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First looks: Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ - To infinity and beyond!

By Zachary Chan - 19 Apr 2017

Infinity Display

The Infinity Display

The biggest physical tell of the S8 and S8+ is the new design concept Samsung is calling Infinity Display, where you’ll get an almost bezel-less screen that’s curved at both sides (similar to the S7 Edge before), but now has up to 18% more (400 pixels more to be exact) vertical screen real estate.  

The new screen resolution is 2,960 x 1,440 pixels, which equates to 570ppi for the S8 and 529ppi for the S8+. Both phones feature a longer 18.5:9 aspect ratio (compared to 16:9 on the S7 series), and are the first mobile displays to be Mobile HDR Premium certified. Not only is the new aspect ratio great for wide-screen movie viewing, the additional resolution also lets Samsung optimize the new phones for vertical multi-tasking in addition to the Edge Panels.

While the S7 Edge may still feature black bars during video playback because of its 16:9 aspect ratio, the S8 and S8+ is supposed to be more immersive with edge to edge video with a one-of-a-kind 18.5:9 aspect ratio.

Like the S7 Edge, both S8 and S8+ have curved displays and support Edge Panel configurations.

Before you balk at the screen sizes, the 5.8-inch S8 at (148.9 x 68.1 x 8.0mm) is actually physically smaller than the 5.5-inch S7 Edge (150.9 x 72.6 x 7.7mm). Not only that, the massive 6.2-inch S8+ (159.5 x 73.4 x 8.1 mm) is only slightly larger 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus (158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3mm). This is because the Infinity Display boasts an 83% screen to body ratio. In order to make this happen, Samsung removed the physical home button, replacing it with a haptic, on-screen home button. The physical finger print sensor is also moved to the back of the phone. It was also pointed out that both the S8 and S8+ will feature Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on the front and back of the device too.

From left to right, Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, S8, S8+. Not only is the Infinity Display more compelling, the phones themselves look better crafted as a single piece of glass rather than segmented parts.

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