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Samsung Galaxy S8 review. The best big but small smartphone

More opportunities have come with samsung galaxy S8 | S8+. Smartphones are equipped with protection against water and dust, as well as a powerful processor created using 10-nm technology. Expandable memory allows you to store your movies, music, photos. And with the new capacious battery No more worrying about charging all the time.

World's first 10nm processor

Incredibly powerful

Samsung Galaxy S8 | The S8+ is equipped with the latest 10nm processor for a fast smartphone experience with the lowest power consumption*. Enjoy exciting and graphically flawless games!

Video of the layers within the Galaxy S8 showing the improved CPU and GPU

10nm mobile processor

10% more powerful processor

50% more productive GPU

*Based on internal test results.

LTE and WiFi

Fast download

Download and send large files with Samsung Galaxy S8 | S8+. With support for Wi-Fi 1024-QAM and LTE Cat. 16, we managed to increase the download speed by 20% as per WiFi networks and using mobile internet.

*Compared to previous flagships Samsung Galaxy S7 | S7 edge.

Cat. 16 LTE support

1024 -QAM WiFi support

Games

New level of games

Experience total immersion with a borderless* screen. Enjoy complex graphics games with Vulkan support.

* Lack of side frames in the front plane of the screen.

High quality sound

rich sound

A gift for music lovers: excellent sound at all frequencies and protection against extraneous external noise will allow you to fully enjoy your favorite tracks.

Bonus: Anatomically perfect form factor for even more comfortable listening experience.

Woofer Tweeter Video of the new Galaxy S8 earphones tuned by AKG being deconstructed to show its inner parts and enhanced sound quality

Music for every taste

Get access to 40 million tracks and hundreds of playlists created to suit every mood. Save songs for offline listening, and your favorite music will always be with you.

Water and dust protection

Works even in the rain

Samsung Galaxy S8 | The S8+ are IP68 rated so you can safely use them in the rain or take them to the pool.

*Withstands 30-minute immersion in fresh water to a depth of 1.5 m.

Slot for 2nd SIM or microSD

Equipped to the max

Separate work and personal life, delete old content because there is not enough memory? Choose what is convenient for you: a slot for a 2nd SIM card or a memory card up to 256 GB.

Battery

Always in touch

Thanks to powerful processor Samsung Galaxy S8 | The S8+ runs fast and smoothly, handling every bit of data with confidence. Despite the increased battery capacity, the smartphone charges quickly both wired and wirelessly.

The flagships from Samsung have one feature. When it already seems to you that you have studied everything, you know every possibility of a smartphone, they show that this is a delusion and they have unusual features, which are not available on other phones. And this gives us a reason to talk about the unique features that Samsung flagships have, to understand in detail who will like them and what they offer. But we will start, of course, with music, because it was she who connected us, as it was sung in the old song.

The musical capabilities of Samsung's flagships - a new level

People may call themselves music lovers, audiophiles or simply fans of good music, the fact is that we all listen to music from time to time, some more often, some less. Everyone has their own musical preferences, for example, I like classical music, jazz and good old rock, I do not shy away from popular performers. A vinaigrette of directions easily fits in my head, but how does a smartphone handle it? Considering that I spend most of my time away from home, my smartphone becomes the main device for listening to music and podcasts, and it is important for me that it can reveal the music to the fullest, no matter where I am - on a noisy street, in subway or in a car, and possibly on board an airplane.

People are very different in the perception of sound, each has a different structure of the auricle, the sensitivity of the inner ear, and our preferences are diametrically opposed. It is extremely difficult, and simply impossible, to take into account the wishes of each person, they are so contradictory. Each manufacturer tries to achieve the universality of its offer, to take into account the wishes of the maximum possible number of people, which is to some extent a utopia. But it follows from this that ordinary, average-quality headphones are added to the kit for modern phones. No one puts much effort into making headphones sound with specific model smartphone, as it is believed that if a person is picky about sound, then he will most likely start using his favorite headphones that he already has.

In my opinion, this is a huge omission, since most consumers use the bundled headphones and are not looking for something else. The difficulty in creating headphones for this use is that they can serve two purposes at once - to be a headset for the phone and to be used to play music. These are fundamentally different tasks - in the first case, the musicality of speech reproduction is not so important, we are concerned about the clarity of the interlocutor's voice, how the microphone works and how we are heard. In the second case, on the contrary, it is important how individual notes are played, whether the bass is heard or not.

Samsung approached this issue in a very unusual way from an engineering point of view, in the Samsung Galaxy S8 | S8+ decided for the first time to separate these two modes of operation and make improvements in each of them. Firstly, the smartphone understands and recognizes what exactly you are doing, dialing a number in a standard program or doing it in WhatsApp, Skype or some other messenger. At this point, the “headset” mode is turned on, the volume in the headphones is increased, and frequencies that can create noise and interfere with your conversation are cut off. Secondly, the smartphone analyzes external conditions, for example, estimates the noise level and adjusts the volume level automatically, adjusting to the situation. The sound processor is not directly involved, only the amplifier is used. In the initial settings of the smartphone, you can also specify your age, then the appropriate profiles will be used in headset mode. There is a little trick, the higher the age you specify, the more aggressively the volume in the headphones will increase in noisy environments. The main thing is not to overdo it. None of the manufacturers paid as much attention to such a "little thing" as talking on a smartphone using a headset, in my opinion, this is an important point.

There is another unique feature that is little known - in the Galaxy S8 | S8+ processor detects repeated external sounds, for example, when the wire with the microphone rubs against clothing while walking. And he tries to clean up these sounds so that your interlocutor does not hear them. Usually he succeeds, and you don't even pay attention to what's going on with the headset. Therefore, when they tell me that everything has already been invented in smartphones and there is no room for innovation, at least in the telephone part, it makes me smile. This is not so, and you yourself saw this in a specific example.

Now let's talk about music. The quality of music playback directly depends on the smartphone and the solutions used in it, as well as on the headphones you have, as well as their compatibility with this smartphone. You can have very expensive headphones, a great phone, but together they can produce very mediocre sound. Why? The answer is to be found in the fact that the headphones must be correctly matched to the technical characteristics of the device, and best of all this can be done by the manufacturer himself and no one else. In the Galaxy S8 | For the first time, S8 + headphones were tuned to the right sound, and this was done by AKG, which knows a lot about sound, if not everything.

