Samsung Galaxy S8 review

The Samsung Galaxy is a phone that's unlike anything you'll have seen on the market. It's just stunning.

It's incredibly expensive in a world where mid-range phones are more than good enough to handle most tasks people like... but the second you pick it up it's easy to see why.

The screen is just brilliant - the clearest, sharpest and offers lovely color reproduction to make movie watching a dream, and that's before you've even got to the fact it's wrapped into the chassis so hugely that it has a screen larger than the iPhone 7 Plus in a chassis that feels more like the iPhone 7.

The Galaxy S8 isn't perfect - in the search to squeeze the screen in so completely, other factors were overlooked: namely, the placement of the fingerprint reader. If you want this phone, you'll need to answer this question: are you OK using an iris scanner?

And if you're looking for something even bigger, and with a much-improved battery life to boot, then the Galaxy S8 Plus is easily the way to go 

But the Galaxy S8 is firmly a phone that rises above those points to combine everything into a handset that really impresses in the hand, fitting seamlessly into day-to-day life (as long as you can get over the dizzying price). 

The Samsung Galaxy S8 isn’t the cheapest phone on the market by any stretch of the imagination; in fact, it’s one of the most expensive. You’re really paying for that screen.

In the UK, you’re going to be looking at between £40-£45 per month to get this phone without an upfront cost and with a few gigabytes of data, or you can purchase it SIM-free for a whopping £689.

In the US you're going to pay between  $30 to $31.25 a month for this phone with a 24-month contract through American carriers like Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. Their contract pricing isn't cheap.

For $724.99, there will be an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S8 in the US that's now available for pre-order from Samsung and set to deliver (in black) on May 31. If you want to go SIM-free right away or want any other unlocked color, you'll have to pay off one of the carriers first.

In Australia, you’re looking at a shade under AU$1,200 to get your hands on this phone. 

The slightly good news is that you’re at least getting a 64GB version of this phone in all territories; the presence of a microSD slot means Samsung won’t be launching multiple variants of the phone in different regions, instead offering a decent amount of storage as standard and giving users the option to add to that if they so wish.

PROS

• Awesome display
• A phone that feels like the future
• Stunning camera
• It’s actually innovative

CONS

• Awfully placed fingerprint sensor
• Bixby is a bit of a dud

KEY FEATURES

• 5.8-inch quad-HD Infinity Display (AMOLED)
• Samsung Exynos 8895 (Europe and Asia) or Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (USA)
• 4GB RAM, 64GB storage (microSD up to 256GB)
• 3000mAh battery with wireless and fast charging
• Rear camera: 12 megapixels, f/1.7 aperture and Dual Pixel sensor
• Front camera: 8 megapixels, f/1.7 and autofocus
• Iris and fingerprint scanner
• Samsung Bixby personal assistant
• Android 7 Nougat with Google Assistant
• Manufacturer: Samsung

in the next blog post I'll put the s8 and s8+ specs