Samsung recently unveiled the Galaxy S8 with much fan fare and rightly so, there is a lot riding on the new Samsung flagship. The Galaxy S8 has to make sure that people forget the disaster that was the Note 7 while also making sure everyone gets hyped. Well, so far, it seems the S8 has succeeded. There is a lot of hype around the S8, plus, everyone only has good things to say about the Samsung device. But is everything great about the Galaxy S8? Well, I have been using the Galaxy S8 (priced at $724.99) as my daily driver for more than two weeks now, so here is my review of the Galaxy S8.

Before we get started with the review, let’s take a look at the specifications of the Galaxy S8:

The Galaxy S8 comes in a box that is very similar to what Samsung offered with the S7 and S6. Here are the contents of the box:

Design and Hardware

Chances are, you will buy the Galaxy S8 for its amazing design. We have the Midnight Black version of the S8 and there’s no doubt that the S8 is a stunner. In fact, most people had a “wow” reaction when I showed them the device. The bezel-less design looks nothing like the previous flagships. There are no hardware keys for the navigation buttons, which is something I really like and it also makes up for a beautiful seamless front. There’s no Samsung branding on the front either, which also adds to the good looks. The metal frame and the glass back also make up for a one hell of a gorgeous looking device.

The bezel-less design also brings up a few changes from last year’s S7. The fingerprint scanner is on the back, and it’s awkward. Well, I’ll get back to it later. Plus, the device is narrower and taller, which makes the device much easier to hold because it’s really slender. However, this also makes reaching for the notification shade a tough task.

The Galaxy S8 will sell like hot cakes and most people buying it will get it for the design and the display. Well, the great design of the Galaxy S8 is complemented by the gorgeous display. As with previous Samsung flagships, there’s a Super AMOLED panel here and it’s the best display I have ever seen. First off, the display has rounded corners and thanks to edge curved design, it feels awesome when you have to use a swipe gesture from the sides. It’s mesmerizing really.

However, watching videos and movies on the gorgeous display is a treat. The display is sharp and offers vibrant colors and deep blacks, something that’s expected of AMOLED displays. Plus, as with Samsung, the display brings a little extra saturation but it looks very pleasing to the eye. The display also offers decent maximum brightness and great minimum brightness and the sunlight visibility of the display is amazing, one of the best I have seen. There’s also the very cool Always-on feature, which shows you notifications, along with other info.

Samsung flagships have always featured cameras that go toe to toe with the iPhones and the S8 is no exception. The S8 packs in a 12 MP Dual Pixel rear camera with an aperture of f/1.7, OIS, phase detection autofocus and an LED flash. Actually, the rear camera on the S8 is pretty similar to what the South Korean giant offered with the S7 but it’s still one of the best smartphone cameras right now.

Plus, the Samsung camera app offers a ton of options and modes to play with. Along with the usual shooting modes, the Samsung app brings a Pro mode, which brings manual controls for ISO, shutter speed, white balance, focus etc. Plus, there are tons of filters, and Snapchat like masks for the front camera. I like the manual controls, but the masks, not so much.

Performance

In the US and other western countries, the Galaxy S8 is powered by the latest and greatest Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor with Adreno 530 GPU, while other countries get the S8, powered by the Exynos 8895 processor with Mali-G71 MP20 GPU. The device features 4 gigs of RAM, which is surprising, considering Samsung’s very own C9 Pro comes with 6 GB RAM. Having said that, the device is pretty snappy.

When it comes to benchmarks, the S8 tops the list when it comes to multi-core performance. However, the iPhone 7’s A10 Fusion chip is still the one to beat when it comes to single-core performance. When it comes to AnTuTu scores, the iPhone 7 beats the S8 by a slight margin. Talking about the graphics prowess, the iPhone 7 is ahead of the S8 but there are a lot of factors here. The S8’s Mali GPU has to push out QHD Plus pixels.