Please note that smartphones of this class come with regular, standard ear plugs, while Galaxy S8 | S8 + go headphones above the class. It's not the best best headphones in the world, but they cannot be like that, since everything is individual here. But the company tried to create universal headphones that will be of interest to most buyers of Samsung's flagships.

I'll start with the simplest - this is a braid of a wire, it seems to be a trifle, but in Everyday life saves from problems, the headphones become durable and look much better.

The kit comes with silicone earbuds in three sizes, that is, you can customize the headphones for yourself. Remember any model of complete headphones-headsets that offers something similar?

And now a few words about the sound. For bundled headphones, this AKG-tuned model has no direct competition, and they sound very good. In most reviews, they are compared with separately sold headphones, since there is no point in comparing them with standard ones. If we take into account those who already use expensive, high-quality headphones and have their own sound preferences, it turns out that the vast majority of those who have tried them like these headphones. These are not the same plugs that are thrown away, but quite "adult" headphones that can be used to listen to music.

Depending on the usage scenario, the quality you get will also differ, the sound source is important here. For example, if you listen to streaming services, and the same Play Music, then you will not be able to fully reveal their potential, since the audio stream itself has limitations. That is, these headphones are enough for the eyes, and they still have a supply. For those who like to listen to unconverted formats sound files, they will show themselves well, but depending on the genre of music, you can talk about strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you do not play with equalizers, then the bass will be soft, not very aggressively expressed. I like such a delicate bass, while someone thinks that, on the contrary, it should sound so that the eardrums buzzed. Everyone has their own preferences and habits. But you can customize the equalizers for yourself and your preferences, as always, this option is present.

Inside smartphones, DSP Cirrus Logic SC43130 is used, it is responsible for the sound. The peculiarity of this solution is that it is well compatible with most headphones on the market, these are solutions of both medium and high price segments, music is well revealed on them. It is clear that you can stick cheap plugs into your smartphone, but why? Complete headphones belong to the middle segment, it makes no sense to noticeably worsen the sound for yourself and change them for something inexpensive.

Sound in Galaxy S8 | S8+ is forte, whether you're talking on a headset on a noisy street or just listening to music. Among the additional accessories you can find both conventional and wireless headsets. If you are looking for a wireless headset, then I recommend paying attention to the Level U Pro ANC model, they have a noise reduction system and good sound. In the Samsung Galaxy ecosystem, everyone will be able to choose an accessory to their taste.

Also note that portable music lovers can find a wide range of speakers for the Galaxy S8 | S8+. I like the Bottle Design column, it has an unusual look, LED lights in different colors, and it's just beautiful and will fit perfectly into any interior. It's nice when the design of different things is beautiful, and they also know how to get along well with each other.

Those who are accustomed to classic forms should pay attention to the Level Box model, there is even a mini version.

Bluetooth implementation features - fine-tuning for yourself

In the Galaxy S8 | S8 + has an unusual feature that will appeal to many, these smartphones can send music to two connected accessories at the same time. For example, you can listen to music on your wireless headphones and send the second stream to a friend's or wireless speaker, the choice is yours.

But that's not all, you can also fine-tune how each application works and where the sound from it will be sent. For example, you have several devices connected to your smartphone at the same time - a headset, an external speaker, a clock, and something else. In the settings, you can specify that the sound from the podcast application is sent to outer column, but when playing a video - only in headphones. It turns out that now the smartphone can be used by at least two people, one person is doing something on it, and the second is quietly listening to music or a podcast on a connected speaker or wireless headphones. And everyone hears their own sound stream.

Ecosystem from Samsung - for pioneers and conservatives

Do you know what is the beauty of Samsung flagships? That you get a huge selection of accessories and technologies, most of which work out of the box. But you can also expand their number, for example, by purchasing smart Gear watch S3. And if without a watch you could pay for purchases Samsung Pay, just putting your Galaxy on, then with the watch there is not even a need to get a smartphone, and a smartphone can be not only a Galaxy. Comfortable? Not that word.

Smart watches, of course, are needed not only and not so much for payments, in the end, you may not even use them. But the watch will be a great addition for those who play sports, it has a calorie tracker, a barometer and an altimeter, as well as thousands of applications for every taste. But most importantly, you can compete with your friends in how much you have walked in a day, and see your progress on your watch, on one of the dials. A trifle, but the thing is addictive and motivating.

In my opinion, the watch can be called a watch only in one case - if they always have a dial visible, and in Gear S3 it is, the AlwaysOn Display function allows you to see the picture all the time, no need to throw up your hand or knock on the case . And at the same time, the clock works for several days on a single charge. This is an example of what you get in Samsung's ecosystem when you start exploring it. But you might be interested in other possibilities.

For example, for creative people they release a compact panoramic camera Gear 360 (2017). With this camera, you can easily take pictures and 360-degree videos, and immediately broadcast them to Facebook or YouTube. And also to take unusual pictures that raise questions from friends: “How could you do this?” And this is in a world where people have ceased to be surprised!

Another example would be Gear VR with a joystick, these are the most popular goggles. virtual reality in the world. The flip side of their popularity is that they constantly have a lot of new content and games. In Russia, there are special channels supported by Samsung, where new items are published, many of them are very interesting. For young people, Gear VR has already become something more than a toy, adults have also tried it, however, they prefer virtual trips to different countries, of which there are a huge number on this platform.

First for Galaxy S8 | S8+ has a DeX docking station, it turns your smartphone into a full-fledged computer. You can connect the station to any monitor via HDMI, the picture will automatically adjust. You will have all your files in front of you, both stored on your smartphone or its memory card, and in the cloud. The interface of the system is changing, and in front of you is a familiar UI from computers. So, Microsoft specially redesigned office suite, and now you will not feel any difference with MS Office on regular computers. The same applies to work in the mail client, you can drag files into it from other windows. At the same time you can work in several windows, programs, there is a complete feeling that you have a computer in front of you. Everything works easily, quickly, and there is no need to learn how DeX works, everything is clear at a glance. The station has an Ethernet socket, you can directly connect the network cable. It is also possible to connect via USB external drives, keyboard, mouse and more. With DeX-station your phone turns into a modern computer.

Samsung's ecosystem is huge and diverse, and everyone can find something different and transform the Galaxy S8 | S8+ into something more than just a flagship, expand its capabilities, which means pamper yourself and get new emotions. Don't underestimate this point, as people are hungry for new emotions, and no one but the Galaxy line can provide them in such a volume. Time to try Samsung Galaxy S8 | S8+ and accessories for these models. Galaxy time!

