The Samsung Galaxy S8 is one of those phones that just has to do well – it's up against some massively impressive competition in 2017 – and the good news is that this is, indeed, a very strong phone.
The amount of S8 leaks we've seen are staggering, both in their volume and accuracy, but they don't tell the whole story about a phone that's certain to be at the top (or very near the summit) of most 'best phone' lists this year.
The Infinity Display is the headline feature of this handset – while it's not all screen, it's as close as can be. Samsung has also been very clever in the way it's got around the loss of the front-facing home screen button, managing to make the handset usable without requiring the mechanical key on the front of the Galaxy S8.
Design
The look of the Samsung Galaxy S8 is what will sell it to the legions of fans clamoring for a
new phone from the brand – and to a wider audience as well. While there aren't that many internal upgrades, the front of the phone is mostly just display, and it’s by far the lowest bezel-to-screen ratio we've seen on a globally-available flagship phone so far.
The effect will definitely impress the first time you pick it up – while the Infinity Display (as Samsung is calling this edge-to-edge effort) isn't completely bezel-less at the sides, it still seems to spill over to the back of the phone.
Every corner and edge has been rounded on the Samsung Galaxy S8, giving it a very pleasing feel in the hand. It's the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge with a bit more courage in the design – Samsung has spent two years convincing the world that a curved screen is best, and the fact it's on both this handset and the larger Galaxy S8 Plus is testament to that effort.
That said, it's not a small phone. The 5.8-inch screen is packed tightly into the frame but it's still large at 148.90 x 68 x 8mm, and you'll struggle to reach all corners of the screen with a single thumb.
The fingerprint scanner is on the back, by the camera, and it's rather hard to use from the natural holding position for a phone in your palm. It is something you could get used to, but we're not sure why Samsung put it so close to the camera when it could have been closer to the middle of the phone.
However, we don't want to take away from how impressive the Galaxy S8 is in the hand, with the 5.8-inch screen squashed into an impossibly-small chassis – and one that packs in wireless charging and a IP68 rating, so you'll be able to immerse this phone in water and dust with little worry... and not even need to plug in a cable to charge it.
The Galaxy S8 comes in three colors at launch for the US and UK: Midnight, Orchid Gray, and Arctic Silver. Maple Gold and Coral Blue are being saved for other regions.
Screen
Let's spend a little more time on one of the headline features of this phone: the screen. The 5.8-inch Super AMOLED display is clear, bright and colorful, with a QHD resolution (and a little bit more, thanks to the screen being extended further down the chassis and now offering an 18.5:9 aspect ratio).
That stretch is significant, as it allows more content to be spilled down the front of the phone, with all the internal apps optimized to make use of this larger space. LG is the other brand to do such a thing, with the LG G6, but it tried to use it in a 'two square' interface, essentially putting two apps in one on the screen, whereas Samsung is just making everything look a bit larger.
There's no way to easily make everything widescreen when it comes to third-party apps, which may mean some people don't make full use of the longer display unless they trek through the settings menu on the Galaxy S8.
Samsung is also talking up the fact that it's got the first truly mobile HDR screen on the market, which seems a bit harsh on LG and Sony, given they've already announced such things. More importantly, those brands have partnered with Netflix and/ or Amazon to bring true HDR content to their phones.
Camera
In terms of the camera on the Samsung Galaxy S8, we're oddly seeing little in the way of improvement over the (admittedly impressive) snapper on the Samsung Galaxy S7 from 2016, despite promises to the contrary.
The specs tell the same story as the experience: a 12MP sensor on the rear, with an f/1.7 aperture a fast autofocus. Those specs contributed to, arguably, the best camera on a smartphone in 2016, and Samsung clearly doesn't want to tinker with the formula.
We were expecting a dual-lens design, similar to the one found in the iPhone 7 Plus and multiple Huawei phones (as well as rival LG's G6), but Samsung clearly has other design issues it wants to solve first.
One of the big upgrades on board is to the multi-frame image feature, where three snaps are shot and the best is selected for you with each picture. It's not clear at this time whether this is an interpolation of all three pictures, in the same way as HDR on smartphones works for brightness and color, or if it's just the Galaxy S8 looking for the sharpest image of three.
There's no sign of the super slow-motion, 1,000 frames per second video to rival the same feature on the Sony Xperia XZ Premium, but there are a lot of features that will make most smartphone camera fans happy.
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