  • The Samsung Experience UI

I have never really been a fan of Samsung’s TouchWiz UI and when I started out with the S8, I had kind of made up my mind that’s it going to suck. Well, I’m glad to tell you that’s not the case. I have been pleasantly surprised by the new “Samsung Experience UI” on the Galaxy S8. There are a few gimmicks here and there but I’m happy that I don’t need to install the Nova Launcher on the S8. The home screen is inspired by the Pixel Launcher, with a swipe up to open the app drawer. Plus, a swipe up in the app drawer brings you back to the home screen. Other than the new Samsung launcher, there are new icons with a wireframe design, which look pretty nice to me. However, if you’d like a stock Android look, there are various themes, wallpapers, icon packs and even different types of always on displays to download from the Samsung Store.

The Samsung Experience UI

The S8 also comes with its own native apps, like phone, contacts, messages, camera, clock etc. and they are pretty capable. While there has been a lot of debate over should Samsung really be making these apps when Google already offers them. Well, I don’t mind Samsung apps and they certainly don’t ruin the experience. All the Samsung apps have a bright UI, which makes them look great. Also, they are all feature packed. I have been using them and I like some apps more than their Google counterparts.

Bixby

The most hyped software feature of the S8 has to be Bixby. In fact, Samsung was so confident of the AI assistant that it put a dedicated button to launch it. This button only launches Bixby and while ways to remap it have come popped out, Samsung has made sure that they don’t work. So, is Bixby worth a dedicated button? Well, No! Out of the box, Bixby does not even have the voice features yet, which is surprising. There’s the Google Now like Bixby page on the home screen that brings you cards on weather, alarms, reminders, news etc. It also works with your social media accounts to bring you personalized cards. So, how is it unique from the Google Now page? Well, I don’t know.

When it comes to the audio performance, the S8 comes with a rear mounted speaker and it’s pretty decent. It’s louder than the likes of iPhone 7, 7 Plus and Pixel and brings decent clarity. However, it does sound one-directional because there’s one speaker. On the phone calls front, the S8 is great, as you’d expect from a modern day flagship.

Battery Performance

The battery performance on the S8 is pretty average. The 3,000 mAh battery on the S8 will only last you a day if you are a moderate user. For instance, in my day to day usage, where I always had the phone connected to mobile data or WiFi, had always on display turned on all the time, the display resolution set to FHD+, the device lasted for around 18 to 20 hours, with a screen on time of around 15 percent, that is 3 hours. When I bumped up the screen resolution to QHD+, I did notice a slight dip in battery performance, with the battery lasting for around 15 hours with 3 hours of screen time.

The Various Scanners

You saw this coming, didn’t you? Well yes, the fingerprint scanner on the S8 is a huge annoyance. Thanks to its weird placement next to the camera sensor, I frequently touched the camera lens instead of the fingerprint scanner. It’s also not the fastest or the most responsive fingerprint sensor out there. It has an awkward design, which results in the scanner taking too long when you are adding fingers. Also, since I was using a case on the device, reaching out the fingerprint was a tough job. Samsung has included fingerprint gestures like the Pixel, which don’t really matter, because you should be able to reach the fingerprint scanner easily to use it.

Well, the Galaxy S8 is a flagship smartphone and thus, competes with the best smartphones there are. There’s the iPhone 7, the Google Pixel, the recently launched LG G6 and while they are pretty great smartphones, they don’t really match up to the premium design of the S8. In fact, it will be hard for even the Pixel 2 or the iPhone 8 (or 7s or X or whatever they plan on calling it) to beat the S8’s design. The Galaxy S8 has its flaws but it’s still as close as it gets to being a perfect smartphone.

  • Gorgeous design
  • One of the best displays
  • Fluid performance
  • Great camera
  • Decent speakers
  • AKG earphones are good

Cons:

  • Slippery build
  • Weird placement of fingerprint scanner
  • Face Recognition is inconsistent
  • Average battery performance
  • Bixby is useless, as of now

SEE ALSO: 15 Cool Galaxy S8 Tricks and Hidden Features You Should Know

You must have noticed that the bad things about the S8 outnumber the good things about it but trust me, I still think the Galaxy S8’s pros outweigh its cons. The bezel-less design and the curved display are something that will definitely get you excited. Plus, it packs in great cameras, refined software, decent speakers, sleek performance and handy additional touches like the pressure sensitive button and the AKG earphones. However, its shortcomings include the weird fingerprint scanner, the inconsistent face recognition feature, the poor to average battery and well, useless Bixby. So, should you buy the S8? Well, if you ask me, I would get the S8 just for that amazing display and design.