Samsung Galaxy S8 - Review of an almost perfect smartphone with an increased price. Samsung GALAXY S8: how to turn photography into endless fun Samsung Galaxy s8 what the camera does

I've been using the Samsung Galaxy S8 as my main smartphone for two weeks now. In addition to a bunch of new features in it, they updated the front camera.

And they updated it very much - so much so that it is worthy of a separate article.

Samsung Galaxy S8 and its awesome front camera

The front camera in the Samsung Galaxy S8 has evolved from the camera of the Samsung Galaxy S7: it was good, it became just great. But first, about what has not changed.

Used wide angle lens, which seems to move you away from the camera and allows you to take group selfies much easier than on an iPhone. The aperture, as before, is f/1.7 instead of f/2.2 in the iPhone 7 Plus, that is, much more light is allowed into the sensor.

Because of this, pictures in the dark come out clear, with noticeably less noise and artifacts. See for yourself.


Well, now to the upgrades.

On the front of the Galaxy S8 more pixels - 8 megapixels versus 5 megapixels in the Galaxy S7. Purely technically, this gives sharper pictures under the same conditions, and also allows you to crop the photo more, keeping its quality high.

Samsung Galaxy S8 makes portraits cool, agree. Even if you don’t believe me, the photos will say it all for me. The complexion is natural, the teeth are white, the hair is well-designed - there is no emphasis on yellowness, which the iPhone loves so much. The pictures are rich and sharp, the latter can be adjusted: for example, to soften the skin tone!


Photo taken on Samsung Galaxy S8

But the main trump card of the Samsung Galaxy S8 front camera is autofocus .

It works as fast as on the main camera. Automatically focuses on all faces in the frame, so you almost never need to tap the display.

This is straight bomb. Autofocus is oh so lacking on the iPhone, because of this, almost all selfies from more or less close range turn out blurry. I think that optical stabilization will appear in the next generation - and happiness will come.

The selfie camera in the Samsung Galaxy S8 has more features.

For example, you can take pictures using a heart rate monitor. Just turn on the camera and touch the sensor with your finger - it is located on the back, not far from the camera. This is if it’s inconvenient to poke at the screen. There is only one downside to this method - your finger gets on the camera and dirty it. You'll have to wipe it down periodically.

Just like on an iPhone, I don’t recommend taking photos using the volume button - the pictures often come out blurry.

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Photo taken on Samsung Galaxy S8

In addition, all selfies are retouched during shooting. Before taking a photo, you can “Photoshop” yourself in advance: for fun, make huge eyes, and correct the tone of your face.


Photo taken on Samsung Galaxy S8

There is a super-wide mode, a la panorama. While shooting, tilt your smartphone left and right to create a panoramic self-portrait. Using Selective Focus, you can take selfies with cool bokeh - similar to Portrait Mode on the iPhone 7 Plus.

Well, one last thing. Appeared mask stickers: animated, with or without sound. You can add text, filters, and effects to the photo.

Publication from site (@site) May 30, 2017 at 9:46 PDT

Naturally, we check it out. But, alas, we are not so beautiful. Although we tried very hard.

Stickers really rule, especially in the hands of other people. You give them a Samsung Galaxy S8, they click themselves with funny faces, then it’s all saved in memory. And you, of course, don’t post this on your Instagram, tagging them, so that it’s disgraceful;))

Total. The Samsung Galaxy S8 has a front camera that:

  • Shoots brighter and clearer than iPhone 7
  • Shoots great even in the dark
  • super-wide selfies rule, especially with a crowd
  • mask stickers blow up any party)

Now iPhone 7 Plus. And his 3 year old camera


The front camera in the iPhone 7 Plus has not changed much from previous generations. The lens angle is still small, you look close in the photo. You must either have long arms or carry a selfie stick with you. Especially if you decide to take a photo with friends.

The number of megapixels in the iPhone 7 Plus has increased from 5 to 7 megapixels. At the same time, the aperture remained the same - f/2.2. In good lighting, the pictures are quite good, but in the evening noises come out, the background turns to mush.

This is no longer an outstanding result, and it lacks in any restaurant: the now fashionable yellow decorative lamps and dim light turn a nice photo into a set of pixels, each of which can be counted on one’s fingers.


