Apple iPhone 6 detailed review

So you’ve sold the necessary organs and you’re ready to join the queues to buy the iPhone 6, but you now realise that it is of stock. Nevermind, you can use the time to read this review and finally decide if you want to spend your money on Apple's latest and greatest. The new iPhone represents, arguably, the biggest ever makeover in the series, but does it really clear the high standards that the company has set for itself? Let’s find out.

This is going to be a long one, so we've got some handy quick verdicts peppered throughout the review, if you don't have enough time to read it in its entirety.

Build & Design

At 6.9 mm, this is the slimmest iPhone till date and Apple has gone back to the rounded edges that the very first iPhone came with. The iPhone 6 though doesn’t feel as premium as the 5S before it. In fact, it doesn’t feel like an iPhone. The bigger screen seems to have taken Apple out of its comfort zone. While the device has very good build quality, it isn’t the efficient design philosophy that we’ve seen in iPhones till date.

For one, the iPhone 6 is possibly the most slippery iPhone that Apple has ever built. You’re definitely going to need a cover for this smartphone, because it tends to slip out of your hand very easily. If you’ve been a long time Apple user, then you will be even more prone to drop it since you’re not used to the size. In the initial four hours of usage, I almost dropped it six times and I’m not clumsy, especially with review devices.

Next, the camera protrusion on the back. This frankly doesn’t bother me much. What I hate more are the hideous plastic bands for the antenna. These stick out even more in the Gold version of the smartphone. In addition, the glossy front portion of the iPhone and the rounded bulges on the front edges don’t feel very premium. The device’s overall look and feel, though good, pales in comparison to the iPhone 5S. The front panel seems out of place in the entire design. But that is more a matter of personal tastes.

The iPhone 6 is also very light, but when was the last time you heard Samsung beat Apple in the design department? The recently launched Samsung Galaxy Alpha has the same display size as the iPhone 6, but is only 3 grams heavier than the iPhone 5S and 14 grams lighter than the iPhone 6. Of course, the plastic body on the Alpha helps it keep its weight down. Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone 6 is still light at 129 grams, but it feels bulkier and heavier than it actually is.

"It’s not the out and out marvelous design language we’ve seen from Apple earlier."

Display

The flagship feature of the new iPhone 6 is its 4.7 inch display and Apple went with 1334x750 pixels in order to ensure that the 326ppi pixel density introduced in the iPhone 4 remains the same. What does this mean? It means that while the screen is larger, the content on it will remain as sharp as in the iPhone 5S. As a result, I had no complaints about the iPhone 6’s display in general. It is also quite bright, if only slightly lower than the 5S. This still doesn’t affect its sunlight visibility and the iPhone 6 retains Apple’s history of good displays with excellent viewing angles. Apple’s auto brightness control helps with the sunlight visibility too.

"750p may not sound like much, but it most definitely works!"

Performance

Till now, the iPhone has been about premium feel and top of the line performance. The iPhone 6, though, is all performance. The new A8 processor inside is faster than the earlier A7 processor and gives very good performance. Does it heat up? Which iPhone doesn’t? Does that affect the performance? Not really. Games like Real Racing 3, Asphalt 8, Injustice: Gods Among Us and some others, run like a charm on the new iPhone. In addition, the extra screen real estate helps improve the gameplay experience.

Here’s my beef with Apple though. Where’s the battery life for me to use that performance? The device is a big battery hog. I couldn’t get past 6 hours, with or without intensive games. In fact, I never put the device through as much gaming as I usually do. The iPhone 6 loses battery fast when you start watching high definition videos or play games on it. The overall battery life is better than the iPhone 5S, but it's not even close to being enough. If you’re moving from Android to iPhone then this will be a shock for you, depending on what phone you were using. Most Android flagships have much better battery life than the iPhone 6.

"Performance is at par with any Android flagship, but battery life doesn’t allow you to use it enough."

UI

The UI on iOS 8 is not any different from what we saw with the earlier version, but Apple had to do something to compensate for the bigger screen. The phone’s size, combined with its slippery body makes it a nightmare for those who use their phones while lying down. You will often find yourself struggle to reach the top of the screen or see the phone topple out of your hand while you try to do it. For this, Apple gave the option to double tap the home button, which shifts the entire UI down.

This feature, though useful, doesn’t work in some important areas like Spotlight search. The search bar on Spotlight search remains on the top of the screen and doesn’t move down. Neither do the search results. Also, while the double tap helps, it still makes you move around a lot. Back buttons in Apple’s UI are almost always on the top, which means you will have to reach a long way even after bringing the UI down. This further adds to the unwieldiness of the device and is a major glitch.

"Single handed usage isn't refined enough. UI needs to make you move around less."