Samsung's flagship smartphones have long moved into the category of the most anticipated of the year. Indeed, the interest in the Galaxy S8 turned out to be simply huge, and it was also increased by the fact that this is the first top-end Samsung smartphone in seven months, released after the problematic Note 7. Therefore, the company was well aware that they needed to release a great product that could cover up past failures. Let's take a look at what Samsung did by taking a closer look at the features of the Galaxy S8.

In the box with the Samsung Galaxy S8, users will be able to find a compact charging unit, a USB cable to USB Type-C, a USB to USB Type-C adapter, and headphones co-designed with AKG.

Design, materials and usability

In the new smartphone, Samsung continues to use the design ideas embodied in the Galaxy S7 edge and Note 7. Already in these models, the company's desire to move away from the use of large frames around the screen, creating the illusion of their complete absence, can be seen. In the Galaxy S8, this has become the cornerstone of the entire design of the smartphone, the centerpiece of which is the “infinity display”, as it is called by Samsung.

The company really managed to fit a 5.8-inch screen into a 148.9x68.1 mm case. And since it occupies 84.26% of the front panel of the smartphone, and its side edges are slightly curved, it seems as if you are holding only the display in your hands.

But making thin bezels is only half the battle to create a really good design. Therefore, Samsung used rounded corners and edges to bring the appearance to a unified style. So even the corners of the display in the Galaxy S8 are rounded to fit the shape of the case. This approach allowed Samsung to get rid of the logo on the front panel without any doubt, because indeed, the Galaxy S8 is hard not to recognize.

The back of the case is not as expressive as the front, but there is a certain style and symmetry here. The camera block no longer protrudes from the body, but has a thin frame with a small protrusion. On the same line with the camera, on the right and left sides of it, there is an LED flash, a heart rate sensor, and a fingerprint scanner.

The main body materials: Gorilla Glass 5 glass covering the front and back panels, as well as an aluminum frame on the edges. The latter is now polished and painted in the color of the body, thanks to this, as well as a tight fit of all panels, it seems that the Galaxy S8 is cut from a single piece of glass.

The use of such materials gives a pleasant feeling of using a smartphone, but makes the body easily soiled. Therefore, and given the fact that glass is not the most durable material, it is also worth considering choosing a case when buying a Galaxy S8. By the start of smartphone sales, Samsung promises to start deliveries of a number of branded cases to Ukraine.

Despite the larger screen, the Galaxy S8 has a slightly smaller body than the Galaxy S7 edge, and thanks to the rounded edges, it fits well in the hand. At the same time, the sides of the display in the S8 do not bend as much as in the S7 edge, so there are practically no accidental clicks here.

The controls in the S8 have also changed, function keys now virtual, however, it is convenient to use them. The Home button understands the degree of pressing at all, imitating it with vibration, so after a short getting used to it, it is easy to find it blindly. By the way, in the settings you can change the location of the control keys, choosing the standard for Samsung or for “pure” Android.

The Galaxy S8 is IP68 water and dust resistant and can be submerged in fresh water up to 1 meter deep for up to 30 minutes.

Display

As mentioned above, the Galaxy S8 display occupies almost the entire front panel, and its diagonal is 5.8 inches. Samsung traditionally used a Super AMOLED matrix, but with a non-standard resolution of 2960 × 1440 pixels and the same aspect ratio of 18.5: 9. Because of the latter, the screen is smaller in width and larger in height when compared to traditional models, where the ratio is 16:9. You quickly get used to this, at least in the Galaxy S8 it is still convenient to reach the top edge of the display.

The area of the 5.8-inch screen S8 is 85.12 cm2 versus 92.16 cm2 for a model with the same diagonal, but with an aspect ratio of 16:9. However, this is larger than the Galaxy S7 edge's 5.5-inch display at 83.39 cm2. So an achievement on Samsung's part in this regard is that they've managed to fit a larger screen into a body that's smaller than the S7 edge.

It is important to note that the aspect ratio of 18.5:9 has little to no effect on the interface of Android applications, in most cases they adapt perfectly to it. The user even has a choice: use the program with its standard aspect ratio or stretch it to full screen. To do this, there is a separate button in the multitasking menu, which is needed for older applications without the ability to scale.

As for games, everything is more complicated here, since in some of them, when adapting to a ratio of 18.5: 9, the edges of the display are eaten by the control keys. Nevertheless, it was not in vain that Samsung used a black front panel for all colors of the case, thanks to it, if you do not stretch the game to the entire S8 screen, then the black bars along the edges of the image do not attract attention.

The same situation with the video, most of which was filmed in 16:9. For example, YouTube has the ability to adapt the picture to the aspect ratio of the Galaxy S8 screen, but in this case it will be slightly cropped at the top and bottom.

The S8's display itself shows good color reproduction and viewing angles. In the settings, you can choose one of the preset modes in which the screen changes the display of colors, making them colorful or more natural.

Our measurements showed a generally good factory calibration with over 100% coverage of the sRGB color space, warm tone bias, near-reference gamut, and even backlighting.

Basic:

Movie:

For those who want to get a completely “warm” display, there is a “blue color filter” in the settings.

Another interesting item in the screen settings is the choice of resolution: HD + (1480 × 720), Full HD + (2220 × 1080) and WQHD + (2960 × 1440).

At maximum resolution, the Galaxy S8 displays an image with a pixel density of 570 per inch. This is more than enough to not see a hint of graininess on the display. But I can't help but note that it's not there in Full HD+, and even HD+. Moreover, each of these resolutions affects the autonomy of the smartphone in its own way, so the standard 2220 × 1080 pixels can be called optimal, while WQHD + is only necessary for VR.

Like the S7 edge, the S8's locked display can display useful information such as the time, date, battery charge, calendar, image of your choice, and notification icons. This feature is called Always on Display and works thanks to the Super AMOLED screen, in which each pixel is illuminated individually.

Unlike the previous version, it has become a little smarter, for example, when the phone is in your pocket, the display turns off completely to save battery power. In addition, the brightness level of the Always on Display image is adjusted according to the ambient light.

The Edge function has not gone anywhere, which allows you to place a curtain from the edge of the display, pulling which you can access a variety of panels. They help you quickly launch your favorite programs, access your contacts and display a variety of information in the form of widgets.

It includes four tools with which you can cut out an area of the screen, recognize text in an image, make a GIF animation from a fragment of a video, and also cut out an area of the screen and fix it on top of other programs. The latter is convenient, for example, if you need to rewrite some data, or they are simply needed before your eyes.

