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KT APPDOWNLOAD
Welcome back to the Samsung galaxy
Forget about the Note 7 fiasco - the Galaxy S8 is here... along with a new friend - Bixby
In order to pack all its key offerings into our little space, I've decided to go at it piece by piece.
Display: That Infinity Display sure does the trick. I'm not what you would call a Samsung fan, but I've been impressed by their devices, and did find myself spending a lot of time at a Dubai store recently, messing around with the 6.2-inch S8+ once it was on display (we had the 5.8-inch S8 for our review). It's practically a zero-bezel phone; both curved edges give that smooth, full-screen feel - and that had me hooked.
Swipe from the right edge to reveal the Edge menu. The first of three drawers has your most frequently used apps, while the second houses the people you contact most (both customisable, of course). I find that a bit repetitive, unless you don't have these apps or your contacts on your home screen. The third is somewhat more useful: the Smart Select menu, which allows you to select an area on the screen - GIFs included - and save it. Swiping from the left, meanwhile, reveals our new friend, Bixby.
Bixby: Siri, Cortana, Assistant - even Alexa - say hi to your new frenemy, Bixby. Play nice.
Bixby is Samsung's own splash into the digital assistant arena, and it responds to your voice, can set up reminders for you and give the camera a whole new meaning with Bixby Vision. However, Bixby's voice function is not available yet. While it is already available in South Korea, an update will be rolled out at an unspecified date soon enough. For now, you can enjoy Bixby Reminders, which you can use to, say, buy something from a certain store, or knock your brain to call someone at a certain time.
Then there's Bixby Vision, a new function within the camera that allows you to see information about an image, both live and snapped. However, the image recognition results only show stuff on Pinterest - which makes me suspect that Bixby Vision is up for some major overhaul soon. Something I can use in my profession: Bixby Vision has the option to recognise text; hold it up to a document and it'll type it down for you onscreen, so you won't need to type a whole document from a hard copy. I experimented with it on a computer screen - it returned some garbled results.
Bixby has its own dedicated button just below the volume rocker on the left. Thank God you can reassign that button, since it doesn't do anything that important... for now.
Camera: The 12MP dual-pixel main and ramped-up 8MP front shooters do a pretty fine job even in low light, a hallmark of Samsung's devices. Swipe left to reveal filters, and swipe right to see your modes, which include professional, virtual shot, slow motion and hyperlapse.
Security: Take your pick: PIN, pattern, fingerprint, facial recognition and iris scanner; you can activate multiple locks at the same time.
The iris scanner - the headliner - works great; it'll recognise your irises even if your eyes aren't exactly in the middle of the circles that capture them. Facial recognition, on the other hand, is a bit clunky; sometimes it takes more than one try to recognise my face, plus it can be fooled by a photo (you're in trouble if you look like some Hollywood hunk or diva). The fingerprint scanner, meanwhile, is placed on the rear, to the left of the camera shutter. It's oddly-placed, though it works well with your index finger if you're left-handed.
Battery: Um, yes. Samsung guarantees a better, safer battery this time around. (RIP ad infinitum to the Note 8.) This one lasts over a day with not-so-hardcore use, charges pretty fast and has a number of good juice-saving options.
Bonus: Each unit comes with a nice pair of
AKG headsets.
AND SO.
It's a great comeback for Samsung, although Bixby could definitely use more retooling (considering Google Assistant is also on board). Wish it was at full strength during its launch.
THE LOWDOWN
Processor: Exynos 8895, 4 x 2.3GHz + 4 x 1.7GHz octa-core (EMEA)
Memory: RAM - 4GB; storage - 64GB
Display: 5.8" dual-edge Super Amoled, up to Quad HD+
Platform: Android 7.0 Nougat
Camera: Main - 12MP dual-pixel, UHD 4K; front - CMOS 8MP
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC; USB Type-C, 3.5mm audio; dual-SIM
Battery: 3000mAh, up to 20h talk, 44h audio playback, 12h Web usage (LTE)
Price: Dh2,799 (Dh3,099 for S8+)
Pros: Ridiculously amazing screen; smooth design/ interface; great camera
Cons: Bixby incomplete; a bit expensive; facial recognition needs improvement
Author's rating: 8.5/10
alvin@khaleejtimes.com
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