After months of leaks and hype, Samsung today officially unveiled the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ — its flagship phone for 2017. Continuing the trend of bezel-less smartphones that was started by the LG G6 at MWC, the Galaxy S8 and S8+front is totally dominated by their gigantic displays.
Internally also, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ pack the very best of what is available on the market right now in terms of technology. You can read all about the specs and features of the Galaxy S8 in our article below.
Read: Samsung Galaxy S8 Unveiled: Infinity Display, Bixby Assistant, and 12MP Dual Pixel Camera
As for this article, I will bring your attention to 5 features of the Galaxy S8 that you might have missed or are worth going over again purely because of how cool they are or due to their importance.
Bixby
Bixby — Samsung’s new AI-powered virtual assistant — forms a key aspect of the software experience on the Galaxy S8 and S8+. One can quickly launch Bixby on Samsung’s latest flagship by simply pressing the dedicated hardware button on the device. Alternatively, you can also quickly bring up Bixby by saying “Bixby”. Like Google Assistant and other AI-powered assistants out there, Bixby will provide you with regular updates on the weather, share market, and cricket/football scores. Even better, with Bixby Vision, you will be able to quickly scan an object and search for its reviews and prices online.
What makes Bixby better than Siri, Cortana, and even Google Assistant is its ability to hold natural conversations with users and its contextual awareness. If Bixby is not able to understand one of your commands, it will ask your input and learn from them over time. Samsung’s pretty serious with Bixby on the Galaxy S8, and its evident from the fact that the handset comes with a dedicated hardware button to quickly bring up the assistant.
Safer and longer lasting battery
To avoid the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, Samsung has ensured that the batteries used in the Galaxy S8 and S8+ are safer than ever before. The batteries used in the company’s latest flagship handsets go through its new eight-point battery test. While the capacity of the batteries is not earth shattering at 3000mAh and 3500mAh, Samsung has worked on extending their lifespan. The company says that the batteries of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ will hold charge longer after six months, a year and two years when compared to the battery used in the Galaxy S7. In numbers, Samsung says it expects the Galaxy S8 battery to hold 95 percent of its charge two years down the line compared to an average of 80 percent.
Infinity Display
There’s more to the ‘Infinity display’ of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ than just their increased size and smaller bezels. They not only come with a slightly higher resolution — 2880 x 1440, their new aspect ratio of 18.5:9 also makes them perfect for multitasking.
Thanks to the higher resolution and new aspect ratio, the display on the Galaxy S8 and S8+ is more suited for running two applications side-by-side as they are able to display more information. And since the bezel-less design of the devices ensure that the bigger displays don’t end up increasing the overall dimensions of the devices, this is a true win-win for customers.
IP68 Certification
Like the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge before it, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ both feature an IP68 certification. This makes both handsets dust-resistant and water-resistant in up to 1.5m of fresh water for up to 30 minutes. The IP certification of both handsets is similar to the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, though at this moment, this is the maximum IP certification available for a consumer device.
Despite the water-resistance certification, remember that Samsung will not honour the warranty of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ due to liquid damage.
Read: Samsung Galaxy S8 IP68 Water Resistant Rating Explained
Improved Processing for Rear Camera
On paper, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ comes with the same 12MP rear camera setup that was found on the S7 and S7 edge. This means that we are looking at a 12MP f/1.7 aperture shooter with OIS, Dual Pixel and 1.4um pixels. This does not mean that Samsung has not improved the camera performance on its latest flagship handsets, though.
Samsung says that thanks to the new ISP and algorithm processing improvements, the Galaxy S8 shooter will take less blurry pictures than before and perform even better in low-light. At the launch event, Samsung touted combining multiple images into one from the rear shooter, similar to what Google does on the Pixel and Pixel XL, to further improve the image quality. Even if Samsung’s implementation is half as good as Google’s, we should have a new smartphone camera king.
In addition, the Galaxy S8 has a new camera shortcut. Instead of double pressing the home button, the handset now comes with a more standard shortcut of double pressing the power button to open the camera app.
Read: Samsung Galaxy S8 Feature Highlight: There’s More to the Rear Camera Than Its Specs
And a feature that’s still missing….IR Blaster
This is going to be a deal breaker for many. Like the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge before it, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ do not come with an IR blaster. While leaked pictures had suggested that the handset will come with an IR blaster, that is not the case. An IR blaster is an incredibly handy sensor to have on a smartphone since it makes it possible to control other electronic appliances around you like TVs, ACs, and music system using an app. Sadly, for some reason, Samsung does not think its important to include an IR blaster on its devices nowadays, which is a bummer since the company included one up until the Galaxy S6.
So, what do you think about the Galaxy S8? Are you impressed by its Infinity Display and Bixby? Or are you disappointed that the handset does not come with an IR blaster like its predecessor?
