Samsung Galaxy S8 And S8 Plus review

Positives

Incredible & comfortable design
Outstanding Super AMOLED display
Fast performance
Good all-round camera
Bixby Voice Assistant has potential
Best in class in-box headphones
Acceptable battery life
Front-facing camera has autofocus
Plenty of customization options

Negatives

Odd fingerprint sensor location
Bixby is limited and needs work
No major improvements to the camera
Iris recognition is hit and miss
Bottom-firing speaker is average at best

Rating

Battery

8.5

Display

9.5

Camera

9.0

Performance

8.5

Software

8.8

Design

9.3

Bottom Line

8.9

Galaxy S8

by Samsung

Samsung's latest flagship has all the hallmarks of being one of the best phones of 2017, with its excellent design and outstanding display. However, its voice assistant needs a lot of polish to leave its current beta state. It might not be the absolute best phone, but as with previous years, it's likely to be the best phone for most users.

The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge might have been two of the best phones of 2017, but the well-documented issues faced by the Galaxy Note 7 have cast a shadow over Samsung’s mobile efforts. From two fantastic smartphones to a phone that would have been near-perfect had it not spontaneously caught fire, 2016 was a year to remember and forget for Samsung, and its next flagship was always going to come under intense scrutiny.

Ahead of its Unpacked event last month, Samsung flooded media with advertising designed to begin the painstaking process of rebuilding the customer faith that took years to accumulate. Then came the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus, two phones that push the boundaries further than ever before, but do they offer enough?

In previous years, Samsung’s Galaxy S flagship(s) would almost certainly be the best phones of the year, but this year LG, Huawei, and Sony have all bought their very best to the market, and Samsung’s issues have presented a rare chink in its armor. Do the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus continue past trends of being the best Android smartphones? Find out in our Galaxy S8 review!

About this review:

To bring our readers, and viewers, the most comprehensive review experience possible, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus were reviewed by two different members of Android Authority. While Joshua Vergara put together the video linked above, I, Nirave Gondhia, put together the in-depth written review encompassing both of our opinions to provide the definitive Android Authority view on Samsung’s latest flagship.

We have both been testing international versions of the Galaxy S8 with model number G950F on build number ending 1AQC9 running Android 7.0.1, with the March 2017 security updates. Our usage with the Galaxy S8 Plus (model number G955U on build number ending 1AQD9) was limited to only a few days and we’ll be following up this review with additional testing around the battery, display, and performance in the coming days.

Design

Over the past few years, Samsung has transitioned away from its plastic past to a refinement of its glass and metal build, and the Galaxy S8 presents the future of this design language. There’s two sizes to the Galaxy S8 but neither comes with an Edge moniker, with Samsung calling its taller curved screens the Infinity Display. The focus with this year’s phones isn’t the curved display however, but more so how Samsung has managed to squeeze so much screen real estate into the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus. Thanks to the switch to a 18.5:9 format and the removal of the home button and Samsung branding on the front, we have phones that feel a lot smaller than they should.

Think back to previous phones with displays of 5.5-inches or larger and they felt great at the time, but even the Galaxy Note 7 feels positively large compared to Samsung’s latest flagships. The 5.8-inch display inside the Galaxy S8 comes inside a body that’s slightly taller but narrower than the Galaxy S7 (148.9 x 68.1 mm vs 142.4 x 69.6 mm). Similarly, the Galaxy S8 Plus is a little taller and wider than the Galaxy S7 Edge (159.5 x 73.4 mm vs 150.9 x 72.6 mm) despite a screen that’s 0.7 inches smaller.

Both phones are a little thicker at 8 mm and 8.1 mm respectively, but the difference is negligible compared to the much better in-hand experience. The added screen real estate sees a bump in the weight as well, at 155 grams and 173 grams respectively, but this helps the Galaxy S8 feel more premium in the hand.

Moving around the phone, the volume keys are on the left and the power button on the right, as with previous Samsung phones. The left sees the addition of a dedicated shortcut for Bixby and Bixby Home, Samsung’s new AI assistant, which we’ll touch on later. Up top is the SIM card tray while on the bottom, you’ve got the headphone jack, USB Type-C port, and single bottom-firing speaker.

The back is where Samsung has made arguably the worst design decision on the Galaxy S8; removing the home button means Samsung had to find a place for the fingerprint sensor and they chose to combine it with the heart rate monitor next to the rear camera. While other OEMs have chosen to put fingerprint sensors in the center of the device, Samsung’s decision means it can have its logo right underneath the camera, but as a result, the fingerprint sensor is cumbersome to use.

The position doesn’t feel natural and on the regular Galaxy S8, it’s a stretch with large hands, while on the Galaxy S8 Plus, it’s awkward unless you have very large hands. As you’ll often be fumbling blindly to find the fingerprint sensor, you may end up with fingerprints on the camera lens itself, so Samsung has included a reminder when you launch the camera to wipe it down.

Being forward-thinking and attempting to redefine the meaning of a big phone isn’t without its challenges, and while Samsung has made an excellent attempt, the location of the fingerprint sensor does render a very good sensor near-useless. However, thanks to other biometric options, it’s a small compromise for what is one of the best-designed smartphones ever made.

Thanks to a taller screen, the removal of the home button, and bezels that are slimmer than ever, Samsung has managed to put a bigger screen in a footprint that’s barely bigger than last year. Samsung is known for making stunning smartphones and the Galaxy S8 is its best yet, ushering in a new era of smartphone design and laying down a marker for Samsung’s rivals.

Display

All of this leads to what we’ve come to expect from Samsung displays – an extremely vivid Super AMOLED display that punches colors harder than before and is a joy to use. Rated as one of the first HDR-capable smartphones, the Galaxy S8 screen ups the brightness and color saturation of the screen when viewing content like YouTube and apps that support HDR, such as Netflix. It’s a noticeable improvement when switching in and out of the app, but it means that the Galaxy S8 offers the best mobile entertainment experience on a smartphone to date