Samsung Galaxy S8: what a Bluetooth 5.0 phone is capable of

New phone models from different manufacturers appear literally every day. But some of the new products attract more attention than others. For example, Samsung Galaxy S8 is a hi-tech smartphone that millions of people, both geeks and regular users, are already talking about. The discussion began long before Samsung announced its latest generation of smartphones. Judging by the reviews of those who managed to test the device at work or just twist in their hands, the Samsung Galaxy S8 turned out to be really successful.

The developers have introduced a large number of new features, updating the old ones. In addition, the phone is the first on the market with a Bluetooth 5.0 module. Not many accessories support all the features of this wireless standard, but soon there should be a mass of peripheral devices where this omission has been fixed. By the way, the South Korean company decided to follow the trend of the release of two varieties of the same model, presenting a 5.8-inch Galaxy S8 and a slightly larger 6.2-inch S8 +. They have approximately the same design, characteristics and functionality are also practically no different except for some moments.

Samsung itself, among other changes and innovations highlights the following.
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Updated design

If we talk about design, then, in fact, you can call updated any design of a new phone model from any manufacturer. But Samsung claims that in its case it is really a rethinking of the old concept. Actually, the company needed to redo something, because it is known that it was the aggressive design of the previous model that led Samsung phones to light up on their own.

Hopefully this will not happen here.


Immediately stand out soft, smoothed shape of the phone. A new concept in Samsung decided to call Infinity Display. Behind the beautiful name lies the rounding of corners and the lack of a frame. It all looks really good. At the bottom of the screen are three buttons that are typical for Android devices. And in the settings, their functions can be changed (except, perhaps, the Home button).

According to the developers, it is best to work with the phone with one hand, which is why it is optimized. On the back side are a camera, a fingerprint sensor and a pulse meter module. As for the latter, Samsung, apparently, decided to turn the phone into a kind of universal device that can do everything - from calls to mother to pulse measurement during exercise.



The case is assembled very well - there are no backlashes and gaps. The thickness of the case in the two models is 8 and 8.1 mm, respectively. By the way, not only the front panel of the phones is covered with glass, but also the back. This may have been done in order not to use metal, which significantly impairs the passage of the radio signal through the housing to the radio module. This, of course, is good, but causes questions with the strength of glass. At one time, Apple used a similar solution, which was later abandoned due to a negative user reaction. Who would love the cracked backside of the gadget? Maybe the fifth version of Gorilla Glass will be stronger than previous varieties of this glass.

Interface

All interface elements are well thought out. According to the same engineers who designed the phone, the ultimate goal was to simplify the task of interacting with the phone for the user. Visual and audio components are unified. Added new vertical swipe feature.

You can control applications with voice. The user is able to control several applications at the same time, using both voice commands and touching the screen. In addition, the system is able to “understand” what the user is looking at and react accordingly. There is a useful feature for translating text by pointing the camera at the source text.


All this is described by the phrase "you see more, scroll less." The display of the new model is 18% larger than the display of the previous one. Here it is worth remembering the joke that if you add up all the percentages from the advertising materials of the companies, which say that “the display is more by some percentage,” then the phones would be the size of a football field. But, in general, everything is not bad.

As for the proportions, then movies 21: 9 normally fit within the 18.5: 9 display. At the same time, Samsung tried and removed the black stripes to accommodate more visual information.

The company claims that Infinity Display allows you to see more information without having to use your finger all the time, flipping screens and desktops. As far as this is true, it will be possible to find out already when working with the device. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The fifth generation of this glass should already withstand a direct hit from a tank gun. YouTube has already met with reviews of the strength of the protection, the developers themselves say that glass is capable of scratching metal tools, which usually test glass for scratch resistance, because the hardness of the tools is about 3, and the hardness of glass is 5 or even about 6.

Photo

Usually, when a user of the phone takes photos, out of a dozen photos, only a couple are successful. Understanding this, the company's engineers added the auto selection feature. The phone itself decides which photo is the most successful, and uses all other images to improve the contrast and clarity of the selected photo.

