Client you can even get a virtual Windows-Calculator on the Galaxy S8. We have compiled further advantages in our text "Samsung DeX versus Microsoft Continuum".
In the short test, DeX left a good first impression. In addition to the purchase price of the Galaxy S8, you must however still 150 Euro for the docking station. Visually, Samsung DeX remix strongly remixes OS.
We've noticed that
Of course, the Galaxy S8 offers besides Bixby, Infinity Display, and DeX still further innovations. There would be about the processor. The Galaxy S8 is delivered with the Exynos 8895 Octa-Core chip developed by Samsung itself. This works according to the Big.Little principle. Four data cores are responsible for computer-intensive tasks and clock up to 2.3 gigahertz. The other four cores, on the other hand, only work at 1.7 gigahertz, but consume less power. They are used for less demanding tasks.
The chip is manufactured using a new 10-nanometer process. This is once again significantly smaller than the chips of the competition. The Apple A10 processor, which is plugged in the iPhone 7 is manufactured approximately on the 16-nanometer process. However, the Galaxy S8 does not necessarily have more computing power. First benchmarks, which were previously on the net, the iPhone is equal - in some tests, it even has the nose ahead.
Samsung has also doubled the device memory. The Galaxy S8 is delivered in Germany with 64 gigabytes instead of 32 gigabytes. If you want more memory, you must insert a microSD card. The memory, however, remains unchanged with four gigabytes, just like the camera. The Galaxy S8 does not offer a dual camera. Only the front camera has been upgraded to 8 megapixels.
All the new features of the Galaxy S8 at a glance we offer you in the article "Galaxy S8: This is new".
Price and availability
Samsung calls for the Galaxy S8 a price of nearly 800 euros, for the larger Galaxy S8 Plus you have to pay an extra charge of 100 euros. Samsung is thus for the first time since 2013 the price for its top smartphone. The Galaxy S7 cost his time "only" 699 euros.
The Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus are available commercially from 28th April, but you can already pre-order the new Samsung smartphones. Samsung accepts pre-orders until April 19th.
The Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus are available in the colors Midnight Black (Black), Artic Silver (Silver) and Orchid Gray (Gray).
Conclusion
Cool, cool, Galaxy S8. The S7 successor with its huge Infinity display makes the iPhone 7 look old. Despite the size, the S8 is still sleek in the hand. In terms of design, Samsung makes a big step forward. The Dex feature also leaves a good first impression. Annoying, however, is that the Samsung-language Bixby with much Tam-Tam introduced to the market start is no more than a beta. The Infinity display is likely to drive many users but over there.