Camera

If there is one area where the iPhone 6 smashes it out of the park, it's the camera. While the device still has the same 8 MP camera as on the 5S, detailing and white balance on the iPhone 6 is definitely better. Apple’s camera is in fact the greatest testament to the fact that megapixel count doesn’t determine camera quality. The iPhone 6 takes amazing pictures in normal outdoor lighting and is good even under low light.

Not just that, the new phase detection autofocus is so fast that I missed the point when the camera focused on an object a few times. The only other phone camera that is this fast with its autofocus is the LG G3. The 8 MP images from the iPhone 6 can give any other smartphone and even some cameras a run for their money and it is easily one of the best phone cameras that you will find in the market.

That said, the iPhone 5S also had the best camera when it came out (Editor's Note: yes, we've considered the Lumia 1020 when we say that). While the iPhone 6 is better, the difference won’t be that apparent to the untrained eye. In addition, with iOS 8 allowing manual controls, the 5S has room for improvement through third party apps.

"Best smartphone camera. Period."

Bottomline

For Apple users

This is the tricky part. While the iPhone 6 does provide better performance than the 5S, you will know this only by benchmark scores. For regular usage, both the devices are just as smooth. The iPhone 5S is no slouch and shows no lags whatsoever. In addition, the 32GB variant of the 5S is available for almost as much as the 16GB version of the iPhone 6. On top of that, iOS 8 really doesn’t leave much to separate the two devices. So what’s to stop you from buying the 5S instead or refrain from an upgrade if you already own it?

Well, the iPhone 6 will obviously have a longer lifetime than the 5S and will get updates for a longer duration. Secondly, the new iPhone will be the choice for Apple users looking for a bigger screen (but not as big as the 5.5-in one on the 6 Plus). If not, the 5S is still a very good buy.

Simply put, if you thought iPhones should be bigger, then Apple heard you and has delivered. If you have anything lower than the iPhone 5, then now is the time to upgrade. If not, stick to your phone and buy the next Apple smartphone that comes out.

"Want a bigger iPhone? Buy it."

Android to iPhone

The bigger screen on the iPhone was supposedly going to pull users from Android to the iOS ecosystem. But making the shift isn’t as easy as it sounds. Apple still hasn’t provided a really battery efficient phone with this one and iOS is still limited when it comes to sharing options. Yes iOS 8 is opening APIs for the same, but that’s a thing of the future. For now, you’re entering the Apple family and there’s a lot you may not like.

Moreover, Android has the benefits of being an open system and still offers many more features than the iPhone. Siri is no match for Google Now, especially in India, and customisation options are simply much greater on Android. Also, with Apple Pay not likely to be here anytime soon, you essentially don't have NFC on the iPhone 6 either. So, if you like to play around with your phone and want the above mentioned aspects then you shouldn’t be making the switch. On the other hand, if you want a phone that you can immediately start using and you aren't impressed by the way you can tweak Android, then the iPhone 6 is your best bet.

"If you don't want to fiddle with your phone to make it better, then buy it."

Price tag

Yes, Rs. 53,500 for a 16GB smartphone is a farce, so if you’re going to buy an iPhone then make sure you have upwards of Rs. 60,000. If not, save and then go for it, maybe the prices will drop too. You get 10.6GB free, which really isn’t enough unless you’re planning and have the money to upgrade to the iPhone 7 next year.

"Got the budget for the 64GB iPhone 6? Pick that one."

Xolo Q1000S detailed review

Xolo has impressed us with its diverse device portfolio that has included the likes of the Xolo Q700, Xolo Play, and the Q1000 to name a few. Now, the smartphone maker has launched the Q1000S that runs on the MediaTek MT6589T chipset, boasts of a unibody design and has taken the route of no expandable storage. Is this device worth a glance?

At a glance
A slim and attractive black matte finish with what feels like a metal body is the first thing that will wow you when you look at the smartphone. Coming to the specifications of the device, it has a 5-inch display with a 1280x720 pixel resolution. Under the hood it has the MediaTek MT6589T chipset clocked at 1.5GHz coupled with 1GB of RAM. The rear houses a 13MP camera and the front has a 5MP video-calling camera. A 2500mAh battery powers the package.

Here is a quick look at how the smartphone performs when compared to the competition (including the Canvas 4, WickedLeak Wammy Passion Z Plus, Lemon A4 and the iberry Auxus Nuclea N1).  

Design
Like I said earlier, you will be wowed by the design of the smartphone. It has a black matte finish with a unibody design and has the potential of being Batman’s phone. The device is very slim measuring a mere 6.9mm in thickness and is light at 158 grams. Despite being light, the smartphone feels extremely sturdy.

Below the display you have the standard capacitive buttons – menu, home and back. The rear houses the 13MP camera along with a flash. Since the Q1000S has a unibody design, you don’t have access to the battery and just like the Nexus 4, iPhone 5 or the Huawei Ascend P6, you have a SIM tray that pops out with the use of a pin. Smartphones such as the Ascend P6 have a microSD card tray along with the SIM card tray.