Photo taken on iPhone 7 Plus

To somehow smooth out this jamb, Apple offered Retina Flash. It adapts to ambient light to reveal natural skin tone. With it, the photos come out bright, if slightly blurry. Well, not everyone likes the flash itself.

Reality: selfies on the iPhone 7 Plus are not far removed from the 6s Plus and are similar to those in the Samsung Galaxy S8.

The pictures became clearer, but the problems of its predecessor remained. It's strange that Apple neglects the front camera. But while they are thinking there, Samsung is doing it. And other competitors are not asleep.

There are rumors that radical changes await it in the iPhone 8, but it seems that it will simply catch up with its competitor.

What's the result? Although wait, you already know everything

I'll have to confess. If you are into the topic of modern mobile cameras, then you knew the result of this article in advance. Apple has remained on the sidelines of progress in the quality of its cameras, and another example is above.

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are the first major new products from Samsung after the failure of the Galaxy Note 7. It was already clear from pre-orders that the Galaxy S8 will become one of the best-selling smartphones of 2017, even though it is $100 (5,700 rubles) more expensive than the S7.

Cool smartphone Samsung Galaxy S8 - Reviews

The Galaxy S7 Edge also has impressive capabilities, and it costs $400 (22,500 rubles). Should you pay $750 (42,200) for the new Galaxy S8? I think so - not only because of the better screen, but also the high build quality, stylish design with powerful performance. Let's take a closer look at the new Samsung flagship.

The surface of the Galaxy S8 smartphone is smooth and soft to the touch, thanks to the use of glass in the design, there is no gap between the back and front panels.

The screens of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus have a resolution of 2960x1440 pixels, the image is very clear. The Super AMOLED display is highly bright and color accuracy is guaranteed with HDR Premium certification. This is the best screen we've ever seen on a smartphone. The edges of the display are rounded and there is minimal bezel at the top and bottom. The screen occupies 83% of the front panel.

The diagonal of the Galaxy S8 Plus is 6.2 inches, the S8 has 5.8 inches. On large screens, even using email is convenient, but the frameless design takes some getting used to - while testing the S8 Plus, at first I constantly activated the screen when I picked up the smartphone.

The all-glass design makes Galaxy S8 smartphones slippery, fragile and prone to fingerprints. You have to keep a microfiber cloth on hand at all times for cleaning.

The power button is located on the right side of the device, while the dual volume rocker and Bixby voice assistant button are on the left. For the first time, Samsung has not added a Home button to the front panel.

The headphone jack is located at the bottom, to the left of the USB Type-C port. Also, at the bottom there is a single speaker, which has the same problem as the Google Pixel and LG G6 - it is covered with your hand when using the smartphone in landscape mode. The sound quality is good, but the iPhone 7 sounds louder.

The back is not as impressive as the front, and is almost no different from the Galaxy S7. The camera is located next to the flash, heart rate sensor and fingerprint scanner. Both versions are thin, pleasant to the touch and have excellent build quality, although the S8 is smaller, making it easier to hold in your hand.

Features and Features

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are powered by an Exynos 8895 processor with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory, which can be expanded thanks to a MicroSD card slot.

I got a Galaxy S8 that kept freezing, especially when opening the notification tray and recent apps section. A factory reset fixed the problem and everything worked as it should, but everyone should be prepared for this.

The games Asphalt Xtreme and FIFA Mobile never froze, although Dawn of Titans lagged at some points, but this happened rarely. Applications launch quickly and easily, and multitasking allows you to use several programs at the same time.

In the benchmark, the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus surpassed the Google Pixel in performance, and in some respects they were better than the iPhone 7 Plus.

While the initial issues have passed and we've enjoyed the smooth performance of the Galaxy S8, Samsung obviously won't be able to push out updates and optimize the performance of its new smartphones as quickly as Google and Apple do.

operating system

The Samsung Galaxy S8 has a stylish and user-friendly user interface, with icons evenly spaced and fonts easy to read.

The absence of a physical Home button gives the smartphone a more modern look. In its place is an area of ​​the screen that, when pressed and held, will take you to the home screen from any application. The navigation icons can be swapped, placing the Back button on the left and Recent Apps on the right. This is how they are located on most Android smartphones.

There are many options for changing the interface: adjust the screen resolution, turn on and off the use of edges, change the position of the brightness slider on the notification panel, activate the LED indicator, and so on. The Galaxy S8 has many useful features to suit every taste. For example, Smart Stay allows you to keep the screen backlit only when you're looking at it.

