Samsung’s Galaxy S8+: What out Apple

After a troubled 2016 when the Note 7 fiasco hit the company, all eyes were on what its next flagship device would be. With Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, the South Korean giant has introduced a phone that will push Apple to work twice as hard on its upcoming premium devices.

Samsung introduced Galaxy S8 and S8+ in the US (with the Qualcomm processor) in March and in other countries (with the new Exynos processor) in April. The devices use new age concepts like machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) to its optimum.

What works?
The company has delivered a large and curved "Infinity Display" in Galaxy S8+, a device with ‘the biggest screen in a smallest space possible’. With only four physical buttons power, volume up/volume down and for AI assistant "Bixby", Samsung omitted the home button, claiming that it has been pushed under the display. Once you press the button on the screen, it gives a haptic feedback.

The slim-built device with 6.2-inch display allows a user with small hands grip it firmly. Samsung claims that the re-engineered design with rounded edges, symmetrical sides and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 makes the S8+ 40 per cent tougher than its predecessor, the S7 Edge.

The waterproof and dustproof S8+ has a 12MP rear camera and fingerprint scanner on the back and an 8MP auto-focus front shooter. While comparing photos clicked by S8+ with iPhone 7 and Google Pixel, we found Pixel's photos a little brighter and iPhone 7 a shade darker.

The front shooter took delightful photos in low-light conditions. As far as the software is concerned, Galaxy S8+ runs on Android 7.0 Nougat and has "Bixby" that will make your life easy (It is yet to have voice support like Siri or Google Assistant).

However, one can still use "Bixby" by pressing a dedicated button and find most recently taken photos, reminders, weather and news feed. The whole game for Samsung is in the display. Watch a movie or play a game, the display gives an immersive experience with stunning colours.

Almost every function can be done by display itself, from swiping right to activate "Bixby" or to just glance at the display to unlock the device. Other features include the all new edge experience with editable edge menus. You can choose from a range of apps to show on the edge menus.

When your phone is kept upside down and in the silent mode, S8+ tells you that your device is ringing by flashing a green light around the edges. The device also has an ‘always on display’ that keeps the user notified at all times.

For security, the device has five options: Pin lock, pattern lock, retina scan, face unlock and fingerprint scanner. In India, the device has 10nm thin Exynos 9 (8895) Octa core (2.35 GHz Quad + 1.9 GHZ Quad) processor and houses 4GB RAM with 64GB onboard memory that is expandable up to 256GB. We played graphic-heavy games like ‘Asphalt 8: Airborne’ and it worked like a charm.

The device has a Type C connector that charges the smartphone in approximately 45 minutes. With a heavy usage that includes always on internet, heavy app usage and one to two hours of gaming, the device returned a backup of 14 hour 26 minutes. Samsung S8+ comes with AKG Acoustics earplugs that deliver hi-resolution audio.

What doesn’t work?
Owing to its glass finish, it's somewhat slippery. The ‘always on display’ consumes too much battery. Another put off is the cinemascopic black strips when opening low resolution games and movies.

Features

Dimensions (mm) 148.90 x 68.10 x 8.00
Weight (g) 155.00
Battery capacity (mAh) 3000
Removable battery No
Screen size (inches) 5.80
Resolution 1440 x 2960 pixels
Processor 1.9GHz octa-core
Processor make Samsung Exynos 8895
RAM 4GB
Internal storage 64GB
Expandable storage Yes
Expandable storage type microSD
Expandable storage up to (GB) 256
Rear camera 12-megapixel
Front camera 8-megapixel
Operating System Android 7.0