Platform and Performance

The Galaxy S8, which will be sold in Ukraine, is equipped with a 10-nanometer Samsung Exynos 8895 processor. This chip uses 4 energy-efficient ARM Cortex A53 cores operating at a frequency of 1.7 GHz, as well as 4 high-performance cores of Samsung's own design, the frequency of which reaches 2.35 GHz. The top accelerator Mali-G71 MP20 is responsible for graphics processing, it is 40% faster than the Mali T880MP12 chip in the Galaxy S7 edge.

The smartphone also has 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory. It also has a card slot. microSD memory, and it is hybrid, that is, you can install either two nano SIM cards, or one nano SIM and a memory card.

Real Galaxy usage S8 shows a high level of performance, both in the interface and applications. At the same time, there is no dependence on the display resolution, the device works equally fast.

If you look at the results of synthetic tests, then the Galaxy S8 is one of the most productive smartphones in the world.

Fingerprint scanner, face recognition and iris unlock

The S8 has the ability to unlock using face recognition, iris recognition, as well as a fingerprint. All these methods have different levels of protection, for example, the face recognition function can be fooled by substituting a photo under the front camera. However, the iris scanner and fingerprint scanner are relatively reliable.

The fingerprint scanner in the Galaxy S8 is located on the back of the case, next to the camera unit.

This is not the best placement, as the finger often ends up on the camera itself. Rumor has it that Samsung wanted to use Synaptics technology in the S8, which allows you to place a fingerprint sensor under the display glass. But, as is often the case, new technology took more time to finalize, so I still had to look for a place for a conventional fingerprint scanner. It was found right next to the camera, and not under it, which would be more logical. It is difficult to get used to this position of the scanner, but it is quite real, on the third day of use, accidental clicks began to happen to me much less frequently. And then I tried to wear the Galaxy S8 in a case, and this problem almost disappeared.

The fact is that the scanner, like the camera unit, is on the same level with the body. In the case, he finds himself in a separate niche, which is easy to blindly hit with a finger. At the same time, the scanner works very quickly and understands touches from any angle.

The iris scanner is located on the front panel, next to the camera. It is infrared, so it works both in the light and in the dark. In general, it works well, the recognition speed is high. However, it may not work in very bright sunlight. If the user wears glasses, then everything will depend on the ambient light, the glare on the glasses will not allow the scanner to recognize the iris, but if there are none, then it also works through glasses.

Interface

The Galaxy S8 runs Android 7.0 with a slightly redesigned interface called the Samsung Experience. We must pay tribute to the company, it has done a good job of optimizing the OS for its hardware platform, and the interface logic itself is almost the same as in "pure" Android 7.0. Samsung designers redrawn icons, notification curtain with quick settings, as well as system applications.

In general, the interface has become visually easier and more pleasant to use, the animation in it works smoothly, without freezes or twitches. To access the menu, there is no longer a separate button in the interface, just make a gesture on the main screen from bottom to top or top to bottom.
When setting up your smartphone for the first time, you can choose whether to install a browser, mail, music and video player, and other applications from Samsung or not. Accordingly, if you are used to applications from Google, then now there will be no programs in the interface that duplicate their functionality.

The Briefing panel, which for several years was one of the desktops in Samsung smartphones and aggregated news from different sources, has been replaced by Bixby. Or rather, it was integrated into it as a widget. The Bixby panel itself can also be removed from the desktop, but there is a separate key on the left side of the Galaxy S8 to launch this virtual assistant. Let's take a closer look at Bixby.

bixby

Last May, Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer, who worked on Siri, . It was based on the idea that third-party developers themselves can integrate their programs and services into the assistant. And Viv, in turn, would provide them with intellectual system voice input. Already at the time of the demonstration, Viv supported integration with 50 programs. And this is really important, since basically virtual assistants are closed systems. As a result, in October last year, Samsung bought the developers of Viv, and along with the presentation of the Galaxy S8, introduced its virtual assistant Bixby. The mechanism of its work involves the analysis of what programs the user uses and what information he needs. Thus, Bixby will gradually add functional widgets to its panel, which should save the user's time. For example, in the morning, it can show the weather forecast, daily schedule, and the cost of a trip to work on Uber, if you use this service regularly.

In addition, Bixby can create reminders, for this you can even take out separate application on the menu. Unfortunately, while Bixby can be called rather a beta version, it does not always launch quickly, it does not have voice input, and in general, functionality in Ukraine is still limited. However, it is an interesting undertaking and interesting to see how it develops.

Camera

The main camera in the Galaxy S8 is 12-megapixel with f/1.7 aperture, optical and digital stabilization, a system of 6 lenses and a sensor with rather large 1.4μm pixels. As you can see, the camera characteristics have not changed compared to the S7 edge, however, the S8 uses a new revision of the camera module, as well as new processing algorithms. As a result, the camera began to work faster and the detail of images in poor lighting increased slightly.

In addition, the camera can now by default save images simultaneously in JPEG and RAW, even in automatic mode.

And an interesting innovation has appeared in the interface: the shutter button can now be pulled up to zoom in on the image through digital zoom, and also down to return the image to its original position. It is very comfortable.

In good light in automatic mode:

In good light with HDR:

In low light in automatic mode:

In low light with HDR:

In poor lighting with flash:

Macro:

Other examples of shots in good light:

With backlight:

In poor lighting:

The front camera in the Galaxy S8 is 8-megapixel with f/1.7 aperture. It has HDR support, the ability to stitch multiple shots into one to increase the viewing angle, as well as screen backlighting when shooting in low light.

In general, there are not very many changes in the main camera, but they are, and today these characteristics are enough for the Galaxy S8 to be one of the best in terms of image quality.

Audio

The Galaxy S8 has one external speaker, but even despite the protective membrane from water, it sounds quite loud, if desired, in a not very noisy environment, you can watch videos without headphones or listen to music.

The bundled AKG in-ear headphones sound good, detailing the stage, lows, mids, and highs, but sag a bit on the bass. In general, these are the best complete headphones that I have ever heard. By the way, separately they will cost as much as $100.

Galaxy S8 itself plays at the level of others Samsung flagships recent years, which is generally good, although given the purchase of Harman, I expected some significant innovations. Apparently, we will see them already in the new flagships of the company. Fortunately, the sound settings in the S8 have not gone away, there is an equalizer and the proprietary Adapt Sound function, which allows you to adjust the sound in the headphones to your hearing.