Multitasking is better here than on any other Android phone - using the split screen, you can move application windows as you like, or launch Picture in Picture mode and place one on top of the other.

The Galaxy S8 is the first smartphone to use Bluetooth 5, with 4x the range of Bluetooth 4.2 and 8x the bandwidth (2x the data transfer speed). This means you can move 200 meters away (with line of sight) from your smartphone and still listen to music via Bluetooth headphones. In addition, you can now stream music to 2 different Bluetooth devices at the same time.

Samsung's facial recognition technology doesn't work 100% of the time, especially in low light, but it's still faster and more reliable than a fingerprint sensor. An iris scanner is also available on the Galaxy S8, although it's not as powerful.

The worst performer is the fingerprint sensor in the new S8 series. The scanner is difficult to reach on the Galaxy S8 Plus, and you won’t be able to use it to control your smartphone, as is now fashionable. The Samsung Galaxy S8 sensor is located close to the camera, so users will often get confused and touch it by mistake. Samsung is aware of this issue and advises cleaning the camera more often, but this could have been avoided by simply placing the fingerprint scanner below, as is done on almost all other smartphones.

The main 12-megapixel camera hasn't changed much compared to the S7. Given enough lighting, the Galaxy S8 takes high-quality photos with accurate colors. If there is not enough light, sometimes the clarity decreases, but as a rule, even in the dark, the photos turn out to be of high quality.

Unfortunately, Samsung hasn't added anything new to the regular camera, such as a second lens. There are still several modes to choose from, including Selective Focus and Panorama. In Pro mode, you can change the shutter speed, focus and ISO.

More impressive is the 8-megapixel front camera, which has a lot of fun filters and masks, like in Snapchat. By rotating the camera to the sides in Wide Selfie mode, you can “stitch” pictures into one, taking a panoramic selfie.

Samsung Voice Assistant

Samsung's new digital assistant is disappointing; the first version doesn't even support voice command recognition. The only functions available are Bixby Home, Reminder and Vision.

Home displays a variety of information, such as your current pedometer reading, upcoming calendar events, weather forecast, and trending Twitter posts. But, in practice, it’s easier and faster to look at the corresponding applications separately, since the Bixby button is too slow and unreliable.

Reminders is an analogue of reminders in Google Inbox or Google Assistant. Assistant can still be used by pressing and holding the on-screen Home button.

The most useful feature is Vision. Augmented reality technology allows you to receive information about different objects in real time. For example, you can point your camera at a pair of shoes and find out how much they cost on Amazon.

Samsung has promised a lot, but at the moment Bixby is an unfinished service.

Battery Samsung Galaxy S8

The Galaxy S8 Plus uses a 3,500 mAh battery, the Galaxy S8 – 3,000 mAh. By the end of the day, with intensive use (watching streaming videos, listening to music, filming videos, etc.) both smartphones will be discharged up to 25%. Under normal load, they are discharged to 40% in the evening.

Fast wireless charging is supported via the USB Type-C connector - a new standard that not everyone has gotten used to yet.

Bottom line

Samsung Galaxy S8 is a smartphone with high build quality, excellent screen and camera. The battery is standard, designed for 1 day of operation. The Bixby voice assistant is still terrible, but you can turn it off and use Google Assistant.

There are plenty of decent smartphones that cost less than the S8 and S8 Plus - Google Pixel, LG G6 and iPhone 7 - but none have such a high-quality display. It's worth considering buying the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus when you're aiming for the top-end smartphones and are willing to pay $750 (42,200 rubles) or more.

Advantages

  • Gorgeous display
  • High build quality
  • Cool Features
  • Improved user interface
  • Waterproof

Photography doesn't have to be Instagram-worthy art. Photography is for fun, to make every moment bright. At least, this is exactly the case with the new Samsung GALAXY S8.
The model was presented in March of this year, and since April you can compare Ukrainian prices for this Samsung phone in the Price.ua catalog. In terms of camera, it is the best on the market, so it makes sense to choose only the price.

If you're looking for the best camera phone, this is it!