12 MP main camera can take pictures even in dim lighting. The front camera with 8 MP sensor allows the use of autofocus and is equipped with software with face recognition.

As usual, there are a lot of different filters that users can take to improve or change their photos.

A bunch of computer - phone

Here, the developers of the corporation really tried, adding the function of simple integration of the phone into the interface of a regular PC. The technology is called DeX, with its help, users can work with mobile applications, send messages and perform other normal functions right on the large display.


DeX supports keyboard and mouse gestures, is compatible with Microsoft Office and the mobile software package from Adobe.

In fact, we are talking about the fact that the new Samsung phone can turn into a full-fledged PC. To do this, the mobile device is installed in a special docking station, to which another keyboard, mouse and monitor are connected. On the monitor at the time of connection, the Android desktop interface is displayed.

The docking station is very convenient. It looks like a small cylinder that can be carried in any bag or backpack. If you need to connect the phone, the docking station cover must be installed vertically and the phone must be inserted into the socket. Connection interface - USB-C. At the docking station itself, there are also USB ports of type A, which serve to connect standard peripherals. Here, besides the keyboard and mouse, there is also an Ethernet port and an HDMI connector. Additional USB Type C is used to connect the power.



Samsung would not have been Samsung if the Android interface had not been customized. It resembles the Windows interface, which greatly simplifies user interaction with it. There is a taskbar on which application icons are located, there are navigation buttons and even a start menu.



In order to make phone applications convenient to use on the big screen, the company has made desktop versions of mobile applications, including file and Internet browsers, an application for working with e-mail.



Most other applications, including Gmail, open in a mobile format - their company has not customized.

Security

And here the developers have distinguished themselves. At the presentation of the phone, much was said about integrating the Knox security platform with new biometric data protection methods.

There is a retina scanner, there is a fingerprint sensor. Camera phone with the appropriate application quickly recognizes the user's face. All this is done to ensure that an outsider could not get access to valuable data.

Appliance Management

Samsung Connect allows users to control and monitor smart devices in their home or office. True, for this IoT gadgets must be compatible with the Samsung Connect standard. Of course, many companies keep up with the times, adding compatibility with platforms from different mobile device manufacturers. But still the ecosystem of such gadgets leaves much to be desired.


In the future, probably, the situation with the model variety of consumer devices that work with Samsung Connect will improve. Well, in the meantime, corporations have something to work on.

What else?

In general, this phone has more interesting points that are worth mentioning. For example, among the physical buttons for controlling various functions there is one that is responsible for launching a virtual assistant of a corporation called Bixby. If Google, Apple and Microsoft have virtual assistants, why not Samsung? Of course, to test the assistant, you need to talk with him a bit so that personal preferences and preferences appear.

But you can test without it. Those users who have already done this say that Samsung’s digital assistant doesn't look completely ready. There are a number of flaws. One of them is not very good speech recognition. But you can just work with Google's digital assistant — blessing, the mobile OS here is Android. But when Samsung improves the work of Bixby, then you can work with it.

In general, Bixby's specialization is voice control applications, as already mentioned. Assistant can indicate the need to take a screenshot by sending it to a specific contact. True, the assistant does not understand the Russian language yet. When he is going to teach him, not reported.

Specifications

Everything is good here. Both Samsung S8 models are based on the Snapdragon 835 or the new 10-nm Exynos 8895. The availability of one or the other processor depends on the region. In addition, both models have 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory, accessible to the user. If desired, the memory can be expanded by adding a microSD card.

The screens of both models are Super AMOLED with support for the HDR standard, which seems to provide the display of the smallest color nuances.

The battery capacity of the S8 is 3000 mAh, the battery of the S8 Plus is 3500 mAh. If desired, the phones can be charged without wires.

The operating system is the latest version of Android, 7.0. The standard OS interface is replaced with a custom branded shell.

Cost of devices - $ 799 for the Galaxy S8 and $ 899 for the Galaxy S8 Plus. In Russia, the phones cost a lot - from 54 990 rubles for the Galaxy S8 to 59 990 for the Galaxy S8 +.