So, let’s have a quick roundup of these incredible features.
Infinity Display
The Samsung Galaxy S8 sports a super cool 5.8-inch infinity display with almost no bezels, which gives it a ravishing look. One of the first smartphones to have perfected the edge-to-edge display seamlessly, the Galaxy S8 surely stands tall with its clean, soft and fluid display. The colors also come out to be are sharp and vibrant. What’s more, the rear with its glass back is also super smooth and nice to hold. However, be prepared to wipe off smudges every now and then. Also, software buttons have found the way to the S8. Gone are the lozenge keys that are often symbolic of Samsung phones like the old Galaxy S7 or the new Samsung A5/A7.
2. Iris Scanner and Facial Recognition
Security is one of the important aspects of our daily life and since the majority of the time we remain glued to our smartphones, it is of utmost importance that they adhere to the same guidelines. And with the Galaxy S8, Samsung has taken it a notch higher. It has an ultra-fast Iris scanner as well as a swift facial recognition system. In fact, the facial recognition system is so swift that one would find it hard to even capture it on a video. The Iris scanner works by capturing the patterns of the Iris with the help of an infrared LED. Similar to fingerprints, Iris patterns are also unique, so that would go a long way to protect your phone against intruders. Though there has been some report that both of the above can be hacked, Samsung has provided with more traditional approaches like the fingerprint scanner, PIN lock or the pattern lock.
3. Wireless Charging
The Galaxy S8 and S8+ support both wireless charging and fast charging. The wireless dock makes charging as easy as putting your phone down. And if you go by the official Samsung accessories, the sleek and fast wireless charging pad can also be used as a phone stand. Unlike most of the older wireless pods which would take 3-4 hours to fully recharge a device, the charging speed of the Samsung pods is incredibly fast. Moreover, the all-day battery assurance and the USB Type-C port definitely puts to rest the battery questions. And to top it all, the S8 supports both Qi Wireless Charging and the PMA Wireless Charging Standard.
4. Bluetooth 5.0 and IP68
One of the first smartphones in the world to come with Bluetooth 5.0, the Galaxy S8 has added yet another cool feature in its kitty. For starters, with the increase in throughput in robust Bluetooth 5.0 you can now beam the same audio to two devices at the same time. Plus, pairing and connecting to devices is also a lot faster. And with the improved Bluetooth, the S8 also dons the same level of resistivity to dust and water as with the older Galaxy series smartphones. It’s IP68 water and dust resistant, so it’s all good if it gets a tad wet under the rain. And it’s touted to be safe up to 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes.
5. Fit to Display Button on YouTube
The display being almost bezel-less, it’s imperative that the videos also get the infinity look. However, not all humans are built same and few might expect the videos only to fit the display, without it bending over the edge. Well, worry not, Samsung has kept that in mind and has built the crop to display button exclusively for the video buffs. With this, you can choose to have the YouTube video cropped to fit the normal screen or have it in the normal aspect ratio of 16:9. Nifty, ain’t it?
6. DeX or Desktop Experience
With everything flying by us, on has to be on the run most of the time — either for work or play. And as far as work is concerned, Samsung makes the experience worthwhile with its DeX feature which lets you connect to a desktop in a jiffy. Multiple apps can be run at the same time and what’s more, the windows can be resized by dragging the corners. For un-optimized apps, the window would look very much the same it does on a phone.
7. Smart Front Camera
The Samsung S8 sports a 8 MP front camera with an autofocus capability. Though not much of an upgrade in terms of aperture, the front camera is specifically designed to keep the selfie buffs happy. The short time that we spent with it, it managed to turn out pretty great images. Plus, you get to play with a dozen of insane Snapchat style filters.
8. Bixby
With Samsung Galaxy S8, a new assistant has been launched in the market — the Bixby Assistant. With more similarities to the Google Assistant than not, Bixby aims to be the perfect smart assistant. It aims to get tasks done within the phone itself and queries on whether and news, ability to set reminders or the capacity to hunt for a picture in the gallery can be handled amazingly well by this debutant. Bixby can be summoned with just a single press of a dedicated button. Moreover, as the S8 features the latest official Android version — Nougat — which comes with Google Assistant. So, you can get the best of both worlds.
Galaxy S8: A Step in the Right Direction
The Samsung Galaxy S8 packs in incredible features that make it the perfect futuristic smartphones with its share of wireless charging options, bezel-less display, and DeX support. And while it has borrowed some of the features from the Galaxy Note 7 — like the facial recognition system — we can only hope that Samsung has kept borrowing the battery ideas at bay. Jokes apart, with many levels of checks in the QC process, hopefully, we’ll have the device that we were expecting for a long time.
