Samsung Galaxy S8 review: Essence distilled

21 April 2017
When 5 inches is the de-facto standard for a compact Android handset, yet you want to prove that more is always better, what do you do? If you're Samsung, you make a 5.8-inch phone that's as compact as a 5-incher.

Sort by:

Anonymous, 24 Apr 2017For once stop being *decimated* in the multitask score by o... moreI am not sure if you are a hater or jusy clueless, but why dont you tell us smth. Untill the 2017 is cleared, which 2016 flagship was better than the S7 edge? Which had great battery, superb and smooth performance, great camera, esp at night time, which has been the bane of the industry in the past decade, the best display ever put in a flagship and one of the most best looking devices in the market and the best bezel ratio amongst flagships, seriously what else should they do? have you tried the the G5 battery? The Sony bezels? The htc availability? The pixel price and limited storage?
On 2017, it seems that there wont be any competition again, the G6 has a lousy battery and is stacked at 32gb storage, let alone the old cpu and wireless charging or dac in europe, yet a 800euros price tag. The htc just dropped the ball again with that U crap. The sony is pushing the bezels in the wrong way, the pixels will again be more expensive that the iphones, yet offer even more restrictions, Huawei is putting random Ram and 4year old storage on their latest storage. Only oneplus can remotely be a viable alternative, but as a chinese firm, you ll have to place an order online, hope for invitations, have it being mailed to you, live with bigger bezels, still a subpar camera etc
It is true that the 18.5:9 gimmick is a bad idea and that Note fiasco is making the entire S line to suffer from sub oar battery capacity, but 88h with a 3500mah capacity on a 6.2incher is not bad battery performance, actually considering the handicaps, it is a small miracle!

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • 6jq
    • 25 Apr 2017

    [deleted post]Samsung would be upset. We don't want that. Would undercut first weeks' sales...

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • 6jq
      • 25 Apr 2017

      AnonD-77443, 25 Apr 2017Your wrong on battery life. The S8+ typically gives me 9-10... moreS8 runs on "default mode" which actually underclocks the cpu by some, run at lower resolution and cloaks full brightness. Also greatly minimizes backgrounding, all give better battery at the cost of performance / clarity.

      It's exactly the type of "accommodations" that a flagship should *not* do. BTW I agree that iphones do not have flagship grade battery either. Planned obsolescence is big with apple (in her software it is even more apparent ).

      Sadly Samsung was taking in by Apple's scheme, which is why the removable batt was left behind.

        • D
        • AnonD-77443
        • v6J
        • 25 Apr 2017

        Anonymous, 24 Apr 2017For once stop being *decimated* in the multitask score by o... moreYour wrong on battery life. The S8+ typically gives me 9-10 hours screen on time on average (50% screen brightness, 1440p, running everything).

        GSMarenas battery tests show that iphones dont have as good battery life also.

          • D
          • AnonD-546038
          • ncI
          • 25 Apr 2017

          Great phone no doubt!

          But i wanna talk of something else: remember the iPhone 5? remember when everyone criticized Apple for doing a taller phone with 16:9 aspect ratio and millions of memes circulating around internet making fun of Apple?

          Well, the S8 and S8+, G6 are going even further...? what have people now to say about that? nothing? Not an Apple fanboy, i have Androids but i would like people to comment on that and seems everyone is ignoring the past ;)

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • 6jq
            • 24 Apr 2017

            Buppy, 24 Apr 2017So which technologies u think samsung should have put in s8... moreFor once stop being *decimated* in the multitask score by other (far cheaper) brands . Having your $900 phone reload background apps is not a state I imagined for 2017, Apple already solved this in 2014, (some) Androids did that last year. Samsung *still* reloads plenty of background apps, it's very distancing to say the least (just the other day I had to wait 20 seconds for the navigation app to load ... for nth time in my friend's S8). BTW the solution is simple, more Ram for the most part.

