The next Galaxy devices have finally arrived from Samsung and there’s a slightly different strategy for the 2017 flagship phones. Now in simply different sizes rather than offering varying tech, here we go hands-on with the Galaxy S8 Plus to see if you should buy the larger handset.
Galaxy S8 Plus Price and Availability
There’s good news as after a long wait for the Galaxy S8, the phones are available to pre-order starting today, 29 March, and will close on 19 April ahead of the release date which is 28 April.
Anyone who pre-orders in the UK or Europe will receive their phone early on 20 April.
It’s not a shock that the Galaxy S8 Plus is an expensive smartphone, although not as much as some feared. The flagship price is £779 which isn’t a huge amount more than the regular Galaxy S8 which is £689. Read more about the Galaxy S8 Plus and where to buy.
Read on to see whether it’s worth spending the extra £90, though.
Galaxy S8 Plus Design and Build
This year there’s not a huge difference between Samsung’s two flagship phones. As they both offer the edge screen display, the handsets are simply different sizes when it comes to design – hence the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus naming system with no ‘edge’ element.
The Plus model isn’t a vastly bigger than the regular Galaxy S8. It’s around 10mm taller and 5mm wider which isn’t much to jump from a 5.8- to 6.2in screen. It’s astonishing how normal these phones feel in the hand considering those figures.
Bear in mind that the Galaxy S8 Plus is heavier at 173g compared to 155g.
You’ll notice that a big difference in this year’s Galaxy phone is the impressive screen-to-bezel ratio and the rounded corners of the display which match the metal frame. To make this happen, Samsung has ditched the traditional section below the screen for home button.
The fingerprint scanner has been moved to the back – slightly awkwardly next to the camera rather than below it – and there’s a pressure sensitive home button built into the display.
You get all the same design features as the smaller model including a headphone jack, Gorilla Glass 5 rear cover and IP68 rated waterproofing. A new button sits on the left for launching Bixby – more on this in the software section.
In the UK, Samsung is offering the Galaxy S8 Plus in three colours: Midnight Black, Orchid Grey and Arctic Silver. The blue and gold options will launch in other markets such as China but may well come to Blighty at a later date.
We like all the colours but be warned that the Arctic Silver option is very shiny, almost mirrored like the Sony Xperia XZ Premium. Samsung has said this colour will be available ‘in due course’ so the black and grey options will be the choices to start with.
Galaxy S8 Plus Specs and Hardware
Samsung likes packing as much tech into its phones as humanly possible and the Galaxy S8 Plus ticks almost every box you could think of for a flagship phone.
Screen
As you’ve gathered already, the screen size is the big difference between the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus. Both phones now have Samsung’s edge screen technology so there’s no longer the need to buy the larger option to get this.
Samsung has tweaked the edge display though, so it’s not as exaggerated this time. You still get the edge panels but you can’t use the edge to show the clock at night and show other information like previously.
Your decision then, is whether to go for the smaller 5.8in model or the Galaxy S8 Plus’ 6.2in. These sizes sound a bit ridiculous but the S8 Plus is only really a little bit taller than the Galaxy S7 edge thanks to the tiny bezels.
It’s best to try both in the hand before you commit but we feel the regular Galaxy S8 will be enough for most consumers. The 0.4in doesn’t make a huge difference in use, although the Plus model does benefit from a larger battery – see below.
In terms of specs the Galaxy S8 Plus uses the same Super AMOLED technology as the smaller model and has the same Quad HD (2960×1440) resolution. This means a lower but insignificant drop in pixel density from 570- to 529ppi.
Similar to the LG G6, the Galaxy S8 Plus has an unusual aspect ratio. Instead of the typical 16:9, it’s 18.5:9 so the screen is very tall. This makes things like watching video much better as you don’t get annoying black bars. When things like video go full screen is when you’ll need the pressure sensitive home button.
Processor
Like the regular model, the Galaxy S8 Plus will come with two different processors for different markets.
We believe that the UK model will come with Samsung’s Exynos Series 9 8895 chip based on the clock speeds we have been given – 4x 2.3GHz and 4x 1.7GHz. Those don’t match up with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 that Samsung co-produced so we expect this to be the platform for other markets.
We’ll benchmark the Galaxy S8 Plus when we get a final sample but we were impressed during our couple of hours of hands-on time.
Memory and Storage
Samsung has kept things simple this year so the Galaxy S8 Plus matches the smaller model with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. As usual, there’s expandable storage so it’s easy to add a further 256GB with the Micro-SD card slot.
It’s a bit of a surprise to hear nothing about a larger storage capacity but we wouldn’t bet against a 128GB option coming at a later date. For now, though, there’s no head scratching to be done on the subject – it’s 64GB or nothing.
The post Hands-on: Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus review appeared first on Gigarefurb Refurbished Laptops News.
source https://news.gigarefurb.co.uk/hands-on-samsung-galaxy-s8-plus-review/
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