Cool night shots

You take most of your photos during daylight hours. Not because when the sun goes down, interesting events stop happening in your life, but because most cameras on smartphones are not able to take normal pictures even indoors, let alone on a dark street. Most, but not this Samsung phone.
GALAXY S8 has the best camera on the market. Main and front too. The selfie camera is 8 MP with f/1.7 aperture and autofocus, the rear one is 12 MP, also with f/1.7 and the ability to record video in 4K resolution. In other words, no matter what and when you want to shoot, no matter what camera you decide to use for this, this Samsung phone will capture every moment exactly as you see it.

Take it off, quickly!

This Samsung phone is equipped not just with a fast camera, but with an instant one: it starts up, focuses and takes a photo in the blink of an eye - so you are unlikely to ever say again: “Oh, I missed that shot!” Plus, in the GALAXY S8 camera settings you can set instant video recording in high resolution. Start recording a video immediately, and then select the best shots from it without losing the quality of the images.

It's like a DSLR

The Samsung GALAXY S8 camera has advanced manual frame settings, that is, you can and should shoot on this Samsung phone using the MANUAL settings mode.
Changing the shutter speed, exposure, and white balance can make a difference from any mediocre photo. The settings menu interface, moreover, is designed so well that it will be easy even for a user far from photography to figure out what settings are needed to change the effect.

Focus on what's important

This Samsung phone is equipped with selective autofocus, which means you can take the same shot with different focal objects. Use this tool to make a selection of photographs, play with meaning and place the right accents. Beautifully blurred foreground or background or a clear photo across the entire area of ​​the frame - you choose!

Food, filters and social networks

We all know that no one can resist taking pictures of food. Even those who say that this is the last century and complete nonsense. Moreover, on this Samsung phone in a separate Food mode, the pictures come out even tastier than in reality.
By the way, for other shooting you can select filters even before the shot is taken.
The phone's camera can also take square pictures (1440x1440 pixels). Yes, we know, non-square photos have been posted on Instagram for a long time, but 1:1 photos make great collages and experimenting with them is even more fun than with standard 16:9 photos. Try it yourself!

Quality and shooting capabilities are something that smartphone manufacturers have been paying increased attention to in recent years, but at the presentation of the new generation of top-end smartphones Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+, you could notice that little was said about the camera.

As it turns out, this is no coincidence. In hardware, the main (rear panel) cameras in the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8 Plus are identical to those used in the previous generation of flagships - Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 Edge.

True, there are suggestions that with identical characteristics, the S8/S8+ still received new sensors.

The manufacturer states that the main changes in the camera affected image processing algorithms and software.

Let's note some characteristics and features of the rear camera of Samsung Galaxy S8/S+ smartphones:

  • matrix (sensor) resolution 12 megapixels;
  • matrix size 1/2.5”;
  • the presence of an optical non-switchable image stabilization system;
  • Dual Pixel hybrid autofocus system using phase detection autofocus;
  • equivalent lens focal length 26 mm;
  • Lens aperture f:1.7.

But the front selfie camera is really new. The resolution has increased from 5 to 8 megapixels, and autofocus has appeared. Sensor size 1/3.6″.

Visual inspection

Unlike the S7/S7 Edge, the rear camera eye of the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8 no longer protrudes above the surface. This makes the appearance of the device more concise. And in this case it is more difficult to damage the glass.

It’s interesting how this was achieved, because, unlike, for example, iPhone smartphones or Sony Xperia flagships, the camera here is placed opposite the screen and “sinking” it into a rather thin smartphone body is not an easy task.

Pay attention to the location of the fingerprint sensor. Such close proximity to the camera means that the likelihood of leaving fingerprints on the outer glass of the lens is quite high.

Shooting mode

The shooting mode interface has been redesigned quite a bit; owners of previous generations of Samsung smartphones should find it very familiar.

While holding the shutter button, you can now move it vertically. This provides digital zooming. For photography, the usefulness of this mode is questionable, because at any time you can easily “crop” the image after shooting, and when shooting video, zooming occurs, as before, with a two-finger gesture.

The screen of Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ smartphones has become much more elongated. The aspect ratio is 18.5:9. This led to the emergence of new frame formats for photo and video shooting for such a screen.

If you select the full frame resolution (12 megapixels) for taking photos, the image on the screen will occupy only a small part with large black fields on the sides (see above). This is due to the fact that the aspect ratio of the sensor is 4:3.

When you set the photo aspect ratio to 16:9, only a small black bar will remain on the screen, but if you select an aspect ratio that matches the screen, the black bars will disappear. In this case, of course, the frame is “trimmed” from above and below with a corresponding reduction in its final size.

