Samsung officially announced the Galaxy S8+ today, and we got to spend some hands-on time with it!
If you watched my Galaxy S8 impressions video, you may have seen the big brother, the Samsung Galaxy S8+. This is for the power hungry users out there because I’ve got to say, the S8+ is straight up fire.
First of, let’s just soak in that display-- a huge 6.2-inch panel stretched over with a resolution of 2960x1440; again a slightly higher than a 2:1 aspect ratio but it’s still powered by the Super AMOLED technology. It’s one of the best looking displays on the market and with that 84% screen to body ratio, it looks absolutely stunning with the absence of side bezels and very minimal chins.
The home button is gone, now replaced by an invisible one that lives underneath the display. It uses the same technology as Apple’s device home button for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus with 3D Touch.
The fingerprint sensor has been moved to the rear right next to the 12-megapixel camera we saw in the S7 and S7 edge last year. The specs are identical to the S8-- still a Snapdragon 835 for those in the States and an Exynos 8895 for those abroad; 4GB of RAM and the Adreno 540 GPU for those states side as well. All of that is powered by a 3,500 mAh battery; which is a crucial part of the Plus model for those who require that extra bit of battery life to make it through their day.
The redesign of the S8 line is definitely a welcomed refresh and it’s made for very beautiful devices. Firstly, I prefer the S8 for the form factor. The S8+ is a little tall for my taste but it’s definitely usable for those with larger hands. Software-wise, we are looking at Android 7.0 with the latest version of Samsung’s TouchWiz UI but one neat feature is Bixby, Samsung’s new AI software. Bixby can be accessed by pushing a dedicated button on the left hand side. It opens up an entire page that looks like a card view like we saw in Google Now. But unlike those assistants, Bixby can replace user inputs within applications. It definitely has potential but we will definitely need to use before we comment on it.
Everything else with the S8+ is the same as the S8. Overall, I think the S8 and S8+ are spectacular devices and I seriously can’t wait to use them. Let me know which one you prefer-- the S8 or S8+.