This is where the awesome design of the smartphone ends. In other smartphones that I have tested, a single pop is all it takes to remove the SIM card tray. Here I had to struggle to get the SIM tray out. I even managed to bend the SIM tray pin in the process.

The left of the Q1000S houses the volume rocker along with the power button. This seems a bit strange as we are used to seeing the power button on the right and getting used to it being on the left sort of feels like driving an American car in India.

Another manner in which I managed to “break” the phone is with the power button. It just slipped into its socket forcing me to use my nails for the rest of the review process to unlock the Q1000S. Quite frustrating, especially when I wanted to take screen shots. Thankfully, the volume rocker stayed intact.

Although the phone left a good impression in the beginning with respect to build quality, the issues with the power button and the SIM tray spoiled it all.

UI and preloaded apps
The Xolo Q1000S runs on Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean. The smartphone also has the ability to update OTA (Over The Air), a feature we miss in most budget smartphones but found on the WickedLeak Wammy Passion Z Plus. The rest of the user interface is stock Android, one that we love. Navigating the device feels smooth. I had quite a few apps running in the background including games such as Dead Trigger and the interface of the smartphone was still butter smooth.

The Q1000S come preloaded with a few apps, such as Xolo Secure and Xolo Power, that we have seen on other Xolo devices. As the name suggests, Xolo Secure is a security app that helps you keep your data safe. The Xolo Power app on the other hand gives you information about the battery consumption and gives you access to a bunch of settings such as Sync frequency, Night mode (which switches off the Internet when the display is off), Low battery Mode which disables power guzzling features such as Wi-Fi, data, GPS and more after the battery percentage drops below your preset level.

Overall, the UI is stock Android, which I liked, and the preloaded apps add good value to the smartphone.

Performance
Coming to the performance of the Xolo Q1000S, here is a quick look to see how it performs when compared to other smartphones in its price range.

 

From the above benchmarks it is clear that the Q1000S is a good performer when it comes to the hardware it is running on. We have seen devices such as the Lemon A4 that runs on the old MT6589 chipset and has a 1080p display along with 1GB of RAM. With its hardware, the Lemon required more power to render on a Full HD display, hence the lower scores. On the other hand we have the WickedLeak Wammy Passion Z Plus that shows off not only a 1080p display but the MT6589T chipset as well. The Wammy Passion Z Plus was plagued with lag when multitasking and in the benchmarks, as you can see, it scores less than the Q1000S.

Moving on, the display of the Q1000S smartphone isn’t as vibrant as the Lemon A4 or the Wammy Passion Z Plus but it is great for consuming content nonetheless. The display has wide viewing angles and the reproduction of colours is crisp. Reading text, watching movies, playing games or just navigating the device is fun since the display is gorgeous. The 5-inch display has a 1280x720 pixel resolution giving it 293ppi pixel density.

There is no lag at all while navigating the smartphone or using it for multitasking. The experience of interacting with the display feels really good. The keyboard is stock Android and is well laid out and the device is comfortable to type on.

When it came to testing video files, we found that AVI and MP4 files ran smoothly on the Xolo Q1000S but in the case of MKV, the video played but the audio didn’t. Navigating the timeline of the videos, changing orientation, everything was smooth on the native player without any hiccups.

The camera on the rear of the Xolo Q1000S is 13MP and we were skeptical of its performance. In well-lit conditions, especially outdoors, the camera performed well. In low-lit situations too the camera performance was acceptable, better than what we have seen on competing smartphones, but not by a great margin. In low-lit situations, when you blow the image to its full size, you will notice loss of detail. It gets the job done however, if all you want to do is click pictures for social networking websites.

Gaming on the Xolo Q1000S is plagued by the same problems that we saw on the other MediaTek MT6589 powered smartphones. Real Racing 3 still refused to run but other games we played on the smartphone, such as Angry Birds, Temple Run and Dead Trigger, seemed to run just fine.  

In terms of its battery life, the Xolo Q1000S is average. In our continuous video playback test, the device lasted for five hours. With average use you will be able to get through one day of use.  

Bottom Line
The overall build of the Xolo Q1000S is above average even though I managed to break the power button and it impressed with its benchmark performance and real world usage. Majority of the smartphones in this category have a removable battery and expandable storage along with dual SIM capabilities. If these qualities are a priority for you, then you are better off looking at competing devices such as the Canvas 4, Wammy Passion Z Plus and more. You can consider this device if you want a well-built single SIM smartphone and don’t mind being limited to 16GB built-in storage.

