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Galaxy S8 Review: Samsung Spoils Perfection

This article is more than 6 years old.

Just look at it.

Samsung has launched the Galaxy S8 and it might be the most beautiful smartphone ever made. It appears to be something a hyper-intelligent alien race accidentally dropped and we now get to study it. But under the microscope you’ll find it is clearly and frustratingly human, its perfection marred by series of bizarre and occasionally facepalm-worthy flaws.

The Galaxy S8 is Samsung at its most Samsung-y. It’s a heartbreaking work of staggering genius...

The Galaxy S8 changes smartphone design, forever

Gordon Kelly

Design - Samsung Invents A Whole New Game

There is no other place to start a Galaxy S8 review than on the outside because Samsung has created a truly stunning, maybe even iconic, design. It feels like - and probably is - the future of smartphones.

Only part of this comes down to the display - a massive 5.8-inch panel Samsung has somehow crowbarred into a device little larger or heavier than a 4.7-inch iPhone 7 - but I’ll get to this shortly. First it is important to discuss the overall build because Samsung has pulled off something that’s more than just another big-screen-small-bezels trick like the LG G6 and Xiaomi MiMix.

Gordon Kelly

Whereas those two are solid, angular and fairly heavy devices, at 155g the Galaxy S8 is only 3g (0.1 oz) heavier than the 5.1-inch Galaxy S7 and 17g (0.6oz) heavier than the iPhone 7. And because it’s almost as narrow as an iPhone 7 (68.1 mm vs 67.1 mm) it actually feels small in hand. Pretty much anyone should be able to reach from side to side which makes typing a joy (note: switch to Gboard ASAP) and redefines what we think of as a big phone.

  • Galaxy S8 - 148.9 x 68.1 x 8.0 mm ( 5.86 x 2.68 x 0.31-inch), 155g (5.36 oz)
  • Galaxy S7 - 142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9 mm (5.61 x 2.74 x 0.31-inch), 152g (5.36 oz)
  • LG G6 - 148.9 x 71.9 x 7.9 mm (5.86 x 2.83 x 0.31-inch), 163 g (5.75 oz)
  • iPhone 7 - 138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1 mm (5.44 x 2.64 x 0.28-inch), 138 g (4.87 oz)

Aiding this are the curves. Gorgeous tapered edges make the Galaxy S8 feel thinner than its already skinny 8mm depth and the near-seamless finish between the chassis and screen, ports and speaker grills make it feel more like something created in nature - perhaps a water-worn stone - than a gadget made of up numerous components.

Samsung’s design prowess hasn’t just overtaken Apple, it has been lapped.

But the Galaxy S8 is not perfect. For me the phone is too tall. Reaching across the screen may be a doddle, but the top corners are a big stretch and I think Samsung would’ve been better putting in a 5.5-inch display and making something truly one-handed in all corners. It also has too many flaws rooted in vanity.

The position of the Galaxy S8 fingerprint sensor to the right of the camera is ridiculous

Gordon Kelly

Samsung’s obsession with its own software means the volume buttons are positioned too high up so a dedicated, non-remappable Bixby button (more later)can be crammed in. Meanwhile the fingerprint sensor is in an absurd position next to the rear camera which is hard to reach and will make you repeatedly smudge the camera lens. “Symmetry [with the LED flash]” was the reason given to me for this at the official launch, and while I appreciate the move was probably forced (an sensor integrated into the screen fell through last minute) prioritising “symmetry” over usability for such a core feature is vanity gone mad.

And yet elsewhere substance abounds. There’s a headphone jack (hooray!) at the bottom (double hooray!), IP68 waterproofing, a microSD slot, the rear camera is almost flush with the chassis and we finally have USB Type-C after the Galaxy S7 stuck with microUSB last year. The single mono external speaker is still bang-average (Samsung should’ve stolen the iPhone 7 idea of amplifying the earpiece for stereo sound) but it’s louder than the rubbish one on the Galaxy S7.

Samsung has retained the headphone jack, but also sadly just a mono external speaker

Gordon Kelly

So yes the Galaxy S8 makes rival smartphones look like antiques, but Samsung also forgot a few basics along the way.

  • Pros: Jaw dropping looks, class leading build quality, compact and durable design, usable one-handed
  • Cons: Badly positioned volume controls, idiotically positioned fingerprint sensor, pointless Bixby button and a meek mono speaker

Display - A Real Crowd Pleaser

If the Galaxy S8 design walks the walk, then the display in a polyglot in talking the talk. As is almost an annual tradition, Samsung has once again created the best display ever seen in a smartphone.