            A second part where Samsung is seriously lacking is battery life. They achieve big battery by running at lower resolution and by default running on "non-performance" mode. They used to have practically infinite battery by allowing spares. They are now resorting to cheap tricks to gain as much juice as possible. The solution is simple here too, ultra capacitor (that keeps the lights on) + removable battery, failing that bigger battery (4000 mah for example) as the cost of a few mm in thickness. That way we cold have full performance and full resolution at all times without having to kill back round apps either.

            The situation with the screen resolution is quite bad too. Samsung were the first to bring VR to phones but *never* made the next step forwards. The image is still dotty and *bad* (owning to the low res for VR and the pentile subpixel arrangement). Samsung had a 4k amoled panel by early 2015 already, never pushed it to mass production, pretty much sitting on the same resolution for 4 years in a row, basically killing the chances of mobile VR forever.

            Want me to continue? Because I can add the situation with the weird aspect ratio completely killing the chance to have one handed use (notification area is way too far away at this point), practically adding bezels to the phone that could better be used in other ways (say front facing fingertip)... and there are many other smaller issues.

            By comparison S4 came loaded with the la test and greatest of the time. It had the BtS ratio of any high profile release (Mi Mix has this honor at this time), most ram (oneplus does at this time), best resolution (Xperia premium has that), biggest battery of any flagship in mAh (plenty of phones have it better at this point)... in general Samsung stopped pushing frontiers, which is also why S4 had 80 mil sales and this one would hardly surpass the 50 mil ... they say the market is easily swayed ... actually it isn't. People can see through the gimmicks. Still it would sell very well, but they are riding at past success at this point. They can't improve on their numbers anymore.

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • 6jq
              • 24 Apr 2017

              AnonD-270570, 24 Apr 2017You are just proving yourself more and more stupid, Retina ... moreNo it means exactly what it was defined to mean "the type of display that offers a view of indistinguishable pixels when viewed from 10-12 inches to a user with a 20/20 sight". That's very specific and concise, so instead of writing all that I just called retina any display that fullfills that criteria. Stop being triggered any time you hear a term that was invented from Apple.

              Similarly infinity display probably has a concise meaning, it merely happens to be a useless concept to use in any conversation (nobody needs to know whether his display is infinity display).

              BTW I only used the term BECAUSE I didn't want to have to type all this, the fact that I did type it eventually is very telling of the level of discussion which is very unfortunate.

                • D
                • AnonD-408004
                • vbB
                • 24 Apr 2017

                There is no doubt that this time Samsung has brought tremendous change in design, and pre-installed application. Though, these apps are good enough to give kick-start to your mobile experience. But still one needs more apps to make it more useful, and joyful too. I've found an interesting lists of apps featuring some of very useful apps, and I thought that I should share them here. Here is the list of apps for S8 and S8+

                http://androidcure.com/top-apps-samsung-galaxy-s8-plus/

                I've found them quite useful, and hope that it would benefit you guys as well. Cheers!

                  • J
                  • Jumbo
                  • 8XX
                  • 24 Apr 2017

                  AnonD-270570, 24 Apr 2017You are just proving yourself more and more stupid, Retina ... moreNot --officially-- but Apple's choice of that PPI was in relation to the effect he mentions, and since then we've basically adopted the term to mean that point. People do say "it's a retina display", and while they're technically wrong, what they mean is the definition he gave above, even if they're not directly aware of what caused the term to apply.

                    • B
                    • Buppy
                    • K2E
                    • 24 Apr 2017

                    Anonymous, 24 Apr 2017I never said that S8 did not have the best display. I was n... moreSo which technologies u think samsung should have put in s8 that are using by other company. if u can make a list of ur disappointment area of those technologies which are using by other top company in their flagships but not in s8. I also need a comparison before buying this.

                      • A
                      • AlienNextDoor
                      • JK1
                      • 24 Apr 2017

                      AnonD-270570, 24 Apr 2017You are just proving yourself more and more stupid, Retina ... moreOh my Goooooooooood!