Another option in the Galaxy S8 that can be attributed to audio is the new Bluetooth 5.0 wireless data transfer standard. Now it supports the connection of two wireless headphones. There is support for the A2DP profile and the aptX codec.

autonomy

After the problems with the Note 7, Samsung had to change the approach to batteries in their smartphones. First, they began to be more thoroughly tested by increasing the number of tests. And secondly, they stopped trying to fit in compact body high capacity battery. It is for this reason that the S7 edge has a 3600 mAh battery, while the Galaxy S8 has a 3000 mAh battery. But the main question here is not the capacity of the battery, but what kind of autonomy does the smartphone have. I measured the S8 at 200 cd/m2 display brightness at all three resolutions in PCMark Work 2.0. We got the following results:

HD+ resolution (1480×720) - 8 hours 46 minutes

Full HD+ resolution (2220×1080) - 7 hours 38 minutes

WQHD+ (2960×1440) - 6 hours 59 minutes

For a smartphone with a 3000 mAh battery, these are very good results. At the same time, as you can see, resolution significantly affects autonomy. I used the Galaxy S8 with Full HD + resolution and this was enough for 1.5 days of work with 6 hours of active screen.

I am writing this material for people who really want to know the explanation of the characteristics of the Galaxy S8, how they work in practice, and my personal opinion about this or that moment in the device. And for this, just a 10-minute video and beautiful pictures are not enough. Therefore, if you are just such a reader, then get ready to spend 10 minutes of your life reading. If not, then I have selected for you under this material 10-minute video reviews of top bloggers on YouTube, which will tell you vividly, quickly and superficially.

So, let's begin! Samsung Galaxy S8 (SM-G950F) at the start of sales costs 55,000 RUB in Russia, 25,000 UAH in Ukraine, 1,800 BYN in Belarus, 301,000 KZT in Kazakhstan. For interest, I converted all these prices into dollars and summarized them in the chart below:

In this section I will tell you all the characteristics: from the body to the cameras.

Design, elements on the case, materials and dimensions of the smartphone

The design of the flagship is unlike any other device, but the Samsung style is noticeable. Everything is very smooth and in the hands it feels like a piece of glass polished to perfection. I can’t find fault with the joints of the elements, everything is very well fitted and without gaps. I have a black version, but in our market it will still be possible to find gold and amethyst.

Thickness smartphone 8 mm, nothing protrudes in the planes. The metal frame on the left and right ends is only 3.5 mm wide, to which the front and rear windows are rounded. Samsung calls it "Edge Design". By width The S8 is pretty narrow at 68mm, which is 1.5mm narrower than the Galaxy S7. Samsung smartphones have always stood out for their compact size in the body / display ratio. Height the device has become 6.5 mm higher than its predecessor and is 149 mm. Weight 155 g, and as for me, this is the best indicator that you want to feel in your hand.

Despite the fact that the screen size of the S8 is quite large, I still want to call it a compact smartphone that will be comfortable for people with small hands. When I hold it in my hand, I think that this is how it should be and I don’t understand why smartphones used to be different.

Ok Steve! In terms of design, I want the Galaxy S8.

On the front there is a large display, top and bottom of which are very narrow frames (almost 7 mm each). There is nothing on the bottom frame, and then part of me says: "So if the area is empty, then remove it completely in favor of an EVEN larger display!". But the normal part of me (I think it's normal) understands that before this there were no such screen-to-body ratios, and the engineers tried very hard to make what we have in front.

Above the screen, in the center, there is a neat earpiece, to the left of which there are two sensors (light and proximity), infrared illumination for recognizing the iris of the eye even in pitch darkness, followed by a light indicator (lights up blue or red). To the right of the speaker are the front camera and the sensor for scanning the iris. The front camera for scanning the iris is not activated.

On the back we have protective glass, which is scratched and does not have an oleophobic coating. Slightly above the center is the Samsung logo, which does not cast a shiny chrome, but has a modest gray color. Above the logo in the center is the camera, to the left of which is a heart rate sensor and a single-LED flash. I can not say that the flash stands out for its brightness and has a warm tone. To the right of the camera is a fingerprint scanner, which is inconvenient for me and I do not use it.

At the top end there is a hybrid tray for two Nano SIM-cards, or one card and a memory card. The tray is made of flexible plastic, which is a little disappointing, although this is not so important. The metal frame on the upper and lower ends is wider than the side faces, since the adjoining glasses there are not rounded. On top we also have a noise-canceling microphone and two plastic separators for antennas, which are practically invisible.

At the bottom, there is a USB Tape-C connector, a headphone jack, an external speaker, a spoken microphone, and two more antenna separators.

On the left side face there is a volume rocker and a button that calls the Bixby virtual assistant interface, but more on that later.

On the right side, the power / lock button is lonely in a convenient place.

Chipset

The heart of the flagship SM-G950F is the top-end in 2017 chipset of its own production Exynos 8895 (analogue). It has 8 cores, 4 of which are low-power for light tasks and energy saving - ARM Cortex-A53 with a maximum frequency of 1690 MHz. The remaining 4 cores are made according to Samsung's own Exynos M1 (Mongoose) architecture. It works with complex tasks at a maximum frequency of 2314 MHz.

The biggest feature of the processor is its 10 nanometer (nm) process technology. Manufacturers have stopped increasing gigahertz and power, and are striving for energy efficiency and compactness. For you to understand, 10 nm is almost half the size of the already small 14 nm top-end Snapdragon 821 chip. At the same time, performance has not faded into the background, and energy costs are several times less.

See comparison of chipset sizes in the picture:

Diagram from Intel presentation

In terms of performance, this is not the most powerful smartphone. In AnTuTu, he scores 173 thousand points and is inferior to the iPhone 7 Plus. On the maximum settings graphics in tanks, the frame rate per second of the Galaxy S8 does not reach 60. On average 50 frames per second shows. But this is not critical, since the human eye can capture a maximum of 30 frames per second.

A smartphone in the summer, in very hot weather, heats up a little and it is not very comfortable to hold it in your hands. Heating was noticed not only in games at maximum loads, but this problem in other smartphones with a similar powerful chip can be much more noticeable.

Considering that the chipset is made according to the thinnest technical process, the heating is not clear to me. Nevertheless, I have not heard about heating problems with other users before, and I am almost sure that this moment concerns my device, which is not commercial (sent for review by the manufacturer). Plus, given that the processor and core architecture is new, over time, all games and programs will be better optimized for this solution.

