I decided to become the owner of a smartphone with an EDGE type form factor (simply - with a curved screen) last year, after the appearance of the flagship Galaxy S7 Edge at the discoverer of Samsung curved screens. However, the price of the novelty (49,990 and 59,990 rubles for the regular and “plus” models) “bited” - I licked my lips, passing by the windows with the coveted phone, but did not dare to lay out an amount exceeding the size of the average Moscow salary. Even the interest-free installments, with which the company actively stimulated sales, did not help me cross the line between the desire to live within my means and the desire to have a fashionable and beautiful gadget.

I became a step closer to my dream when I was offered to test this year's new product: Samsung released another flagship in the Galaxy S line, this time without an alternative with an EDGE screen - externally, S8 and S8 + differ only in size. I got the usual "eight" with a display of 5.8 inches. Plus model will be in all 6.2.

samsung galaxy S8

Design and first impressions

The streamlined shape of the device fits comfortably in the hand, the width of the device is exactly such that you can reach the icon on the opposite edge of the screen with your thumb. The body of the gadget, which is elongated compared to most of the “classmates”, is perceived without objection: the fact that holding the device in the palm of my hand, I cannot reach the upper corner of the display does not bother at all - we have long lost the habit of working on modern “shovels” with one hand. In addition, the curved screen comes to the rescue: if desired, you can enable the Edge side screen panel by setting a personal list of functions and applications that are called up with a light touch of a finger.

But on the big “borderless” screen, you can comfortably watch a widescreen movie, see more details in a photo, or read a long text with less scrolling. And in general, the design of a “smartphone without borders” (the slogan of this model) captivates at first sight with some kind of weightlessness, airiness, evoking associations with an infinity pool, where the water surface goes beyond the horizon, into infinity.

iPhone 6S Plus (5.5" screen) and Samsung Galaxy S8 (5.8" screen)

However, as is well known, any advantages are always the reverse side of disadvantages. This turned out to be true for the Samsung G8. The graceful streamlined shape is beautiful, but there is nothing to cling to (literally!), besides, the glossy surface of the back panel is slippery, so there is a danger of dropping the device, which, in fact, happened.

I tried to hold the car keys, a thin clutch and a smartphone in one hand. And my Samsung, unpacked three days ago, slipped out of my hand

The fall was at first glance not that dramatic - vertically angled down. For a device with a conventional "frame" display, this would be quite tolerable - a maximum of a scratch or a small dent on the case (I can judge by my own Honor). But the “limitless” screen is not like that: a chip and three small cracks immediately appeared on the glass, one of which, after a couple of days, “grew” by almost a third of the screen. From here practical advice fans of infinity screens: do not hesitate to pack your gadgets in durable cases-books or slips. Now I understand that the offer of the seller in the cabin, when I was looking at the "seven", to immediately buy an additional guarantee for the screen and get a cover and a protective glass - this was not just a promotion for additional options, but quite a prudent recommendation. Another “but” with regard to the screen without side frames is that sometimes the sensitive touchscreen erroneously reacts to the touch of fingers just holding the smartphone and launches unnecessary applications or changes the viewing scale unnecessarily. However, over time, you can get used to this feature, and the case put on the device should generally reduce the problem to "no".

Samsung Galaxy S8 Lock Screen Notifications

Camera

Shooting photos and videos on a new gadget turns into pure entertainment or a demonstration of the capabilities of a pro - whoever likes what. Lens masters will appreciate the built-in technologies in terms of focusing and stabilization - moving objects are clear even in the dark, you can choose the focus length for the best composition, and the most advanced will turn on the shooting mode "Pro" and adjust shutter speed, exposure and other functions incomprehensible to a mere mortal.

Lazy people like me won't be able to stop taking selfies with funny stickers - they also move! Food bloggers will love the Food shooting mode

Features such as face recognition, shooting mode selection and built-in filters can not even be mentioned: Samsung's flagship has them by default. I will only note that it is extremely convenient to control the camera: you can set up functions, switch between the front and rear cameras, change the zoom with one movement of your finger, and if necessary, the camera will take a picture at your command “Voice!”, That is, sorry, “I’m shooting!”

