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Galaxy s8

The Galaxy S8 has been unveiled after nearly endless rumor and speculation. The leaks were solid this year — the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus have curved displays with rounded corners, and substantially no bezel. Sure, they look different, but what else is new? Hither are the six most interesting features of the Galaxy S8.

The "Infinity Display"

One of the Galaxy S8's near interesting features is also one of the well-nigh prominent: Samsung'southward new "Infinity Display." That's the fancy proper name Samsung has given to the curved AMOLED with rounded-off corners. Yes, the shape of the screen is dissimilar, just it affects the way the phone volition feel in your manus.

You might notice all the images of the Galaxy S8 appear to be of the black telephone. That's really just because the front bezel volition exist blackness on all models. In the past, Samsung's phones accept been the same color on the front and dorsum. So, if you had a silverish telephone, it was argent on the front and  back. The blackness front panel on this phone is intended to accentuate the wait of the Infinity Display and hide the already slim bezels.

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The manner the screen snugs correct up against the border of the telephone helps continue information technology compact even every bit Samsung boosts the screen area. The Milky way S8 has a 5.viii-inch screen, which is even larger than the Milky way S7 Border final yr. Withal, the Galaxy S8 is closer in size to the GS7: 148.9 x 68.1 x 8.0 mm versus 142.4 ten 69.6 x vii.nine mm.

A new, more durable battery

Samsung had a rough end to 2016 as it scrambled to clean upwards later on the Note seven battery fiasco. It hasn't pushed the capacity in the GS8, probably to make extra certain information technology doesn't run the risk of predisposing them to catch fire. These batteries are different, though. Samsung says they're more durable and should lose less charge over time.

According to Samsung, the Galaxy S7 battery retained about eighty% of its capacity subsequently one year of typical recharging. The lithium-ion cells in the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus will plainly retain 95% of their chapters after a year of utilise. That'southward great, especially considering the batteries are sealed in. If y'all're the sort who wants to use a phone for years on end until it dies, y'all can feel more than confident buying a Galaxy S8.

Bixby

Samsung is debuting a new banana platform with the Milky way S8. It'due south called Bixby, and it exists aslope the Google Banana. At that place'due south a defended button on the left side of the Galaxy S8 that will call up Bixby. What happens when yous do that? It depends on the app.

Bixby isn't supposed to answer questions or practise searches for you (but it tin can do some of that). It's designed to be another route for controlling the telephone. Apps that are optimized for Bixby tin can be completely controlled past voice. At launch, it volition only work with gallery, phone, contacts, settings, camera, and reminders. There are 32 apps targeted for support, and there will (somewhen) exist an API for tertiary-party apps.

Navigation buttons

Samsung has fabricated but pocket-sized changes to the layout of its navigation buttons since the Galaxy S3 debuted with the aforementioned design on all carriers. With the Galaxy S8, the navigation buttons are gone — at least the physical buttons. Samsung has moved to virtual buttons, which allows for some cool features.

Samsung's physical buttons have always been backward from the standard Android layout. It's supposed to be dorsum on the left and overview on the correct of the home push button. That's what every other phone does. With the move to virtual buttons, you can rearrange them to the :right" layout.

Samsung hasn't adult a pressure level-sensitive screen similar Apple (though that has been rumored for years), but there is a force per unit area-sensitive spot. The expanse where the habitation button appears is pressure sensitive. And so, even if the navigation buttons are hidden (eg. you're watching a video or playing a game), a hard press on that spot activates the home button.

Samsung DeX

Call up the Motorola Webdock? It was a laptop shell that plugged into the Motorola Atrix, which powered a desktop-like interface for your phone. That was a bad idea, just Samsung is trying to do it improve with Desktop Feel (DeX). All you need is a Galaxy S8 and the DeX dock.

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The DeX dock has an HDMI and two USB ports. Just hook it upwardly to your monitor and some input devices, and you're all gear up. The Milky way S8 powers the interface when plugged in. That means yous take access to all the data on your phone with a larger screen. Information technology's not articulate how well apps will exist supported, though. Many of them will be weirdly stretched on a big screen. Simply a few of the apps on the phone have been specifically optimized for DeX.

We don't know how much the DeX dock will price, or if it will be bachelor at launch with the GS8. Maybe this will finally exist the Webdock done correct. Historically, companies have typically killed their dock offerings by slapping purchase prices on them well-nigh as high as buying a 2nd phone. No 1 seems to realize that the key to driving dock support is to make the few bits of plastic and circuitry really affordable.

More storage, finally

This isn't a flashy feature, but it'due south really important. Samsung has finally stopped limiting the base model of its flagship phone to 32GB of storage. The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus volition come with 64GB of built-in storage. The lack of storage was getting weird as much cheaper phones like the OnePlus 3 shipped with 64GB standard.

Samsung will also still include a microSD menu slot for expanded storage. That'southward nice if you want to carry around a lot of media, but it won't be equally fast as the internal storage. Samsung'southward UFS 2.0 NAND flash is blazing fast. It's always nice to take more of it. For more information on the phone's hardware, check our companion piece here.