Memory

RAM in the device 4 GB. This is quite enough for all tasks and I did not feel a lack. The AIDA64 application shows an honest 3.5 GB of RAM. permanent memory 64 GB, and no other versions found. Available to use 54 GB. It is possible to expand the memory with microSD cards up to 256 GB, and the card slot is separate from the SIM card.

The memory speed is up to par and reaches 787 Mb/s when reading and 195 Mb/s when transmitting. This is the fastest rate in this moment in smartphones.

autonomy

I will say right away that autonomy is not the strong point of the Samsung S8. The battery capacity is 3000 mAh, and it shows average survivability. But if you take into account the resolution of the display and its diagonal, then everything is pretty good.

For an hour of playing the battery sat down by 20%, that is, you can play without interruption for 5 hours at maximum resolution. Plays video via Wi-Fi - 7.5 hours. But the operation of a GPS navigator with a rarely active display will drain the battery in 20 hours. All the same a high resolution display makes itself felt (by the way, it can be lowered, which will positively affect autonomy).

The Korean flagship is infected from 0 to 100% in 1 hour and 15 minutes. From 0 to 50%, the included charger charged the battery in 40 minutes. It means that fast charging there is, but the S8 does not focus on fast replenishment of the charge in the first minutes.

If you are not a hardcore multimedia user, then the smartphone will last 2 days with gentle loads. Especially if you lower the display resolution.

Display

But the screen here is quite interesting. It has an unusual aspect ratio of 18.5:9 and is made using Super Amoled technology. The diagonal of the screen, with such a compact size, is 5.8 inches. Compactness is achieved thanks to the same narrow frames mentioned earlier. This means that it is more elongated in length, and all this is due to the reduction of the upper and lower frames. The maximum display resolution is WQHD (2950x1440), but it can be reduced in the settings to FullHD or even HD. Reducing the resolution will have a positive effect on autonomy.

Noticeable only when comparing "point blank".

It is difficult to find fault with the display - it is large, clear, frameless and very bright (1000 nits). However, there is a minus, with a white color, the picture is a little red at a direct viewing angle. This moment is visible only if you put another smartphone next to it.

The company is already sending out an update that will fix this defect, but at the time of the review, this update has not yet reached my sample.

The screen has an "Always On Display" feature that displays the clock and date, notifications, and battery percentage when the device is locked.

Sound

I'm not a music lover, but with the Samsung S8 I wanted to become one. The sound in the headphones is simply stunning. Maybe I just haven't heard before. high-quality sound, but downloaded the track in flac format and in comparison with the Galaxy A5 realized that the S8 sounds like a god. Full immersion into music. My A-fifth, compared to the flagship of 2017, sounds like a leprechaun drowned in the toilet.

The external speaker of the flagship also plays well, but there are no stereo speakers. The sound comes from a single speaker on the bottom end, it is loud and moderately saturated, as for a smartphone. The volume reaches 70.3 dB.

Perhaps the sound was influenced by cooperation with the top manufacturer of audio devices Harman / Kardon. Headphones under the AKG brand are included. They can be purchased separately for $100. At the presentation, Samsung said that the S8 has a 32-bit digital-to-analog converter.

I'm listening to Samsung Galaxy S8 through headphones and I can't remember what cons I talked about earlier... I don't know how I'm going to live now without such sound.

The device supports two Nano-SIM cards. Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, supports dual-channel data transmission at 5000 MHz. Bluetooth also has a surprise, it. This means that you can turn on your favorite tracks through Bluetooth headphones and go to the other side of the house or even go out into the yard without a source of signal. The range is increased by 4 times compared to Bluetooth 4.2. You can also connect two headsets at once (two speakers or two pairs of headphones). These are not all the advantages of the fifth version of Bluetooth, but to use it you need a headset that supports this format.

GPS navigation works flawlessly.

Software

Running Samsung S8 on the latest operating system at the time of release Android system 7, of course. Over installed branded shell Samsung Experience, I currently have version 8.1. Everything works smartly, but with a certain proprietary animation, which is similar to the effect of minimizing windows in Windows. The main desktop displays the clock, weather, and Google search bar by default, but by default, you can pinch widgets, app icons, and add screens that you can swipe to the right. Swiping from bottom to top or vice versa calls up the "drawer with applications". If you swipe from the right edge to the left, then the EDGE panel will be called up with the ability to quickly access selected applications, contacts and various options for taking screenshots.

The GPU works out the interface without braking with the maximum frame rate. No lags in third party applications also not noticed.

bixby

With a left-to-right swipe on the main screen, as well as a separate button on the end, you can open the Bixby interface, where you can find cards that you can customize yourself. I have this alarm clock, Gallery for today, number of steps taken, weather and summary latest news. At the moment, the capabilities of the assistant are limited. In addition to the listed features, the assistant can’t do anything else, it doesn’t react to the voice in any way (neither in Russian, nor in English, or even in Korean). When the Russian-speaking audience will be able to fully use Bixby is unknown.

However, the manners for his work were noticed, in the notification shade there was a recommendation to listen to music in good quality with a link to the recommended site (I used to download music on another site). I look forward to the full potential of Bixby's artificial intelligence and its destruction of the human race the moment it acquires it.

For now, Bixby only has a name.

Camera

The main camera on the Galaxy S8 takes 12MP photos. The aperture is open to F/1.7, which allows the sensor to capture more light in low light conditions. This is the widest aperture in a smartphone in my memory. There is phase detection autofocus and optical stabilization. If the smartphone cannot focus (which happens very rarely with photos), for example, when shooting video in 4K resolution, then tapping on the display sensor can help the camera. Autofocus works on technology, it is very fast and in most cases trouble-free.

Matrix in the main chamber manufactured by ISOCELL, model S5K2L2. I'm assuming that the American and Korean versions use a Sony sensor, model IMX333 (or another name for IMX260 Pro). They say that there is no difference in the quality of pictures in Samsung S8 with different matrices. In S7 there was a situation that the Sony sensor photographed in warmer colors. The size of the S5K2L2 is quite large - 1/2.5". The pixel is also not small - 1.4 microns.

I want to note that for all indicators, the camera does not protrude from the body.

Main Galaxy camera S8 from Galaxy S7 practically does not differ in photography. In the video, I think the S8 dominates.

Below is an example of shooting on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S7 in HDR modes. Last year's flagship did better.

For comparison, I will give another example of a picture in the same conditions on the Galaxy S8 and Xiaomi Note 4x to clearly show the quality of flagships and state employees.