Galaxy S8 camera has a function to add funny stickers when taking a picture

Sound and virtual assistants

Perhaps this may seem unimportant to some, but I personally was pleased with the acoustic capabilities of the G8: in the car, wishing to listen to my favorite album and not finding a USB cable to connect to the car audio system within reach, I simply turned on the music on my smartphone. The volume and sound quality were at the level of the built-in speakers in the car!
A unique feature of the novelty is the personal assistant Bixby. As conceived by the manufacturer, it should become an intelligent virtual assistant that adapts to the owner, with voice control and augmented reality functions. It looks like Samsung has only implemented a fraction of the visual functionality of Bixby Vision so far. This is an augmented reality video camera with the ability to recognize images in the frame. The declared search for goods in my case did not work in any way (perhaps this required connected bank cards?); the search for similar photos on the Web, implemented in conjunction with Pinterest, functioned perfectly (however, it’s hard for me to imagine who, other than photo editors, could use such a function); the search for places also proved to be worthy: tired of constantly consulting a guidebook on a trip, we simply pointed the Bixby camera at a building or monument - and the smartphone displayed brief information about the object, as well as about nearby attractions, cafes and restaurants worth visiting.

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Bixby Vision Rebecca Minkoff Bag Recognition Test

Shooting subjects in Bixby Vision

Even when the bag was put on White background, Bixby Vision could not find any Rebecca Minkoff bags for sale in any online store

But with the help of Pinterest algorithms, Bixby Vision was able to find several similar bags, incl. Prada and Louis Vuitton. But no photo of the original - Rebecca Minkoff - was found

Health and Activity

Previously, I had no experience communicating with fitness applications, so the pre-installed Samsung Health impressed with its wide range of capabilities: measure the pulse, oxygen saturation, assess the level of stress and count the number of steps taken using the built-in sensors, without using additional gadgets like a fitness bracelet. In addition, the application has the ability to record the duration of sleep, various kinds physical activity, the amount and calorie content of food, blood sugar levels - however, all this will have to be done independently, in manual mode. But based on all the data received, the application formulates personal recommendations and regularly reminds you of the need to move, not forgetting to give out a “candy” - marks your personal records and gives virtual rewards-medals.

Samsung Health Data

Samsung Health Data

Built-in applications and security systems

As an editor, I was pleased with the built-in Microsoft Office package (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive) - quite often I have to open and edit documents right on the go, I immediately download the office suite to all smartphones, but here I didn’t have to, and the built-in applications The default ones work better than the self-installed ones.
Separate praise for the G8 is for its incredible security capabilities. The information on your S8 will be protected by a triple security loop. Firstly, the standard PIN code, password or graphic pattern has not gone anywhere, and secondly and thirdly, a fingerprint scanner, face recognition and iris recognition have been added to them. I saw reviews on the Web about the unfortunate location of the fingerprint scanner - next to the lens of the rear camera, but I never had problems with the supposedly “smeared” camera glass, all the pictures always came out clear, despite the fact that I used the fingerprint scanner very actively ( unlocking with it always went smoothly).

Face recognition worked intermittently: obviously, it all depends on the lighting conditions in which you take a control shot and then scan the face

Therefore, sometimes I amused my friends by freezing with a frozen expression and a gadget brought to my nose. But I failed to test unlocking the smartphone by scanning the iris. The fact is that the manufacturer immediately warns that the presence of glasses or contact lenses makes it difficult to scan the iris, and I have severe myopia. Attempts to scan the iris without glasses and lenses did not lead to success in my case - the gadget could not capture my biometric data. To the S8's credit, I must say that the control recording of the iris and subsequent unlocking in a person who does not suffer from myopia went off with a bang.

Performance

When I received an assignment from the column editor to test the gadget in the AnTuTu rating application, I got an unexpected and impressive result. The overall score (the number of points obtained when measuring the performance of a smartphone) was in the ranking in 2nd place - higher than the “typical” Galaxy S8 included in the ranking (see photo). Samsung's flagship has outdone itself!

Samsung Galaxy S8 results in AnTuTu Benchmarking System

Battery and Charging

For such a multifunctional and productive gadget, an important issue is food. In a state of relative rest - without many hours of watching movies and graphically charged games, but with constant web surfing, photo experiments and running several applications at the same time - the battery holds a charge for at least two days. A worthy result among "classmates".