                      That's exactly what he said!

                      Are you deliberately misundestanding him or do you need professional help?!

                        • D
                        • AnonD-270570
                        • rKW
                        • 24 Apr 2017

                        Anonymous, 24 Apr 2017You apparently have a problem with the English language. I ... moreYou are just proving yourself more and more stupid, Retina display means nothing, its nothing related to your eyes or retina, it's nothing about pixels or eye distance. It's just a marketing term like Samsung's infinity display and no other phone except iphone use this the word retina display. Samsung display with 570 ppi is much more sharper than a 326 ppi iPhone, and Samsung S8 has a qhd display while iphone 7 is still partial HD.

                          • m
                          • mathew
                          • FMY
                          • 24 Apr 2017

                          is there a difference with s8 camera and s8+ camera?

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • 6jq
                            • 24 Apr 2017

                            Buppy, 24 Apr 2017http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s8_named_best_smartp... moreI never said that S8 did not have the best display. I was not even referring to Apple , that Samsung fanboy thought that I did because he is triggered by anything non-Samsung. What I said is that S4 was the last great upgrade in S screen's quality.

                            The one that made the jump to retina level (Google it, don't make me repeat what retina quality means) and since then it's diminishing returns.

                            For example S4 vs S1 is day and night. S8 vs S4 are actually very similar when you select photo mode and don't go for the unrealistic colours that S8's screen allow.

                            It's part of the greater theme that Samsung Started with S6: small upgrades between phones and only after 3 or 4 generations are enough differences made to make upgrade tenable.

                            For example S8 is using about the same pixel density for 4th generation in a row, despite it being cr*p for VR. Samsung does not care to evolve at this point, they care to make money with as few changes as possible...

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • 6jq
                              • 24 Apr 2017

                              AnonD-270570, 24 Apr 2017I can't believe people like you exists, Retina display isn'... moreYou apparently have a problem with the English language. I called it a neologism and you thought I was talking about a new technology. A neologism is a word used that disallows you from using many words at once. Using the word retina disallows me to have to use the following "a screen where individual pixels cannot be distinguished when viewed from 11 to 12 inches using 20/20 vision" ... see it was simpler o use the wOrd retina than the above?

                              *Everybody* knew what I was talking about , only you didn't. For example you thought I was talking about a new technology while I was merely talking of a feature of the human technology. I used one word so that to not have to write 2 full posts (as I eventually did), I'm at my patience's limit. Please don't make me repeat myself at nauseum.

                              Galaxy S4 owned the first retina amoled on a popular consumer electronic device. And -no- retina was not the new technology, the screen was/is. It means that Amoled screen (with S4) reached the PPI limit, any further upgrade to it was mostly useless and actually one that even Samsung does not use (current S phones run at 1080p out of the box), pretty much proving apple's theory.

                              Improving PPI to anything more than 300 (420 in pentile stripe amoleds) is mostly useless and inadvisable, which is also why Apple didn't do it, why Samsung reverted to 1080p, why many refuse to move to QHD, why Sony jumped directly to 4k (4k may he useful for VR) and why S4 had the last great jump in screen quality (also why S screens have progressively fewer and fewer upgrades).

                                • D
                                • AnonD-634339
                                • D01
                                • 24 Apr 2017

                                Nothing about the slow-mo camera?

                                  Anonymous, 24 Apr 2017Retina display is the kind of display that allows for indiv... morehahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    • D
                                    • AnonD-270570
                                    • rKW
                                    • 24 Apr 2017

                                    Anonymous, 24 Apr 2017According to Apple, retina is still king in 2017.Yeah with 750p and 326 ppi... Why not?

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • pBC
                                      • 24 Apr 2017

                                      AnonD-270570, 23 Apr 2017There's nothing like a retina display, it's not a technolog... more#GetALife

                                        9 of 16