HTC Desire 828 Dual SIM detailed review

I must admit there was a time I would look forward to the phones that HTC would launch. I am talking about the era when the first HTC Desire was launched back in 2010. The HTC Desire was my first Android phone and I was in love with it. The Desire was actually the Nexus smartphone that HTC made for Google but with HTC’s Sense UI overlaying it and with an improved track pad (yes, smartphones once upon a time had track pads). Personally, after that smartphone I moved on to a Nexus. I still reviewed HTC’s smartphones at the time and for the era, they were “quietly brilliant”. After the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S2 HTC went on to becoming quietly ignored. But the smartphone maker persisted and launched phone after phone and despite doing some things brilliantly (boom sound), the smartphones never really excited many. I failed to understand why as there are a few gems hidden beneath all the marketing hype (UltraPixel jargon), something only an HTC fanboy would understand  (if any of those are still out there).

Today we review the HTC Desire 828. The smartphone is simple, elegant and competing in a price point dominated by the Chinese invasion. Does it have what it takes to stand out?

Build and design

The build of the HTC Desire 828 is similar to its predecessors. The review unit we received has a black matte finished back and a golden brown border that surrounds the phone. The rear back panel is non removable but if you try really hard, you can get it off. The phone is really slim at 7.9mm and is very comfortable to hold. The matte rubberised back of the smartphone gives it a really good grip, better than some phones with a metal body. Considering the design on offer with the HTC Desire 828 it was extremely comfortable to hold especially when using the keyboard to type.

Coming back to the design, you have the standard port placement – MicroUSB port at the bottom, headphones jack on the top, SIM card slots on the left and the power button and volume rocker on the right. Moving to the power button and the volume rocker, they aren’t textured or protruding. From a design standpoint this is very good. From a functional standpoint, it isn’t easy to locate. It takes some getting used to and there is a leaning curve to remembering its position. Maybe I’m getting old but I prefer the textured power button. Its easier to identify without looking.

The front of the smartphone is clean and simple with HTC traditional Boomsound speakers at the top and the bottom of the display. 

The smartphone doesn’t house a fingerprint sensor, which can be a bummer especially if you are one that has used a smartphone with a finger print sensor in this price bracket. A fingerprint sensor does make it easy for you to unlock your smartphone if nothing else and using it is like getting used to an elevator with automatic doors. Its just convenient and you really don’t like the manual door elevators even though they require nothing more than a slight effort. 

Overall the build and design of the phone is quite good. It has a 5.5-inch form factor and even though that isn’t much of a difference when compared to the 6-inch behemoths floating around, it feels compact in one's hands.

Display and UI

Kicking things off with the display, the smartphone has a 5.5-inch LCD display with a 1920x1080 pixel resolution. The display is crisp, vibrant and placed along side other smartphone displays in the same price bracket, has better colour reproduction. Text looks good, whites look white and it’s a treat watching videos. I spent a lot of time watching animated movies and the colour reproduction was good and the display is vibrant. 

Coming to the UI, if you have used an HTC smartphone in the past, you will feel right at home here. The smartphone runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop, skinned with the HTC Sense 7.0 UI. Sense UI 7.0 has a few tweaks when compared to its predecessor. It still has BlinkFeed with a few tweaks here and there but overall, the sense UI 7.0 is a good one.  

Overall, the display of the smartphone is one of its biggest highlights and the UI is functional, which is what’s important.  

Performance

Before we get into the performance of the smartphone here is a quick look at the specifications. As we’ve mentioned, the HTC Desire 828 has a 5.5-inch 1080p display. Under the hood, the smartphone has the Mediatek MT6753 chipset with the Octa-core 1.5GHz CPU. The device has 2GB RAM and 16GB built-in storage which can be expanded up to 200GB via a microSD card. The rear has a 13MP OIS camera and the front has a 4MP UltraPixel camera. A 2800mAh battery powers the entire package. 

Here is a look at how the HTC Desire 828 competes with the OnePlus X, Lenovo Vibe P1, Meizu MX5 and Moto X Play in the benchmark comparison.

It isn’t a surprise, but the HTC Desire 828 isn’t the best performer but it isn’t the worst either. Its performance is good. 

Moving on to the real world performance the Desire 828 has the ability to hold its own. Multitasking is a breeze and the device ran all the popular apps and games we threw at it. Sure, it isn’t a powerhouse but for multimedia consumption it is a great device. 

Moving on to call quality, it’s surprisingly good. The audio is well audible at both ends and unless I faced a call drop issue, the experience of using the 828 as a phone was good.

Coming to the battery life, the smartphone survived for 7 hours and 50 minutes in the GeekBench Battery test and that’s about expected when compared to the competition. Moving to real world performance, the device lasts through the day with above average use including, calls, messaging, social media, light gaming the device was at about 20% by nightfall. 

Moving to the camera, the HTC Desire 828 has a 13MP rear camera. Getting the worst out of the way, the camera has difficulty focusing when the object is very close. This is the case with a lot of cameras on smartphones in this price bracket. 