There were few new opportunities. From what catches your eye is the addition of various stickers, stamps, “muzzles”, similar to those used in some third-party applications and various instant messengers.

The appearance of the new Bixby assistant, which received a lot of attention in the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+, was also reflected in the camera mode. The system is able to recognize photographed objects and substitutes found similar images from the Internet with additional information. The quality of the service is still far from ideal.

As before, you can increase the functionality of the camera by downloading additional extensions. But such expansions are few and far between and seem to remain virtually unchanged from year to year. Some even disappear sometimes. For example, an application for shooting spherical panoramas has disappeared somewhere.

The “Pro” mode, with the ability to manually control many shooting parameters, was left virtually unchanged. It provides a cool opportunity for various experiments. Enthusiasts should love this mode. In addition, the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ did not deprive the ability to shoot RAW.

As for the slow motion mode, the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ is doing quite well with this, but, unfortunately, there are no changes compared to the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge. When shooting in slow motion, videos are recorded in 720p240 mode (HD resolution at 240 fps). It would be nice to get a 1080p120 mode as well. This choice is available, for example, in the iPhone.

Time Lapse Example

There were mentions on the Internet that the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ can shoot 4K video at 60 fps, but I did not find this. 4K video is shot at a standard speed of 30 fps.

With Tracking AF, you can select a subject (still or moving in the frame) and the camera will keep focus on that subject. The function is well implemented

Filming

The autofocus of the main camera of the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ deserves only praise. Focusing for both photo and video shooting is very fast.

In the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge smartphones, when choosing to shoot video in 1080p60 format, the autofocus speed noticeably decreased. The same drawback is present in the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+. Apparently, this is not a software flaw, but is associated with some hardware features.

It seems that even with HDR turned off, the smartphone camera tries to preserve more details in the bright areas and slightly “tightens up” the details in the dark ones. The difference between shots with and without HDR is often very small.

The manufacturer emphasizes that the Galaxy S8/S8+ uses a special algorithm that allows you to achieve good pictures even in limited lighting due to multi-frame shooting, when several frames are combined into one.

We should note that we noticed the operation of similar technology in previous Samsung flagships. Whether there are changes in the implementation of this in the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ compared to its predecessors is difficult to say without a comparative test.

An interesting observation: when shooting at night, the image on the screen during sighting may differ noticeably from the final image in hue.

The trendy mode with a choice of focusing on the foreground object or background with artificial blur after shooting in Samsung smartphones still does not work the best. Some competitors' devices implement this function better.

The smartphone often makes mistakes and creates completely unnatural blur.

If you want to get a blurred background, then with the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ you can do this without any software tricks. By the standards of system cameras, the Galaxy S8/S8+ sensor is small, but in combination with the high aperture of the lens, when shooting at large scales, you can achieve a very shallow depth of field with natural background blur.

Gallery of frames captured by the main camera of the Samsung Galaxy S8
































Shoot Full HD video in good lighting conditions

Shooting 4L video in good lighting conditions

Shooting Full HD video at night

Shooting 4K video at night

conclusions

Generally Samsung Galaxy S8/ S8+ shoots very well. This applies to both photos and videos. 4K videos are very detailed in sufficient lighting. Optical stabilization, combined with good sensor sensitivity and high lens aperture, allows you to get good pictures and videos even in difficult conditions when shooting handheld.

The camera has many different interesting modes, designed for both beginners and enthusiasts.

There is virtually no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ smartphones will be among the leaders in 2017 in terms of shooting quality. The problem is that We already saw approximately the same level of shooting and a similar set of capabilities a year ago in previous generation Samsung flagships. But I want to get even more in new models.

It seems that smartphone cameras have reached some kind of development limit, and this applies not only to Samsung, but also to other vendors. Progress is no longer so noticeable.

A new generation of Sony matrices (sensors) with a three-layer structure and a built-in DRAM buffer looks like a fresh solution for smartphone cameras. But it seems that Sony has not yet begun to share with competitors, and such matrices are present only in the new Sony Xperia XZ Premium and Xperia XZs smartphones. It is difficult to say without tests whether three-layer matrices provide an advantage in shooting quality. But no one yet has such a powerful Slow Motion mode as in the Xperia XZs/ XZ Premium, with a shooting speed of 960 fps.

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