Hi Folks! I purchased the smartphone a while ago and I will give you my impressions on this awesome android device. Since I am not one of the big reviewers out there, receiving products from the manufacturers, I had to do a little bit of research before settling in on my daily driver.

I was really tempted on buying other smartphones, like the One Plus 5 and the LG G6, but the features I have with it and having a deal with the carriers made me change my mind. I have been in Canada for about 2 years and been using Freedom Mobile.

Bixby

I just wasn't expecting Bixby. TBH Samsung, why? Why Samsung (lol)? There's even a dedicated button to open yet another bloatware. And I have never used the software, not even know what it does. And it keeps going: we have 2 non-negotiable apps installed for the basics, like email and web browser. It would be nice if we could uninstall those and only have the ones we really use.

I even asked Bixby to uninstall itself, but it didn't work!

BIXBY: why Samsung? Why?

But what about the specs?

Antutu 3D Benchmark on the S8 (with DU Recorder app).

The SM-G950W rocks an Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 2.36GHz and an Adreno 540 GPU. It comes with 4GB of LPDDR4. This android device is blazing fast!

It features a Dual Edge Super AMOLED Quad HD+ (2960 x 1440) with a pixel density of 423 dpi. The screen size is 5.83 inches. Though it will only unleash its full potential when using the Performance Mode (see CPU-Z screenshots below).

The screen is amazing with vivid colors and all!

Product weight: 155 grams!

Product dimensions: 5.86" x 2.68" x 0.31" or 148.9 x 68.1 x 8 millimeters. The smartphone is super thin and shinny, so cases are welcome!

As of November 2017, the S8 runs the 7.0 version of Android. Not sure when the device is going to receive the new Android Oreo though.

You can check the online benchmark, by clicking here.

Not only it has a headphone jack, but it also comes with a pair of high-end earbuds!

No "Battery Low" message from wireless earbuds

We didn't even start talking about connectivity options, which are plenty by the way, so someone would think: this cutting-edge device must have abandoned old technology, right? WRONG! It still rocks the 3.5 mm headphone jack, so we can go to a department store and see what options we have.

Now we talk CAMERAS!

The main camera has 12.2 MP with a resolution of 4032 x 3024 pixels. It records 4K UHD (3840 x 2160 pixels) videos @ 30 fps. The selfie camera has 8 MP with a resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels. It records 2K UHD (2560 x 1440 pixels) videos @ 30 fps.

Specs aside, it's like the smartphone invites us to take pictures/videos. Once the cameras are on, snapping pictures are so fast, no delays whatsoever. And the picture quality can be seen below.

low-light pictures

The S8 won't let you down when it comes to taking pictures in a low-light environment.

Fingerprint Scanner

Because the sensor is not centered on the back of the smartphone, I feel like it's hard to hit the small box without a case on it. One interesting thing is that the sensor will capture the fingerprints no matter how you put your finger on it: once they are registered, you can unlock the S8 in many ways.

Connectivity (Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX)

The blazing fast WIFI in this thing is no joke: the dual-band wireless can take care of your streaming, Netflix, Facebook or whatever your heart desires. The Bluetooth 5.0 is a different story though, there's threads and threads of people on the interwebs talking about weak signal and faulty behavior.

I decided to test myself and bought cheap wireless earbuds from SkullCandy (jib model). When inside the office or at home, it works perfectly. But when out in the streets, it seems the devices lose communication with each other. It's very annoying and frustating having to restart my music all the time.

What I noticed is that issues happen when the smartphone is in my pocket. If I am holding it in my hands, it works perfectly. People say Samsung will release a fix for this problem.

It's hard to tell if there's a manufacturing problem with the earbuds too, because I don't experience the same problem when using another Bluetooth headset I have. 

Wireless charging

When I bought mine, I also got the wireless charger as part of the deal (not necessarily included, check with your carrier first).

TBH, I thought the Wireless Charger would be a bummer, because charging it that way isn't exactly the same as accessing WIFI: once you pick it up, the device will stop juicing and who knows how bad is that for the battery in the long term. But, it fast charges, so we got that going for us, which is nice.

The wired earbuds need to be plugged off when docking the S8 on the charger though. 

Home is not home anymore

Everyone is accustomed to having the home as the first page on their smartphone, right? Not in the S8: the homepage is actually the second one. It takes time, but it's not a big deal!

So, should I stay or should I go for it?

My reaction when I got my hands on the S8

The answer for that is very simple: if you already have an S7 or a similar smartphone, no. If you can make a deal with a carrier, so you wouldn't have to pay for its price upfront: hell yeah!