Click to enlarge

Low light images taken from the camera of the HTC Desire 828 are soft and have a lot of noise. Colours are dim in low lit conditions but true to source. In well lit situations the colours reproduction is good. In the normal camera mode, getting the right focus point to get depth perception might be an issue but the camera does have a Bokeh mode to help with creating the effect of depth perception. 

Click to enlarge

Bottom line

The competition for the best smartphone under Rs. 20,000 is pretty stiff. You have great performers like the Asus Zenfone 2, Moto X Play, Lenovo Vibe S1 and Meizu MX 5 gunning for that position. The HTC Desire 828 falls somewhere in the middle. It isn’t a powerhouse like the Zenfone 2, that has 4GB RAM, but the Desire 828 is a smooth performer nonetheless. It doesn’t have a fancy curved glass back like the Lenovo Vibe S1, but the matte rubberised finish gives the device a good grip. It has no fingerprint sensor but we really aren’t complaining about that. It doesn’t have the Marathon M5’s battery but it can last a day. What it does have going for it is a great display and some good sound. Overall this is your run of the mill sturdy and trustworthy smartphone with a comfortable form factor, good sound and display and an average camera. You can consider it among the other smartphones mentioned on this list.

HTC One Max detailed review

Coolpad Note 3 Lite detailed review

While 2015, was a good year for the sub-7k smartphone market with the launch of some really good phones such as the Meizu M2 and the Acer Liquid Z530, 2016 has brought a new smartphone which can stand tall amongst the above mentioned devices. Yes, I am talking about the Coolpad Note 3 Lite, the smaller and lighter version of the Coolpad Note 3 which was launched last year. The recipe of the phone is kept same for the most part but to add some flavour, there is a nifty fingerprint sensor at the back and for the first time in this price range, 3GB of RAM. There are some other welcome changes which I will talk about in this review. 

Build and Design
The Coolpad Note 3 Lite is just the like original Coolpad Note 3 for the most part. The build quality of the Note 3 Lite is quite good. The phone carries forward a similar simple candy bar design. The phone also gets the chrome strip which runs around the edge of the smartphone. My review unit we received has a light gold polish on it which adds to the overall design quotient. The phone offers a 5-inch display which makes it quite ergonomic to hold. In comparison, the original Coolpad Note 3 was a bit unwieldy thanks to its 5.5-inch display. A nice addition to the mix is the new textured back cover which give the phone a nice grip. The button position and depth also remains unchanged and they give appropriate feed back when pressed. 

Display and UI
The Coolpad Note 3 Lite does not skimp on the display either and the 7K smartphone features a very good display. The 5-inch IPS LCD has good colour saturation and colour vibrance. The viewing angles good too. Sunlight legibility hasn't been improved from the original Coolpad Note 3 but in our experience, it definitely seems better. 

Talking about similarity between the Coolpad Note 3 and the Coolpad Note 3 Lite, the UI hasn't changed either. The UI is filled with bright icons and remains simple. As we’ve mentioned earlier, the fingerprint scanner is at the back of the smartphone. It is undoubtedly one of the best I have come across. It is fast, accurate and lets you unlock the phone in any orientation. The deja vu doesn't end here, the awful Xploree keyboard remains. Check out my Coolpad Note 3 review to know more about it.

Performance
Mediatek seems to be the choice of SoC for budget phones. The MT6735 which beats inside the Coolpad Note 3 Lite was also there in two of the best phones we have see in the sub-7K smartphone segment — Meizu M2 and the Acer Liquid Z530. On the Note 3 Lite, this 1.3GHz quad-core SoC churns out some great performance for the money and is able to keep up with most tasks required from the smartphone. Using the phone as a daily driver, we found that it could handle daily tasks such as calling, video watching, surfing and even multiple page surfing. I even tried browsing the web while streaming music in the background and found out, the phone worked without a hitch. Gaming performance is also quite good and the phone can easily handle less demanding games. The phone lags slightly with graphically intensive games, but nothing which can’t be overseen at this price. Coolpad has optimised both the SoC and the 3GB RAM well and the phone never felt like a budget offering.

Calling capabilities are good as well and the earpiece is clear, although it could have been louder. The same cannot be said about the rear speaker which felt muffled. However, the sound quality via headphones is the best in this category and definitely louder.

Camera and battery
The 13MP rear shooter isn't that great though. Images taken in normal lighting conditions have oversaturation and while they look good on the phone’s display, they look pixelated on a larger display. Images quality further deteriorates in low light conditions. There is a lot of visible noise which makes images taken in dim light sometimes unusable. The front facing 5MP camera does a decent job in outdoor light but produces average images in low light.