The 5.8-inch OLED panel is jaw droppingly bright, razor sharp and it has incredible contrast. Yes, the size helps to make it striking, but that just piles on the pressure for it to deliver and boy does it ever.

The Galaxy S8's display seamlessly moulds into its chassis

Gordon Kelly

And yet, like so much of the Galaxy S8, it isn’t quite perfect. For starters Samsung actually downgrades the native QHD+ (2960 x 1440 pixels) to 1080p out the box. This should be fine for most users, but you’ll need to push it to the full 1440p (Settings > Display > Screen resolution) if you want to see it’s absolute best. Why did Samsung do this? You’ll want to read the battery life section.

Secondly the unusual 18.5:9 aspect ratio means many videos and apps don’t fit, leaving black bars at the sides. For apps a tweak (Settings > Display > Full screen apps) will address this, but video is less forgiving. Samsung’s solution is a toggle button to zoom in, but this just cuts off the top and bottom of the picture. If other smartphones make the same move then content will adapt, but it’ll take time.

Gordon Kelly

  • Pros: A class leading display, jaw droppingly bright and sharp
  • Cons: Resolution downgraded by default to boost battery life, aspect ratio can cause display problems in apps and video

Performance - The Fast Slow Phone

Galaxy S8 performance is a familiar contraction.

Inside Samsung has supplied the very latest and greatest cutting edge hardware (a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset in the US and a Samsung Exynos 8895 chipset in Europe and Asia, plus 4GB RAM) and it breezes through any game you’ll find on the Play Store without breaking a sweat. It’s also fast to open apps and is generally very responsive.

But then you’ll still find the same-old, same-old Samsung problems: moments of judder and dropped frames of animation. This often happens during the most mundane of tasks, such as swiping left on the homescreen to access Bixby and scrolling it up and down. You’ll also find stutter scrolling through some web pages.

In truth the new Exynos and Snapdragon chips aren’t greatest generational leaps (10% faster CPU, 21% faster GPU) and a limited edition with 6GB of RAM is an Asia-only release. But this isn’t a hardware issue, it’s a coding one and it remains despite some aggressive memory management that quickly discards apps and web pages forcing them to often reload when you go back.

As such while, you will find the Galaxy S8 tops most synthetic benchmarks (and there’s gigabit LTE, WiGig and Bluetooth 5.0 thrown in), it isn’t remotely as silky as an iPhone 7 or even Google’s Pixel, which uses a Snapdragon 821 chip. And given Samsung phones are notorious for slowing down over time (my wife’s Galaxy S7 behaves like an asthmatic bulldozer unless you factory reset it every 3-6 months) I’m concerned there will be significant decline.

All of which brings us to...

Software - ‘Improving’ Is Not Good Enough

TouchWiz has been the butt of many jokes over the years and with good reason: it has been a bloated, inefficient, mess. Well the good news with the Galaxy S8 is that TouchWiz may still be bloated and inefficient, but it’s no longer a mess.

TouchWiz has never looked better, but it is still bloated

Gordon Kelly

At long last Samsung has found a consistent design language for TouchWiz. It may still use someone crude colours and have no good reason to exist when Android’s stock Material Design is superior - but this needless respray has never looked more cohesive. Unfortunately it has also never been more bloated.

Thanks to a notable reduction in pre-installed Google apps like Calendar, Gboard, Keep, Clock and Calculator there are only about 40 pre-installed apps on the Galaxy S8 out the box (excluding carrier-specific bloat). Yes, “only” was a joke. You can’t uninstall them either - even the Microsoft ones like Skype, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneDrive. Microsoft paid for them to be on there so tough.

And Samsung really wants you to use its apps. Search for ‘browser’ in the app drawer and only Samsung’s ‘Internet’ web browser will show up, not Chrome. Search for ‘pictures’ and only the Samsung Gallery will show up, not Google Photos.

TouchWiz is still full of Samsung apps, so get used to prioritised search results and duplication

Gordon Kelly

But are some Samsung apps worth using? This generation’s headline feature Bixby certainly isn’t - at least in its current form. This inferior Google Now/Google Goggles clone doesn’t even have voice support out the box (this will change) and it does little other than push some news headlines, aggregate app content and push you towards Samsung software you probably won’t use like Samsung Notes, Samsung Calendar and Samsung Reminder - which all have better Google equivalents.

