Samsung S8+
I have just gotten the latest Samsung S8+. From the outlook, it is sleek with curve edge on both front and back. The material used is classy enough. Due to the edge design, the screen size is boosted to 6.2 inches without increasing the physical phone size. Therefore, the mobile phone remains slim, which is very easy to hold, while having bigger display for ease of reading. Thumb up for the physical look and feel fronts.
One of Samsung strengths is their great screen manufacturing capability. With this S8+, screen resolution can go all the way up to WQHD+ of 2960x1440. Couple with edge design and the replacement of the physical home button with the 3D touch button, it allows more information to be displayed.
On the security login aspect, it includes face recognition, fingerprint and iris scanners besides other usual features. The fingerprint scanner is on the back which is designed for the index finger easy access while holding the phone in one hand. I have not used the iris scanner yet as I find the face recognition is good enough for my needs. The face recognition is very fast although it may not work well when the lighting is poor. This is fine and understandable. Once this happen, I just used the usual pattern login. This feature is great as it is more convenient now without needing to spend time keying in password or draw out the pattern. Cool.
I like the Always On Display as part of the lock screen. You can set it to be off at certain time too. Therefore, a digital clock, analog clock or many other configurations for us to set is being displayed on the screen even the phone is being left idling. It looks great on the full curved screen. This means that the power consumption and management is greatly improved in order to display something all the time.
The Edge Panel is a handy shortcut that can be slide out at any time you want. The panel can consist of a list of contacts, apps, reminders etc. you have selected base on your preference. Therefore, you can launch thing directly without needing to quite or toggle out of an app or task first. On the other hand, you can use the Multi Window feature to have 2 apps showing on the screen at the same time. This is good when you need to cut and paste from one app to the other.
Google Assistant has improved as well. Now, you don’t need to have an American or British accent in order to be understood by it. The Smart View is pretty stable if you wish to do a screen mirroring with your smart TV.
One thing I notice is that Live Wallpaper for the home screen is not being recommended now base on the lack of new contents. Even locating the wallpaper is difficult after I have installed it. I love them as some of them are so creative and artistic. Some of them are so enjoyable to watch and bring out the individualism of the phone. This is a disappointment and my guess is that Live Wallpaper may be taking up too much resource and energy.
I am a phablet guy and therefore I miss the pen feature that is available in Note 5. The S Pen is great when I prefer to scribble things plus many other neat features. I upgrade to S8+ as everyone knows that the Note 7 went up in smoke. I always wonder why phablet never catch on with the mass market.
Compare to Apple, I have only one complaint. It is the same complaint I made 3 years ago. As Google is bared from China, I cannot access Play Store unless I use VPN. I also need to buy a non Chinese market S8+. If I have bought the phone in China, the phone system will kill Play Store app every time I launch it. It is beyond VPN now. If I use Samsung Apps store, I can’t even find Whatsapp as it is a direct competition to Wechat in China. This is how gangster type environment and competition is in China.
In summary, considering all the pluses and minuses, I am pretty happy with the new Samsung S8+.