Below is a gorgeous shot with bokeh effect on the Galaxy S8. When taking pictures in good lighting, the smartphone focuses at lightning speed (I never get tired of writing this).

Another macro shot:

Shooting in the blinding sun in automatic mode was not impressive. But there are many manual settings in Pro mode: ISO adjustment, aperture adjustment effect, presets, manual focus, etc.

Snapshot at night with and without flash. With flash, the algorithm works well, there are no flashes and in some cases it is difficult to say that the photo was taken with a flash.

selfie camera

Selfie camera, for the first time for smartphones, has autofocus. This is an 8 megapixel ISOCELL S5K3H1 matrix, has an aperture of F / 1.7. It shoots for a selfie camera perfectly, there is nothing more to say.

Video filming

Samsung shoots video in resolutions ranging from VGA to 4K (UHD) resolutions. When recording Full HD at 30 fps, HDR video recording is available. There is optical and electronic stabilization. I was blown away by the color reproduction, focus and stabilization. Many words are not needed here, you just need to see:

Youtube decided to cut the resolution down to 2k over time.

Peculiarities

The features of the smartphone include the ability to connect to a monitor using the DeX docking station. You can also connect a mouse and keyboard to it. The monitor displays the operating system from Samsung on Android based, external similar to Windows. Under it imprisoned standard applications and Microsoft office solutions. I did not manage to use this gadget for a long time, but the reviews about it are not bad.

With DeX, you can open a browser, work in office applications, view and even edit photos. Applications open in full windows. Even Instagram and others are launched, but there are still few applications adapted to this platform.

The second feature is the ability to unlock the device using the iris of the eye or face. They say that a face scanner can be fooled by a printed photo, but it’s not so easy and who will bother with it? If the options above do not always work quickly, especially if you are walking, then everything happens with a finger scanner at lightning speed, but it is not located in a very convenient place and does not recognize a wet finger.

The third feature I note is the presence of a heartbeat scanner.

The fourth feature, which I did not mention earlier, is the presence of moisture and dust protection according to the IP68 standard.

Pros and cons of the Samsung Galaxy S8

It's time to sum up all of the above.

pros

thin bezels around the display;
clear, bright and elongated display, with the ability to adjust the resolution;
comfortable design and well-assembled body;
good cameras in all respects;
user-friendly interface;
support for the future version of Bluetooth 5;
great sound in headphones
loud external speaker;
notification indicator;
moisture and dust protection.

Minuses

soiled rear glass, which is prone to scratches;
the sharp edges of the USB connector rub your finger while playing;
due to such a premium design, the smartphone can be fragile, you need to wear a case;
sometimes it gets quite hot under load (perhaps this is a problem with my sample or raw software, this should be fixed with updates and optimization of games for the new core);
all means of unlocking are inconvenient.

My review of the Galaxy S8

The smartphone came out on 5 points. Many people talk about him as the emperor among smartphones. For me personally, the camera is important, and here it is very worthy. Is it the best? This is in question, and when compared with the Galaxy S7, they are very similar. Although video recording in the Galaxy S8 is impressive.

And so the question hung in my head, is it worth buying the Galaxy S8 for the photo capabilities of the camera, if the Galaxy S7 has the same level for more affordable money? I would consider buying a Galaxy S8 for great headphone sound and a cool display, for video recording and good design. Although the design is secondary, and I would rather show off cool photos than a cool design of a glass rectangle (as you can see, the WOW effect from the design gradually faded away for me, you get used to good things very quickly).

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Screen and sound

One could say that the display in the Galaxy S8 + is typical for Samsung, if not new format, new diagonal and new resolution. Only the habit remains highest quality performance and Super AMOLED technology. Due to the unusual aspect ratio, the resolution also looks unusual - 1440 × 2960. Plus 400 points in height compared to the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy Note 7. I talked about the obvious advantages of this format above. It's also worth adding here that the 5.8-inch Galaxy S8 and the 6.2-inch Galaxy S8+ have the same resolution. Therefore, the pixel density of the smaller model is higher - 570 versus 529 ppi. But such a difference, in principle, cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Display settings allow you to change the screen resolution while maintaining the aspect ratio. You can choose from three options: 1480 × 720, 2220 × 1080 and 2960 × 1440. By default, all smartphones use the maximum resolution.

AMOLED contrast tends to an infinite value, it is impossible to measure it. The maximum brightness was high enough for an OLED display - 407 km/m 2 . This is a little compared to typical IPS displays, but thanks to the conditionally infinite contrast, there are no problems with the readability of the Galaxy S8+. Direct sunlight does not interfere with reading or watching video from the screen at all.

The viewing angles are maximum, the brightness does not change when viewed from an acute angle, in some cases there is a noticeable slight, barely perceptible distortion of colors. There are four presets to customize your screen color. By default, the screen works in adaptive mode, and in addition to it, there are “AMOLED photo”, “AMOLED video” and the main one - for the purity of the experiment, testing was carried out in adaptive and main modes alternately.

Purely visually, the picture in adaptive mode looks clearer, richer and colder. I think that most potential Galaxy S8 + owners will never use other modes. The graphs above show that the color temperature is kept in the region of 7700-7800 K, which is noticeably higher than the norm of 6500 K. And the average Delta E deviation for colors and shades of gray is 5.20, which is also far beyond the norm. However, the average gamma is quite good - 2.23.

In the main mode, the color reproduction is clearer. The display narrows the color gamut - it corresponds to the sRGB space, and the color temperature is kept near the optimal value. As a result, color accuracy is improved.

For such values, the display of the Galaxy S8 + can be called ideal. The gamma is 2.28, the color temperature is approximately 6600 K, and the average Delta E deviation according to the Color Checker table is only 3.05. In general, such a screen will fully satisfy even those who are used to working professionally with graphics. Perhaps with such a diagonal display on the Galaxy S8 +, it will even be possible to process photos on the road. Or at least do presetting in mobile Lightroom.

But in terms of sound, the Galaxy S8 + makes a double impression. For one thing, it doesn't have a second speaker, so it only sounds in mono. On the other hand, it uses a high-quality Wolfson DAC, and comes with very good AKG headphones.

Hardware and performance

Just like with the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy Note 7, Samsung uses two hardware platforms. S8/S8+ enter the American market with Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, and in Russia and Europe - with Exynos 8895, it is this version that arrived to us for testing. The reasons for this approach lie in compatibility with LTE networks - the modem from Qualcomm is more omnivorous. And in terms of performance, there should not be a cardinal difference, both platforms guarantee the highest possible performance.

