Samsung Galaxy S8 arrived at iDevice.ro yesterday thanks to the Orange Smartphone Tester program through which any customer of Orange Romania can test this smartphone. Samsung Galaxy S8 was presented on Wednesday at a conference organized in New York, and the official launch in Romania will take place on April 28.
Until then, as a participant of the Orange Smartphone Tester program, I have the opportunity to present my experience with the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus again this article marks the beginning of the series.
Infinity Display and design
As I told you above, through Orange Smartphone Tester I received the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus for testing, the model with a 6.2-inch screen, in midnight black color being offered. At first sight of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus I was amazed of the achievement of the Samsung company to insert a screen with such a large diagonal in such a small case.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is as tall as the iPhone 7 Plus, but it is much narrower, so it gives you the feeling of a "long" smartphone, like a remote control, as many users say. Although this design is not for everyone, for me the large screen compensates for the unusual shape of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus and dominates its entire front panel.
We told you that seeing images on the entire front panel of a smartphone will give you an improved experience of using a mobile phone, and with the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus you will have this. From native applications to those for surfing the Internet, you will see everything more clearly, on a much larger surface, making the "line" that separates the palm from the screen almost non-existent.
The edges of the front panel of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus are almost non-existent when the screen is open and the images start to be played, and now I can only hope that Apple will make the same change. I think a lot of people will be amazed by what Samsung has achieved with the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus from this point of view, most of those who have used it praising this change to the fullest.
The modification of the screen also made the Home button disappear from the case, but the one integrated under the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus screen offers a functionality similar to that of the iPhone. That is, you have to press to unlock the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus screen, but it offers tactile feedback through vibrations in order to generate the impression of pressing a normal button.
Those who have never used a button with force feedback will have a new experience that they will have to get used to, but iPhone users will have something familiar. The Home button remains permanently visible in any interface of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, occupying a portion of the screen, and the same thing will happen with the iPhone 8.
Overall, in terms of appearance, the Samsung Galaxy S8 looks like a premium smartphone, and the feeling doesn't change when you use it.
Iris scanner, facial recognition and fingerprint reader
A not too happy change for the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is repositioning the fingerprint reader in the case, next to the camera, after removing the physical Home button from the front panel. Testing the fingerprint reader, which has tactile feedback through vibrations when pressed, I ended up with my finger on the camera many times, the experience itself being a bad one.
It is not easy to get used to a fingerprint reader in the case, and from this point of view the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is thought out wrong. Many people said that this change for the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is inappropriate, and unfortunately I think that Samsung could do something better for its customers.
The good part is that although the fingerprint reader in the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is difficult to use, the iris scanner makes up for it quite well. Unlocking the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus with the iris scanner is done quite quickly, after you first activate the screen and make another slide to activate the eye scan for unlocking.
Until now, the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus has performed excellently in iris scanning and unlocking, without errors and without problems, but the procedure is more difficult than with the iPhone 7 Plus. In the case of the iPhone 7 Plus, you press the Home button and the unlocking is done, but in the case of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, you must first press the Home button, then swipe the screen and then the iris is scanned in order to unlock.
In contrast, the facial recognition in the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is the fastest unlocking method, simply activating the screen and unlocking almost immediately. Although it is not more secure than scanning the iris or reading the fingerprint, the facial recognition in the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus seems to me to be the simplest method of unlocking with the least security offered.
None of the three methods can be used in combination with another, so the user must choose what he wants to use.
Camera
Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus which has a new camera, also 12 megapixels, but with an alleged new Sony sensor that improves the recording of pictures in low light conditions. Well, I didn't have much time to use the new camera of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, but in the few pictures taken I can say that it seems to be slightly better than the one in the iPhone 7 Plus.
This is to be expected, considering that Samsung always uses the latest generation image sensors, and there is a difference of 6 months between these products. I will come back with a dedicated article for the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus camera, but so far I have the impression that it has a better main camera than the one of the iPhone 7 Plus, the front one being without question superior.
performant
One of the big problems of Android has to do with performance, and no matter what processor and RAM are in a smartphone, it still suffers because of Android. In the case of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, we are talking about better performance than the iPhone 7 Plus in some performance tests and lower in others, but for now, everyday use offers a good experience.
There are slight traces of lag in some tasks performed on the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, but this is not different from what I encountered on the iPhone 7 Plus from the very first day of use. On the other hand, the performance of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is different depending on the resolution used and how hot the device is.
At the maximum resolution, of 2960 x 1440 pixels, the performances are weaker than when setting the resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels, or 720p. Despite this, the biggest enemy seems to be the heat, because when it heats up, the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus has the same performance regardless of the resolution.
This suggests to me that there are software settings that probably reduce the working frequency, or disable certain cores of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus to avoid overheating. This tactic is not new among Android manufacturers nor to be condemned, but it is good to know that the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus seems to have it implemented.
All in all, the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is a smartphone that impresses me and makes me want to see something similar from the Apple company, otherwise I think many will want an experience with a larger screen, offered by the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus. The midnight black, or jet black, color is very similar to that of the iPhone 7, giving the terminal a premium look.
If you are interested in testing the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, then I recommend you to visit this page of Orange Romania and register to test it. Until then, in the following days I will continue to publish information about my experience with the Samsung Galaxy S8.