While the battery on the Coolpad Note 3 Lite is small by today’s standards at just 2500mAh, the phone can easily last you one day. In our normal battery test where we loop a 1080p FullHD video on loop until the battery dies, the phone was able to stay up for 12 hours, which is pretty good considering the price point and specs on offer. Using the phone as a daily driver with minimal gaming, the battery lasted till sundown but you will need to plug it in before you hit the bed. Gaming however, does consume the battery rather quickly and in an hour of gaming on the Coolpad Note 3 Lite, I lost about 20 percent battery. The phone does have very good standby time and offers faster charging compared to its rivals.

(L-R) Images taken in outside light, low light and (3-4) fluorescent light

Bottomline
The Coolpad Note 3 Lite is undoubtedly one of the best phones in the sub-7k smartphone category. It has a good build, a nice orthodox design, the display is good, performance is reliable and the battery is more than capable of lasting you for a day. You even get a fingerprint sensor at the 7K price point. What the phone lacks is a good camera. Coolpad has done a fabulous job with the Note 3 Lite but I would like to see more Google apps preloaded on the smartphone, especially the Google keyboard. If a good camera is not your priority, then the Coolpad Note 3 Lite is the phone to buy in the sub-7k smartphone segment. However, if a camera on the smartphone is important to you in this price segment, then the Meizu M2 might be the phone to consider.

Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus detailed review

Edge displays may not be the most useful thing you’ve ever seen on a smartphone, but they sure look good. And after three years and five such phones, Samsung has finally perfected its curved flagship design. It was close last year, but 2017’s models scream refinement and the Galaxy S8+ is the bigger of the two smartphones. You’ll read about the curves and edges a lot in this review, because unlike most flagships the Samsung Galaxy S8+ is more about design, and not just the hardware side of it. It's Samsung's best work till date and despite last year's debacle, it raises my hopes as to what the Galaxy Note 8 is going to be like now. But, I digress. Here's the Galaxy S8+ review.

Build and Design

A glass body comes with an inevitable flaw, one that Samsung seems fine with. The Galaxy S8+ and Galaxy S8 offer too much to break. Combined with a slippery body, you’re looking at a bumper case, or at least some kind of cover. That may still pass on the compact Galaxy S8, but on the S8+ it makes for a phone that's a tad unweildy. The last thing you want is to break this display. The display on last year's Galaxy S7 Edge would cost users about Rs. 18,000 for replacement, so one can only assume that this one would cross the 20k mark. That's about a third of the device's buying price.

On the other hand, if you are like me and decided to risk it, then you’re in for a treat. Fingerprints will show on the back, but frankly speaking, I really didn’t mind them. My midnight black unit looks great, and it’s comfortable to hold. Well, at least more comfortable than other 6-inch devices. Truth be told, while the Univisium display does make the Galaxy S8+ narrower than other 6-inch smartphones, it’s not exactly ergonomic.

Samsung has indeed proved what it can do with a curved body and an 18.5:9 display. The slight curves near the rear edges also make the phone easier to grip. That is, as much as is possible with its screen. Placed side-by-side, the Galaxy S8+ is more or less as big as an iPhone 7 Plus (review). That’s no mean feat, but on a personal note, the iPhone 7 Plus isn't the best example for design any way.

The buttons

A big part of the Galaxy S8+’s design finesse is in how the buttons are placed on the device. In order to make the phone feel like it was all screen, Samsung finally used on-screen buttons on its phones. The home, recents and back buttons work just like on any other phone, but there’s an embedded home button below the display as well.

So, when watching content in full screen, you can simply push down on the point where the home button should be and you’ll jump back to the home screen. When not in full screen mode, you can swipe up to bring the buttons back in view. The embedded button works in a similar manner to Apple's Force Touch, but I did find it easier to get used to.

Moving to the hardware buttons, you’ll find the power on/off button on the right, while the volume rocker and Bixby button lie on the left. While all of these are easy to reach on the Galaxy S8, on the S8+ it’s the Bixby button that’ll fall below your finger at all times (unless you have big hands), making you wish there was a way to remap it to the power on/off function.

Slim bezels or no bezels?

There's no real "bezel-less" display, but one can't blame Samsung for calling this one of those. No matter what colour you buy, the front of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ is always going to be black, and for good reason. The bezels are so slim and well hidden that you'll pretty much never spot them. It’s worth noting that Samsung isn’t the first to achieve such a design, but it comes with extra “oomph” due to the curved edges.

Another impact of these slim bezels is that you get a lot of screen real estate, even in the smaller device. They allow the on-screen buttons to feel non-intrusive.

That fingerprint sensor and other biometrics

I have to be honest here. Ever since any of us saw the Galaxy S8 via leaks, the fingerprint sensor placement seemed destined to frustrate, especially on the bigger device. The Galaxy S8+ is just too tall and the fingerprint sensor is too difficult to reach. Combined with the slippery back, it makes for a precarious way to unlock the phone. 