Bixby is very limited (at launch) and is little more than a content aggregator

Gordon Kelly

Bixby in its Google Goggles mode delivers mixed results

Gordon Kelly

At times I wonder if there is a job more pointless than being a Samsung app developer.

And yet away from apps there are some good tools. Smart screen capture with its scrolling, annotatable and even gif captures is great (catch up Android), multitasking was very useful until Android N did it and window-in-window video has beaten its implementation in Android O to the punch.

Gordon Kelly

The price of admission: 16 of your 64GB of native storage. For me the price is too high (it’s about 9GB on a Google Pixel with a lot more useful Google apps pre-installed), but this is the Samsung way. The toll of using the latest and greatest hardware on Android.

The Galaxy S8 is already running out of date Android software

Gordon Kelly

To me it feels like buying the world’s best laptop and being forced to run a sabotaged version of Windows on it (Android 7.0 btw even though Android 7.1 is six months old) which takes away some of the fun. There’s a choice here of course, and you will keep saying to yourself: “But this is a really gorgeous piece of hardware…”

  • Pros - TouchWiz has never looked better, Smart Capture is great, It’s fast (for now)
  • Cons - Bloatware is getting worse, less smooth than the iPhone 7 and Google Pixel, Bixby is pointless (for now), Android 7.0!

Camera - Better But Not The Best

I’ll cut to the chase: the Galaxy S8 does not reclaim the smartphone camera crown from the Google Pixel, but it does get so close you probably won’t care about the differences.

So what did Samsung do to close the gap? The benefits aren’t primarily in hardware. On the back Samsung has used a slightly upgraded module compared to the Galaxy S7 (Sony and Samsung chips vary by region), but the perfectly good 12 megapixel resolution and f/1.7 aperture remain. Instead the big emphasis is on upgraded image processing - which is Google’s forte with the Pixel.

The Galaxy S8 (left) has closed the gap on the Google Pixel (right)

Gordon Kelly

As you’ll see above the results are very close in daylight. Samsung still has a tendency to oversaturate (greens in particular) while the Pixel gets the grey of the stone more correct, but overall shot composure is extremely close. If I’m being picky (and that’s my job) there’s fractionally more detail to the brickwork in low light with the Pixel and it doesn’t over sharpen the house at the end of the shot (another Samsung trait), but these are virtually indistinguishable photos.

Where there is slightly more distance between the Galaxy S8 and the Pixel is when shooting into bright light. In this shot of the tree, the sun is just off camera and the Pixel does a better job of capturing the light blue sky, while the Galaxy S8 has blown it out. But to show you how far these phones are ahead of the pack, LG’s perfectly decent G6 cannot handle this demanding light at all.

LG G6 (left), Galaxy S8 (centre) Google Pixel (right)

Gordon Kelly

And Samsung has really closed the gap when it comes to low light photography. In this street shot the Galaxy S8 balances multiple light sources (streetlight, entry light, moonlight) just as well as the Pixel and aspects of the photo like the bicycle are actually sharper. Where it loses out is in the detail and colour of the brickwork and it struggles to pick up how blue the sky was on this occasion, but which photo is better is a matter of personal taste.

Galaxy S8 (left), Pixel (right)

Gordon Kelly

As for video, I’d give Samsung the win. Both phones are exceptional in daylight with the Pixel’s gyroscope-based image stabilisation keeping up with and even outdoing the optical image stabilisation in the Galaxy S8, but the Pixel’s video falters in very low light - particularly if shooting when walking. So for photographers the Pixel edges it, but for those more focused on video you should opt for the Galaxy S8.

Things also stay close when it comes to the front facing camera. Here Samsung has made more substantial hardware changes, ditching the 5MP module for an 8MP module on par with the Pixel and sporting a faster aperture. The Pixel still edges this for me as it processes colours more accurately (the Galaxy S8 is oversaturated on the back yet a little washed out on the front), but the Galaxy S7 wasn’t at the races with its front facing camera this year so this is a big step up. You'll also find what amounts to a blatant rip-off of Snapchat filters, but I suspect they'll prove very popular.