Fast wired charging turned out to be fantastically fast: she promised to charge the gadget with a 28% charge level in 1 hour and 16 minutes and kept her promise

Slot for a second SIM card

Today, few people have only one mobile number - either failures of mobile operators, or new tempting Internet tariffs force users to buy a second, or even a third SIM card. I also tried to double my mobile capabilities, but I couldn’t insert two SIM cards into my smartphone at the same time, even with the help of a consultant in a communication salon: the second slot, declared as a hybrid one for an SD or SIM card, no matter how hard we tried, could not accommodate SIM card nano-format. In the end, the consultant, rummaging through the Internet, said that this modification does not provide for the installation of a second SIM card - only a memory card. I had to take my word for it.

Should you buy a Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone?

And, finally, the price is an important criterion for evaluating any new products. It is traditional for Samsung flagships - RUB 59,990 S7 Edge was also worth it when it first entered our market. However, after a few months, the price of the flagship has decreased, and there are very interesting offers in the salons. But if you are unpretentious, like Oscar Wilde, and you "enough of the best", then perhaps the novelty is worth the money.

Photo: genk.vn, Sergey Smitskiy

There are no ideal things. I have never held a perfect smartphone in my hands. Yes, the concept of "ideal" is different for everyone. But there are parameters that are important for almost everyone. This year, Samsung showed a smartphone that came close to the title for the first time in many years. the best smartphone for everybody. The company was able to make a device that will suit both a fashionista, a geek, and an ordinary user. But not everything in the Galaxy S8 is implemented perfectly.

Most of the jambs of the smartphone appear only after a couple of months of use. The Galaxy S8 has been my main smartphone for three months. I'll tell you what's wrong with this device.

1. Body wear

In a review of the older model Galaxy S8 +, I praised the case materials. Since then, nothing has changed - S8 is great in the hand: the glossy metal of the side faces is pleasant to the touch, the glass front and back looks wonderful (except that the smartphone is instantly covered with fingerprints), the assembly is perfect.

But there is one "but". Despite the use of the latest generation of Gorilla Glass 5 in the production of the device, the Galaxy S8 scratches very easily, scuffs appear on the screen, as if it were not glass, but protective plastic. I’ll make a reservation right away, I use a smartphone without a case and films - I don’t want to hide this beauty under layers of protection. I use my smartphone very carefully: I don’t throw it away, I don’t carry it in a bag with change and keys: only an empty pocket of jeans or shorts. With the same use, my old Galaxy S6 kept a perfect appearance more than a year and a half with minor scratches from rare falls on the parquet at home.

So the low resistance to external physical influences is the first obvious minus of the Galaxy S8.

2. Weak autonomy

At Samsung, after trouble with exploding Galaxy batteries Note 7 clearly decided to take the path of minimizing risks and put modest batteries in the S8 line. In the case of the regular S8 in question, this is 3000 mAh. Due to the use of a new technological process for the production of a chipset, in theory, a smartphone with an increase in performance should consume either less or the same amount of energy as a device of the previous generation. Apparently this is true, the smartphone lives as long as the Galaxy S7. Achievement? I wouldn't say. In my case, this means that during the day you need to recharge your smartphone in order to make it through the evening. It seems unacceptable to me that a device, which is also designed for a business audience, for whom it is important to stay in touch during the day, does not survive until the evening. S8 + in this regard looks like a slightly more rational choice for those who care about autonomy. One more thing before moving on to the next point. S8 is not always stable in terms of battery life. It happens when the charge leaves right before your eyes, but sometimes, on the contrary, you rejoice that the smartphone "holds the blow". And to identify what this difference in the behavior of the battery depends on, I have not been able so far.

And the S8 is very gluttonous in an inactive state. Leaving a smartphone at night with 100% charge and getting a device with 87% in the morning is not a problem. Xiaomi Mi6 () under the same conditions, in the same network, in the same place lost only 1% of the charge.

3. Work instability

Don't misunderstand me. The Galaxy S8 is one of the fastest smartphones on the market. But there is one "but". Or even two. Launching built-in apps like dialer, settings or messages takes forever compared to the competition. At the same time, these same applications are the first to be unloaded from random access memory, reloading almost every time. This negatively affects the experience of using a smartphone. This is especially disappointing when, for example, the much more budget Huawei Nova 2 loads system applications faster and keeps them in memory for days. Sad.

The second "but" - after a couple of days of active use, the smartphone starts to slow down: scrolling on Facebook or Instagram comes with obvious jerks, the transition between applications freezes the device for a fraction of a second. This is not a problem if you regularly restart your smartphone. But be honest, how often do you do it? That's what we're talking about.

But what about the pluses?

Galaxy S8 with all its cons will remain my main smartphone after this article. There are several good reasons for this.

