Galaxy S8 review: Samsung's latest is a truly sublime smartphone

So here we are: this is the long-awaited Galaxy S8. The headline is that the screen now takes up a whopping 85 percent of the front of the phone, meaning Samsung has dropped both its branding and the home button from the front

With the S8 series, Samsung has basically taken the Galaxy S7 edge, beefed up the display considerably, changed some of the other specs, moved the fingerprint reader to the back, shoved the home button under the screen thanks to a new pressure sensor, added an extra button to the side of the phone for its Bixby personal assistant and released the phone in two sizes. 

More on all that shortly, but essentially what you need to know is that buying an S8 or S8+ won’t be a bad decision; these are superb devices that are worthy successors to the super S7 Edge. 

It’s also 0.4-inches smaller than its sister, the Galaxy S8+ but crucially it can offer the same WQHD+ resolution. By default, the S8 is set to FHD+ resolution, but you can easily switch it to WQHD+ in settings.  

As you can see, the lack of bezel is most noticeable at the bottom of the screen, where there's now no home button; it's been replaced by the standard three Samsung controls on screen.

But the design of the back edges (no pun intended) aren't a huge leap from the S7; it's a mere 0.1mm thicker than its predecessor.

Because of the balance between body and display, there is no way this phone feels like it has a 5.8-inch display. It feels and looks fantastic and there's no doubt it's an impressive device to look at, even if the rear isn't exactly distinctive. 

Galaxy S8 biometrics

So we mentioned before that there are some issues with the Galaxy S8, and here we come to the first of them. 

As the home button has now disappeared into the display, the fingerprint reader has been moved to the back.

Now, this implementation is no good if the phone is lying flat on its back on a desk. But we think rear fingerprint readers are generally fine and we really like Huawei’s implementation on the Nexus 6P, P9 and Mate 9 where the reader is set away from the camera. 

In other words, it’s easy to find it with your finger.  Unfortunately this isn’t the case with the Galaxy S8.

OUR VERDICT

A truly wonderful phone that you'll want to own, but the fingerprint reader frustrates.

FOR

1. Brilliant display
2. Blazing fast performance
3. Bluetooth 5 and dual audio

AGAINST

1. Rear fingerprint reader placement
2. Face recognition hit and miss
3. Bixby needs to differentiate