Samsung Galaxy S8 Review

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ are the best Android phones you can buy. Starting at a fairly steep $750 and $850, respectively, Samsung’s new flagship phones forge a beautiful new path for smartphone design by stripping away unsightly bezels with their respective 5.8- and 6.2-inch infinity displays, and these are the first handsets to boast Qualcomm’s beastly Snapdragon 835 processor for speedy performance.

Several months after the Galaxy's S8 launch, Samsung’s new Bixby virtual assistant is fully available though still hit or miss, and we’re not fans of the fingerprint sensor’s location. But when you add in excellent battery life and improvements to a camera that was already top-notch, you have two winning handsets with the Galaxy S8 and S8+. 

Pros:

• Sleekest phone design yet
• Best smartphone display on the market
• Category-leading performance
• Excellent battery life
• Sharper selfie cam and improved rear shooter

Cons:

• Bixby remains in beta, and Vision is hit or miss
• Fingerprint sensor is awkwardly placed
• Lacks dual cameras for optical zoom

What’s remarkable about the Galaxy S8 is how much more screen real estate it gives you compared with the S7, while still offering a compact and lightweight design. The S8’s 5.8-inch screen is housed in a 5.5-ounce, 2.7-inch-wide chassis, whereas the 5.1-inch S7 weighed 5.4 ounces and had the same width. The S8 is taller, but it’s still easy to use with one hand.

With its 6.2-inch screen, the 6.1-ounce S8+ is heftier than the 5.5-ounce, 5.5-inch S7 Edge. But the S8+ makes the iPhone 8 Plus (6.2 x 3.1 x 0.29 inches, 7.13 ounces) look positively bloated. Plus, unlike the latest iPhones, the S8 and S8+ have headphone jacks.

No matter which size you choose, it won’t be long before you see fingerprint smudges on the back of the phone. The smudges were especially prominent on the midnight black version of the S8 and S8+, but you can also choose the lighter orchid gray or arctic silver, which don’t show smudges as easily.