The Galaxy S8's front facing camera has improved and Snapchat-style effects will be a crowd pleaser

Gordon Kelly

And the front camera has one more trick up its sleeve: it also works as a security feature for iris and facial recognition. Skip the latter because you can fool it with a photo, but the former is very secure and most of the time it is incredibly fast. The problem is it also struggles at times for no good reason, notably if the sun is behind you as shown below:

The Galaxy S8 iris scanner is very fast, but erratic

Gordon Kelly

As such the failure rate is just high enough to make you giddy when it works, but still reliant on (and therefore cursing) the badly positioned fingerprint sensor. This is especially true when it isn’t convenient to hold your phone up for iris recognition before unlocking it (such as surreptitious phone checking in meetings, crowded public transport, etc).

  • Pros - Very close to the Pixel’s gold standard, much improved low light photography, class leading video
  • Cons - Tendency to blow out the sky in very bright light, colours oversaturated on the back and washed out on the front, 2017 iPhone and Pixel 2 may make bigger generational leaps, mercurial iris scanner

Battery Life - Self Inflicted Caution

You’ll be spotting a trend at this point. Where the Galaxy S8 excels it is because Samsung has truly broken the mould and delivered stunning innovation. Where the Galaxy S8 suffers is where Samsung has done something knowingly silly: the Bixby button, the fingerprint reader location, the bloatware. And this self inflicted wound is again at the heart of the Galaxy S8’s battery life.

You’ll spot the problem from the specification sheet: a 3,000 mAh battery. This is no larger than the Galaxy S7 battery despite the Galaxy S8’s much larger screen. Samsung has clearly played it safe after the Galaxy Note 7 debacle.

As such Galaxy S8 battery life is, well, okay. It’s better than it should be in the circumstances, but you’ll find yourself getting nervous towards the end of the day if you’re a heavy user. You’ll also find Samsung only achieves this through the aforementioned aggressive memory management and screen resolution downgrade. Unlike the Galaxy S7, the Galaxy S8 can’t last a full day at its native resolution.

Galaxy S8 battery life is disappointing and the battery meter estimations are nonsense

Gordon Kelly

But there are also upsides. The Galaxy S8 charges quickly, not necessarily any faster than the Galaxy S7, but 15 minutes will give you circa 20% battery life, almost 50% in around 30 minutes and a full charge takes about 80 minutes. Wireless charging isn’t as quick, but it still charges far faster than an iPhone.

And hopefully this battery will deliver stamina in a different sense: Samsung claims every Galaxy S8 (and Galaxy S8 Plus) battery will degrade only 5% on its first year compared to 20% with the Galaxy S7. The company also says its new ‘8 Point Quality Check’ makes it the safest battery in the industry. It really had no other choice.

  • Pros: Better than it should be, fast wired and wireless charging, promises of long term safety and performance
  • Cons: Disappointing battery capacity, reduced resolution required for all day stamina, generationally a backwards step

Value - Beauty Doesn’t Come Cheap

Given the Galaxy S8 is such a head turner you won’t be surprised to find out Samsung has raised its asking price by about $100 compared to the Galaxy S7:

  • Galaxy S8 - $750 / €799 / £689

There’s a further $100 premium on the Galaxy S8 Plus, but you do get perks with both models: 64GB of native storage has replaced 32GB in the Galaxy S7 and Samsung bundles AKG headphones it values at $100. The latter is great if you need a decent pair of headphones, a needless expense if you don’t.

As an aside it frustrates me that Samsung continues to ignore high capacity internal storage options like Apple provides for its iPhones. MicroSD (hidden inside the sim card slot) is the reason why, but as Samsung is a storage manufacturer (and supplies Apple with 128GB and 256GB modules) this is a missed opportunity to me.

The Galaxy S8 looks and feels like the future of smartphones

Gordon Kelly

Verdict - Beauty, Brains And Deliberate Flaws

When I think of the perfect smartphone, the Galaxy S8 comes very close. Its design sets this phone apart from anything we have seen to date, it’s slicker than the LG G6 and more stylish and practical and the Xiaomi MiMix. This is the future of phones.

Behind this beauty is also brains. It’s durable, water resistant, has expandable storage and a really good camera. It fast charges, wireless charges, scans your iris and has both cutting edge chipsets and connectivity.

But then there’s the stuff Samsung deliberately got wrong: the fingerprint sensor, the Bixby button, the bloatware and app duplication, the old version of Android, the miserly battery capacity. These things take the shine off what would otherwise be a class redefining phone and it leaves me with the frustrating feeling Samsung has cracked how to make the perfect smartphone, but self interest will prevent it from ever doing so.

Make no mistake, the Galaxy S8 is probably the best smartphone on the market (the height of the Galaxy S8 Plus will polarise opinion) but with looks like this it should’ve won by a mile…

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