The result in AnTuTu 5 turned out to be suspiciously low, in all likelihood, the point is the poor optimization of the benchmark and its “inept” handling of the new platform. But in the sixth version of this package, the result is impressive. Although, to be honest, I did not expect anything else from the top-end Samsung device.

Volume random access memory did not turn out to be a record: only 4 GB versus 6 GB for some Chinese flagships, but this does not affect performance. What's more, the new Galaxy easily beats competitors with more RAM. The microSD slot supports media up to 256 GB. In the dual SIM version, you still have to choose between a second carrier card and memory expansion. However, looking at how compact the body with a 6.2-inch screen turned out to be, there is no doubt that the engineers simply did not have enough inner space in order to implement a dedicated slot for the second SIM card.

I will add that the device heats up a little during heavy tasks, namely, when running the 3DMark SlingShot Extreme test, which we do not yet include in standard program testing. However, there are no problems with overheating and spontaneous reboot, which the Galaxy Note 7 suffered from, here. There are no reports of spontaneous combustion of the smartphone during charging, it is clear that the company found out the true causes of this phenomenon and completely eliminated them in the new smartphone.

Communications and wireless communications

The flagship Samsung Galaxy is still distinguished by outstanding communication abilities. Last year's Galaxy S7 still looks very cool, but in the new flagship, everything has become even a little better. So, for example, the maximum data download speed via an LTE modem is now 1 Gbps. The Bluetooth-module supports the 5.0 standard, which provides a higher data transfer rate, a slightly longer range and slightly less power consumption. Always-on Bluetooth has no noticeable effect on time battery life, unlike the Always-On Display function.

The GPS module received support from the European Galileo system, however, during testing, not a single satellite belonging to the European Space Agency was found. There are no problems with GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou - the smartphone quickly finds about 20 satellites and provides positioning accuracy up to 3-5 meters.

The dual SIM version works in dual standby mode due to the presence of one radio module, but this is a completely common practice. Firstly, this allows you to achieve better autonomy, and secondly, almost no one today has a real need for the simultaneous use of two SIM-cards.

Camera and shooting

It seems that the main camera of the flagship this time did not get into the upgrade program. At least its technical characteristics do not show any improvement compared to the Samsung Galaxy S7. The resolution remains the same (12 MP), the aperture has not changed (f / 1.7), and there is no movement in terms of autofocus. However, nothing is cooler than hybrid focusing in mobile cameras still no.

High-speed video shooting mode up to 1000 frames per second, which was mentioned in different sources, never showed up. And if we take into account the technical characteristics of the camera, there were no prerequisites for its appearance. The quality of photography is still impressive, but it seems that Samsung has worked a little on the algorithms for processing the resulting image. The result looks a little different than in the case of the Galaxy S7, but still very cool.

Samsung Galaxy S8, shooting examples

Quick quality comparison Shooting Galaxy S8 + and iPhone 7 Plus demonstrates the clear superiority of the Korean flagship. You can see a few examples below. And about how the Galaxy S8 + manifests itself in comparison with Huawei P10 Plus and LG G6, we will talk in a separate article.

The front camera has acquired autofocus and slightly increased in resolution compared to the Galaxy S7 - it was 5 megapixels, and it became 8. However, the aggressive auto-enhancer spoils the impressions of self-portraits a little.

In the settings, of course, it can be turned off, but in practice the effect of blurring the skin texture is always applied, you can only affect its intensity. Separate LED flash front camera no, it is replaced by a screen that “lights up” for a second at maximum brightness. The hue of this backlight varies from yellowish to bluish, which allows you to achieve accurate white balance in almost any conditions.

Offline work

The different case sizes of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ cause a noticeable difference in battery capacity. The small model has 3000 mAh, the large one has 3500 mAh, that is, 11.4 and 13.3 Wh, respectively. The previous flagship delivered an outstanding result in our battery life test of 877 minutes. It was close to the record results at that time. Only modest technical specifications smartphones with “thick” batteries, not a single flagship could oppose anything. Since then, the situation has changed only for the better: the Samsung Galaxy S8 + shows an even more impressive result. The test, which involved playing an HD video in MX Player at maximum screen brightness with an active Wi-Fi connection, gave a result of 16 hours and 20 minutes.

This result is achieved thanks to excellent optimization, video playback is not a resource-intensive task for Samsung. But in reality, the smartphone does not show anything supernatural - it allows you to work from early morning until late at night without the need to use a charger. At the same time, you do not need to worry about anything at all - you can play games, watch movies, listen to music and rely on automatic brightness control. In a more economical mode (no games and no long phone calls), the Galaxy S8 + works for two days. But new test PCMark, which creates a high and very varied load on the CPU and GPU, showed a result of 6 hours and 42 minutes. Which, in principle, is also very good, but does not pull on a record.

Samsung thoughtfully included a Quick Charge-enabled adapter in the package, with which the battery charges in less than an hour and a half, and gains a 60% charge in just 30 minutes. There is also wireless charging, but you will have to buy an adapter for it separately.

What is the result?

We must admit that the Samsung Galaxy S8 + is the best Android smartphone at the moment. Neither, nor, presented at MWC 2017, aroused such obvious sympathy. But some points still do not allow me to fully call the new Galaxy ideal. The most obvious miscalculation is the location of the fingerprint scanner. Of course, you can get used to this, just as you can put up with shoes that are two sizes smaller. But it won't get any better. The iris scanner and the face recognition function are good and useful things, but if we talk about the speed of unlocking, the first is much inferior to the fingerprint sensor, and the second does not provide proper security (you can unlock the smartphone without any problems using the photo of its owner). Even before the official premiere of the S8 +, there were rumors that Samsung until the last moment tried to embed the sensor directly into the screen, in place of the Home button, and that this was the reason for the slight delay in the announcement, but which end user really cares about this? Another controversial point is the lack of a second system speaker and, as a result, sound reproduction only in mono mode. But in my world, this is rather a plus - the less people around who break the silence with the sounds from their smartphones, the better.

Samsung's AMOLED screen is still out of competition. And if the iPhone 7 Plus boasts extremely accurate color reproduction, then in all other respects its screen looks like a relic of the past against the background of the Galaxy S8+. But the main thing is that the Koreans managed to do the almost impossible. S8+ is the only smartphone in the world with a screen over 6 inches that can be called compact.

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