When you do reach it, the fingerprint sensor is quick to unlock the Galaxy S8+, but it’s just too difficult to get used to. Given the excellent design language and choices, this is a gaping hole in the phone that’s supposed to make up for the Galaxy Note 7’s misstep.

I tried using the Iris Scanner and Face Unlock features instead, but they’re neither dependable nor seamless enough to be used regularly. You’ll need to aim the camera correctly, which takes some getting used to. Also, the face unlock feature won’t work in low light, while the iris scanner also trips up a tad too often. It took me 7 tries just to register my iris on the scanner. What's worth noting is that Samsung's Iris Scanner is much easier to work with than Windows Hello on Windows-based phones.

Display

700 words down and we’re just scratching the surface with Samsung's design work. Moving to the next phase — the display. If you haven’t done the math already, QHD resolution on a 6.2-inch panel amounts to 529 ppi pixel density. Translation: the display is as sharp as it gets.

More importantly, Samsung has toned down colour saturation this time. To be clear, you still get pleasantly oversaturated tones, but the yellowish hue is not as apparent as before. Black levels are great, which also helps in hiding the bezels. Samsung allows users to toggle the level of red, green and blue colours on the screen, which is something enthusiasts would appreciate.

I saw a reddish tint appear on the display from minor angles, but the same didn’t happen on the Galaxy S8. Given that this is a reported issue that Samsung has responded to, I’m assuming it’s one specific to my unit. I also noticed a rainbow effect on the Edge part of the S8+’s display and this too wasn’t found on the S8.

Univisium aspect ratio

Univisium may finally turn out to be the future, but it's just a fancy spec at the moment. It allows the display to be taller instead of wide, which is the main reason for this phone’s compact form factor. However, content doesn’t yet conform to it. So, at least for the time being you’ll have to deal with pillarboxing. On the Galaxy S8+, Amazon Prime streams video in a rectangular format, with black bars on the Edge part and on the two sides. On the Galaxy S8, this seems limited to the sides only.

UI

UI design is a big part of designing a smartphone and the Samsung Experience (that’s what Touchwiz is called now) is the best the company has done so far. For the sake of familiarity and simplicity, I’m just going to call it Touchwiz in this review.

UI design is another part of the finesse I talked about earlier. I’m still not particularly fond of Samsung’s always on display, but much like other things on this phone, it looks good. I wish there was more functionality to it, but this will have to work for now. I'm also not completely sure that this is a light UI, but it's lighter than most Samsung UIs I've used before.

Importantly, Samsung has changed Touchwiz’s colour schemes and icon designs this time. Icons have rounded corners and look sharp, and they're colourful to complement the phone's display. To be fair, the company’s been heading this way since last year, but once again it saved the best for the last.

If you’ve used a Samsung phone recently, you would have seen the grouped Settings menu as well. There’s a Search button within settings that makes it simpler to find what you’re looking for. That makes customising the phone fast and extremely easy.

As I mentioned before, Samsung’s Edge features are pretty gimmicky and not really useful. However, the company has made a solid change this time. Its game tools icon appears (when needed) alongside the on-screen keys, making it less intrusive. Similarly, notification icons on top appear just in front of the curve (third photo above), while heads up notifications appear seamlessly and without any stutters. If you have texts on WhatsApp etc, you can reply directly from the Notifications drop-down too, and Samsung has its own tasteful take on how this should happen (see picture below). I wish the reply box was a tad bigger, but this still works.

Next, you get the suite of Samsung and Microsoft apps, neither of which can be removed. There are also a bunch of Google apps pre-installed, including Google Duo, but these can be removed from the phone. There’s also an app called Samsung Connect for smart home controls, while My Galaxy brings coupons and some other services to Samsung’s customers.

Most importantly, you’ll find an “expand” option on apps within the Recents menu. This allows you to fit almost every app to the new 18.5:9 display, and use them in full screen mode. I did have problems using some apps like this, which is probably why Samsung has kept it as an optional feature.

Bixby

Samsung's AI assistant has been a much talked about feature on these phones, but in India, it's less an AI assistant and more a replacement for Flipboard right now. It takes over the left most screen from Flipboard and can be called using the hardware button too.

First up, Bixby is slow to launch when using the hardware button, which put me off from using it. More importantly, its hands are tied, especially in India. Samsung currently has a tie-up with Pinterest, but that's pretty much all Bixby does. If you use it within the camera app, it'll find photos similar to the ones you pick. If there's text in your photos, Bixby can read that and pick the text out. Shopping features are missing from the country right now, but Samsung should bring them soon. Most importantly, Bixby doesn't have voice support right now, although Samsung has promised to add it soon.

