Samsung yesterday unveiled the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, its latest flagship handsets for 2017. Featuring an infinity display and powerful internals, the S8 and S8+ represent the very best of what an Android OEM is capable of doing.

Soon after Samsung unveiled the handset, many publications also went ahead and published their first impressions of the device. Below is a roundup of some of them to see what they say about the device.

The Verge

The publication notes that to improve the durability of the display, Samsung has ensured that all four corners of the Galaxy S8’s display are curved. Dieter Bohn also notes that the design of the Galaxy S8 is an evolution of what was found on the Galaxy S7 edge and Note 7, but just “refined to their Platonic ideals.”

And as you will see below, Bohn also complained about the fingerprint location being a bit too high to reach comfortably. This will likely lead to a lot of camera smudges and frustration for the end user.

As for Bixby, the publication’s thought mirror what many others have felt: it feels just like another Google Assistant clone from Samsung.

The goal is that “anything you can control with touch, you can also control with voice.” It’s a laudable goal, but it’s also one I very seriously doubt Samsung can achieve. For one thing, it only works with about 10 Samsung apps at launch. Also, it can only work with apps that are written to support Bixby. Unlike Google Now on Tap, Bixby doesn’t do any screen reading to try and guess what’s on the screen. So it might be a virtual assistant, but it’s very far from an artificial intelligence.

Android Authority

The publication notes that despite the increased display sizes, the Galaxy S8 is easy to handle, though the S8 Plus might feel a bit too large for some. The large size of the Galaxy S8 Plus also makes it a challenge to reach for the fingerprint scanner at the rear.

Altogether, the S8 Plus requires a bit of work to handle, but the original S8 simply feels sublime. All hand sizes are different though, so your mileage may vary.

The publication also notes that one can completely customise the navigation bar on the Galaxy S8, right down to the position of the buttons and the background color so stock Android lovers will finally be able to customise and put the buttons in the same order as it ideally should be.

MKBHD

Popular YouTuber MKBHD also released his first impressions video of the Galaxy S8 soon after the launch event.

In his video, Marques highlights that the on-screen button icons are not exactly pretty, and the placement of the fingerprint scanner at the rear of the device beside the camera is not ideal and will lead to the camera lens getting smudged.

Barring that, in terms of design, Marques says that the Galaxy S8 has a future 2020 design and comes with all the features that one would expect: IP68 rating, USB-C, microSD card slot, an iris scanner, excellent cameras, and a powerful 10nm chipset.

The video also gives us a glimpse at the redesigned user interface, right down to the redesigned icons that look more aesthetically pleasing compared to the previous version of Samsung’s interface.

What do you think about the Galaxy S8 and S8+ based on their first impressions? Will you be buying one of them? Drop a comment and let us know!