Samsung Galaxy S8: A beautiful cellphone both on the inside and the outside
The good thing about the Samsung Galaxy S8 is that it has a beautiful curved screen with little bezels that make it look spectacular. Its symmetric design makes it to feel very comfortable in the hand. Bixby provides a new artificial intelligence that might be helpful; a 64GB base storage; micro SD card slot; iris reader; USB-C port; wireless charge system and water resistant.
The bad thing is that its print reader is not well located; its construction and curved screen might make it more fragile than its predecessors. There is no flat screen version. Bixby and Google Assistant don’t speak Spanish and it is Quick Charge 2.0.
As a conclusion of a first impression the Samsung Galaxy S8 has what it takes to crown itself as winner in this competitive market, not only for its design but also its internal construction. However, it’s not a perfect cellphone.
Samsung Galaxy S8 is without any doubt one of the most beautiful cellphones we have ever seen, and it has a new virtual assistant called Bixby.
Besides it offers as its predecessors the same water resistance, the micro SD card slot, the wireless charge system and now has preinstalled Android Nougat with Google assistant.
Unlike Galaxy S8 Plus, the S8 has the advantage of being lighter and compact, which makes it more comfortable to use with only one hand. Also, it’s slimmer and cheaper but its battery has an inferior capacity.
Samsung Galaxy S8: Characteristics and specifications
(from http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s8-8161.php)
| NETWORK | Technology | GSM / HSPA / LTE |
| LAUNCH | Announced | 2017, March |
| Status | Coming soon. Exp. release 2017, April 21st |
| BODY | Dimensions | 148.9 x 68.1 x 8 mm (5.86 x 2.68 x 0.31 in) |
| Weight | 155 g (5.47 oz) | |
| Build | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 back panel | |
| SIM | Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) | |
| – Samsung Pay (Visa, MasterCard certified) – IP68 certified – dust/water proof over 1.5 meter and 30 minutes |
| DISPLAY | Type | Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
| Size | 5.8 inches (~83.6% screen-to-body ratio) | |
| Resolution | 1440 x 2960 pixels (~570 ppi pixel density) | |
| Multitouch | Yes | |
| Protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | |
| – 3D Touch (home button only) – Always-on display – TouchWiz UI |
| PLATFORM | OS | Android OS, v7.0 |
| Chipset | Qualcomm MSM8998 Snapdragon 835 – US model Exynos 8895 Octa – EMEA |
|
| CPU | Octa-core (4×2.35 GHz Kryo & 4×1.9 GHz Kryo) – US model Octa-core (4×2.3 GHz & 4×1.7 GHz) – EMEA |
|
| GPU | Adreno 540 – US model |
| MEMORY | Card slot | microSD, up to 256 GB (dedicated slot) – single-SIM model microSD, up to 256 GB (uses SIM 2 slot) – dual-SIM model |
| Internal | 64 GB, 4 GB RAM |
| CAMERA | Primary | 12 MP, f/1.7, 26mm, phase detection autofocus, OIS, LED flash |
| Features | 1/2.5″ sensor size, 1.4 µm pixel size, geo-tagging, simultaneous 4K video and 9MP image recording, touch focus, face/smile detection, Auto HDR, panorama | |
| Video | 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, HDR, dual-video rec. | |
| Secondary | 8 MP, f/1.7, autofocus, 1440p@30fps, dual video call, Auto HDR |
| SOUND | Alert types | Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones |
| Loudspeaker | Yes | |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes | |
| – 24-bit/192kHz audio – Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic |
| COMMS | WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot |
| Bluetooth | v5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX | |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO | |
| NFC | Yes | |
| Radio | No | |
| USB | v3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector |
| FEATURES | Sensors | Iris scanner, fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, heart rate, SpO2 |
| Messaging | SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM | |
| Browser | HTML5 | |
| Java | No | |
| – Samsung DeX (desktop experience support) – Fast battery charging – Qi/PMA wireless charging (market dependent) – ANT+ support – S-Voice natural language commands and dictation – MP4/DivX/XviD/H.265 player – MP3/WAV/eAAC+/FLAC player – Photo/video editor – Document editor |
| BATTERY | Non-removable Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery | |
| MISC | Colors | Midnight Black, Orchid Gray, Arctic Silver, Coral Blue, Maple Gold |
| SAR EU | 0.32 W/kg (head) 1.27 W/kg (body) | |
| Price group | 9/10 |
Price and availability
The presale of Samsung Galaxy S8 starts on March 30th and will be available until April 21st. The Galaxy S8 will be available in midnight black, maple gold, orchid gray, coral blue and artic silver. The price of this new device will be of about US$750.