In India, Bixby is pretty much a clone of the Google Now screen on most other smartphones. It shows you information like Alarms, social feeds and News. Like other AI assistants, Bixby will also need time to learn and improve, which means much like the Google Assistant or Apple's Siri, it's a gimmick Indian users will not really find very useful, at least for now. It's there though, as a sign of things to come in future.

Performance

At this point, you know effectively everything there is to know about the Galaxy S8+. But a review wouldn’t be complete without a word about its performance.

On this front though, improvement is only incremental at the moment. To be fair, that’s true for all OEMs and not Samsung alone. The company’s Exynos 8895 SoC (used on the India model) is faster than last year’s phones, but only incrementally so.

AnTuTu Benchmark

Geekbench 4 Single Core

Geekbench 4 Multi Core

GFXBench Car Chase

The Mongoose cores take care of heavy tasks this time. There are four of them clocked at 2.5GHz, while the Cortex A53 cores handle the simpler tasks, clocked at 1.7GHz. As we saw on the Galaxy C9 Pro (review), the Mongoose cores kick in whenever there’s a UI transition happening, keeping things fast and snappy. However, I did see some UI lags on the Galaxy S8 and S8+. They’re nowhere close to hampering regular or heavy usage, but they’re a little unsightly when they happen. You’ll find these most often when using Facebook’s Instant Articles.

The GPU also does well. Samsung chose a Mali-G71 MP20 manages to clock up 60 frames per second in games that allow it. I found steady 60fps frame rates on games like WWE Champions, while Marvel’s Contest of Champions and Asphalt 8 both ran at a steady 30fps too. These games are limited to 30 fps by the developer, so as to provide top performance on most phones.

Heat levels are also decently managed by the Galaxy S8+. Gaming drove temperatures up to 39 degrees on the body over about half an hour, while 4K video recording makes it hotter. That’s with the room temperature regulated to 24 degrees, so you’ll be heating the phone up faster if you’re out in the 40 plus degree heat we have nowadays. However, none of that is abnormal or worrisome.

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S8+ brings stellar performance, which is what you expect from such a device. However, one wonders how much this will drop over a year or so of usage. Unfortunately, that's one of the inescapable perils of Android smartphones today.

Audio Quality

The Galaxy S8+ is delivers richer audio than most smartphones, but it's no match against phones like the LG V20 or Sony Xperia XZ. That said, the pair of AKG headphones you get in box would be appreciated by many. The headphones are well beyond what we have come to expect from in-box headphones. They're not quite audiophile grade, but you'll still get clearer and richer audio through them, than you usually do.

Camera

We all expected Samsung to pull out all the stops on the Galaxy S8 and S8+, but the company isn’t embracing the dual-camera yet. Samsung probably wanted to reserve that feature for the Note 8, which would be a very Apple-like thing to do, but hey, this camera doesn’t bring up many complaints either.

Samsung used a Sony IMX333 sensor with f/1.7 aperture this time, and the same dual-pixel technology we saw last time. It’s pretty much the same camera, except Samsung says it has improved the algorithms behind the camera this time. You see this in terms of focusing speeds, which seem faster than before. However, the rest remains the same.

These two sample images have been resized for the web. The gallery below them has full sized camera samples

The camera produces sharp, bright and pleasantly oversaturated colours. The S8+’s camera is more dependable (than the Galaxy S7 Edge) when shooting on the go, thanks to faster focus. Although, I daresay Samsung needs to improve this aspect a little more. Images can also be a bit softer than is ideal.

Overall, the Galaxy S8+ stands to become one of the best cameras this year, but we’ll have to wait for the next Pixel phones and iPhones to determine whether this is indeed the best. 

Battery

The larger size allowed Samsung to include a 3500 mAh battery on this one. This isn’t huge by today’s standards, but it achieves reasonable battery life. The PC Mark battery test returns 11 hours and 31 minutes. In the real world, this translates to about 12-14 hours of regular usage. I tested this with half an hour of gaming, some video streaming and regular activities like social networking and about 10 phone calls.

To make it simpler, I streamed three continuous hours of HD video on the phone, dropping the battery from just over 80% to nearly 0. When it does discharge, the Galaxy S8+ charges really fast, so half an hour’s worth of charge will get you very close to 50%, enough to last a full 24 hours then.

What’s interesting is that Samsung claims this battery will retain 95% of its battery life after two years. I’ll have to get back to you on this one, but if Samsung can live up to this claim, it’s going to be a big improvement in smartphone batteries.

Bottomline

So, is the Galaxy S8+ the phone to buy this year? It’s too early to say right now. But for the time being, Samsung has done a wonderful job designing this smartphone, while other improvements remain incremental. It’s sad that OEMs can’t innovate on smartphones anymore, which is why one has to give Samsung credit for at least redoing the design. On other fronts, the Galaxy S8+ is a flagship as flagships go. It dazzles on the outside, but beauty is only skin deep.