1. Camera

You can complain for a long time about the lack of a second camera module in the S8 (the upcoming Galaxy Note 8 should fix this "flaw"), but it would be foolish to deny that the camera in the S8 shoots great. 64 gigabytes of expandable memory provokes more frequent launch of the camera. And at the same time take both photos and videos. And the video on the S8, especially in FullHD mode, 60 frames per second, turns out to be excellent - the stabilization works effectively and the stereo sound recording is good (hello, iPhone with its mono recording). It is pleasant to watch photos and videos not only from the screen of a smartphone, but also from a computer: the quality is at its best. See for yourself in our photo gallery.

By the way, together with the Galaxy S8, I started testing a convenient external flash drive with USB Type-C. I got the San Disk Dual USB Drive Type-C 32 GB model. A convenient thing, especially when so many smartphones with USB Type-C pass through you: I inserted a USB flash drive, threw off test shots, immediately uploaded it to a computer or main smartphone (the flash drive slides out in two directions: on one USB Type-C, on the other, a regular input for computer: Type-A). Very comfortably. Colleagues are already interested in a similar solution for smartphones with micro-USB. But the owners of the iPhone with 16 GB of memory on board were most interested.

2. Screen

Until you try the screen with the new 18:9 ratio (in the case of the S8 18.5:9), you will not understand all the charms of the stretched format. All content in the browser, in Instagram feeds, Facebook received a significant increase in height: much more information is simply placed on the screen. This is especially noticeable in comparison. You take a smartphone with a classic aspect ratio and you understand how those extra millimeters of the screen are missing. There is a picture in the gallery that fully demonstrates the difference using the Galaxy S8 and HTC U11 as an example. You can write a whole story about the brightness and saturation of the Galaxy S8 display, I have already said that from this point of view, the Samsung display is unrivaled. I especially want to note the behavior in the sun. All information on the screen is readable, the colors are distinguishable even in the brightest light, with a direct hit of the rays on the display. Impressive.

3. Sound and headphones

As a person who is very impressed with high-quality sound, it has always been important for me that the device that is always at hand (for many years it has been a smartphone that replaced the Sony player) can play music well. And that is why the complete headphones from smartphones have always remained sealed in the box. But with the advent of the Galaxy S8, the situation has changed. Not only does the smartphone play music two heads better than the previous generations of the flagship Galaxy, but the bundled headphones put my favorite Sennheiser plugs on the shelf gathering dust. Clear balanced sound, clear bass: a pleasure to listen to any genre. And the heavier tracks (which I mainly listen to) do not turn into mush at any volume. Thanks to Samsung and their cooperation with Harman for great sound!

conclusions

There is no perfect smartphone, but there are attempts by manufacturers to create such a device. Manufacturers improve their flagships every year, and Samsung made the strongest claim this year with the S8. Is this the best smartphone on the market? On the basis of properties, perhaps yes. Is it possible to find an analogue, but cheaper? You can - examples of LG G6, One Plus 5, HTC U11, Xiaomi Mi6 confirm this. Another question is, what do users compare these smartphones with? The answer is simple - with the Galaxy S8 and iPhone 7. And this indicates the undisputed leadership of Samsung and Apple in the smartphone market (at least today). Let's see what these leaders will bring us in the coming months. We are waiting for the Galaxy Note 8 and the new iPhone.

Specifications

OS Version: Android 7.0, Samsung Experience Version 8.1

Dimensions (WxHxD): 73.4x159.5x8.1 mm

Screen:

AMOLED, touch, multi-touch, capacitive

Diagonal: 5.8 inches, curved screen, rounded edges

Resolution: 2960x1440

Number of pixels per inch (PPI): 531

Cameras:

Main camera:

12 MP, LED flash, autofocus, OIS, F/1.7 aperture, Dual Pixel technology, RAW support

Max. video resolution: 3840x2160

Max. Video frame rate: 30fps or 60fps when shooting FullHD

Front-camera:

8 MP, autofocus

Connection:

SIM card type: 2 nano SIM, alternate work

GSM 900/1800/1900, 3G, 4G LTE, LTE-A Cat. 16 VoLTE

Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, USB, ANT+, NFC

Satellite navigation: GPS/GLONASS/BeiDou

Performance:

Processor: Exynos 8895

Built-in memory: 64 GB + micro-SD up to 256 GB (instead of the 2nd SIM card)

RAM: 4 GB

Battery:

Battery capacity: 3000 mAh

Charging connector type: USB Type-C

Wireless charging function

Quick charge function

Sensors:

Light, proximity, hall, gyroscope, compass, barometer, fingerprint reader, iris scanner

Peculiarities:

Corning Gorilla Glass 5 front and back

Moisture and dust protection according to IP68 standard

Support for Samsung Pay (NFC+MST)

Audio - UHQ 32-bit &DSD support

3.5 mm headphone jack

Here you look at all the advantages of the Galaxy S8 and can hardly restrain the impulse to run to the store for a brand new smartphone. But when you find out its cost, you start to wonder - is it really worth buying S8? Consider these, as well as other pros and cons of this acquisition.

Is the Galaxy S8 a bargain?

For those who want to buy a Galaxy S8 and don't know how to justify this action (just kidding :)), here is a list of the positives of Samsung's flagship for 2017:

All of the above is really cool. And may push you to buy a Samsung flagship in 2017, but…

Buying a Galaxy S8 - a dubious idea?

Unfortunately, in this big barrel of honey, there is also a small fly in the ointment. Here are the cons (or perhaps compromises) that you have to put up with when purchasing the Galaxy S8:

Of course, of all the “problems”, the most significant is the price - not everyone can give such an amount, even for the top-end device.

In any case, we hope that after looking at the pros and cons listed in the article, it will be easier for you to decide whether to buy the Galaxy S8 at all or look for something better ...

P.S. Although ... is there any gadget at all - a gadget that is currently better than the Samsung Galaxy S8? Write in the comments!

P.S.S. Maybe we forgot to mention some good or bad feature of the Samsung S8? Also, do not be too lazy to "scribble" a couple of words in the comments!

We have the impressive Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. It was very difficult to resist and not leave a request for pre-order immediately. The company is talking about impressive pre-order volumes. But has everyone forgotten that there is no need to hurry in this matter, especially when we are talking about the flagship smartphone from Samsung. We do not recommend rushing to buy any smartphone and we do not recommend rushing to buy Galaxy S8.

The first thing that should make you think before you decide to wait to place an order for the Galaxy S8 is the story of the Galaxy Note 7. Of course, the likelihood of Samsung smartphones starting to explode again is small, and we do not want this story to repeat. Nevertheless, it is very revealing and demonstrates the likelihood of detecting a serious flaw in the device. Defects are often found in the first batches of various devices from a variety of manufacturers.

Believe me, there will be those who buy a smartphone and share their first impressions. If the device has problems and flaws, it is better not to encounter them. And for this you just need to wait for the reviews. There are already such reviews, but we will be able to understand the seriousness of the problems only after the release of the device to the masses. Consider maybe you don't need a device with one of the problems listed below.

New design

Galaxy S8 looks fresh and good. It has a long display, touch buttons and a fingerprint scanner located on the back of the smartphone. Mike Gikas of Consumer Reports said that when you try to unlock your phone, you will constantly bump into the camera, leaving fingerprints on the glass. The camera will have to be constantly wiped. In addition, he notes that unlocking the phone can be extremely inconvenient for left-handed people. Jessica Dolcourt of CNET came to the same conclusion.

Of course, there are other unlocking methods, such as face recognition. It is true that this method of protection is easily deceived with a simple photograph.

Finally, returning to the elongated large display, it is worth noting that not all games and applications are designed to work with this aspect ratio. Long live the black stripes!

Will Bixby come out?

Bixby voice assistant, but not with the Galaxy S8. For some reason, Samsung introduced it at the presentation of the smartphone, but did not mention that the voice assistant will become available with a subsequent update. It won't work on Galaxy S8 launch. This means that the smartphone is ready, and some of its key features that make it desirable are not yet at the stage where they can be shown to customers.

There are other features that the Galaxy S8 could have but won't get. For example, a dual camera and a fingerprint scanner built into the screen. Surely they will appear in future smartphones of the company, but in the case of the Galaxy S8, Samsung simply did not have time. Was she in a hurry again? We already know how such a rush once ended.

Conclusion

There is only one conclusion. We just have to wait. You can wait until the Galaxy S8 is exactly the way it was shown at the presentation. You can wait to make sure that there are no serious problems with the smartphone. We can wait for user feedback, which will be able to say whether everything worked out for Samsung the way it intended. You can hurry up, taking a smartphone one of the first. We just don't want you to be disappointed with your purchase.