How to increase battery life on Samsung Galaxy S8. Three months with the Samsung Galaxy S8: Still the best? How long does a samsung galaxy s8 charge

There is no choice, despite the use of two different SoCs. Samsung has released a smartphone on both Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 and its own Exynos 8895, but only the latter option can be bought in Russia and Europe. The chip was introduced in mid-February, but not all the details have been known so far.

Among the innovations are the Exynos M2 CPU cores, which Samsung developed independently. As the Korean company points out, compared to the M1, efficiency and performance have increased (by 27%), but the modes of operation and changes in clock frequencies are not disclosed. Therefore, information has to be obtained experimentally.

Exynos 8895 gives you more performance than you need

The four Exynos M2 cores in the Galaxy S8 smartphone are rated at 2.31GHz, while the four Cortex A53 cores can only clock up to 1.69GHz. So the speed of the faster cores is below the 2.49 GHz declared for the Exynos 8895. We experienced a similar situation in the case of the Exynos 8890, but the clock speed of two of the four M1 cores could briefly increase above the set bar. But now there is no Boost mode, so a productive cluster can no longer run at two different frequencies. At least that's what the tests say, since a separate load on the fifth to eighth cores always led to the same frequency. The situation is different with the second cluster. The frequency does not exceed the specified maximum, but the cluster can operate at two frequencies at the same time. That is, cores 1 and 2 can operate at a different frequency than cores 3 and 4.

What is hidden under the Exynos M2 is not exactly known. Judging by the performance, we have a modification of the ARM Cortex-A73 cores that worked in the same Huawei Kirin 960. But Samsung's optimizations justify themselves: depending on the test, Exynos M2 shows a performance increase of up to 8%. We achieved 2,000 points in Geekbench 4.0 and 4.1 single-threaded tests, a record high in our test lab. The performance increase compared to Exynos 8890 and Galaxy S7 was about 5%. According to the overall CPU rating, the situation looks different. We got excellent scores of 6.300 and 6.600 points, but the performance of the Kirin 960 is comparable. The advantage of the faster Exynos M2 cores over the Cortex-A73 in Samsung is offset by the lower frequency of the Cortex-A53 cores. At Huawei, they not only work more than 100 MHz faster, but we also feel that they can withstand maximum frequencies longer.

Left: The Cortex-A53 cores in the Exynos 8895 SoC can run at different frequencies in a cluster. Right: M1 followed by M2. In the case of the Exynos 8895, Samsung used its own Exynos M2 cores, but they all run at the same frequency.

It is interesting to compare with the Kirin 960 and the GPU. Samsung also chose the ARM Mali-G71 graphics core, but unlike Huawei, 20 clusters (MP20) are used here; the Kirin 960 only had eight clusters available. SoC Exynos 8895 supports Vulkan, Open CL 2.0 and other modern interfaces. Interestingly, Samsung has set the maximum clock speed at a very low level - only 546 MHz. For comparison, the Kirin 960 GPU can run at up to 1.037 MHz. In this case, it was enough for the smartphone to take first place in the GFXBench tests (Manhattan Offscreen and T-Rex Offscreen). However, he did not stay there long. With the results of 64 and 120 fps, the Galaxy S8 smartphone on Exynos 8895 came out on top, beating the previous leader by 30 and 26%. Here, a larger number of clusters at a lower frequency justify themselves. However, if you thought that in this way Samsung will avoid the throttling observed in the same Kirin 960, then it is completely in vain. After a short load, performance decreased by about 20%. Of course, temperature continues to play an important role here. At the back of the smartphone, we received heating up to 41 ° C. Unfortunately, it was not possible to read the SoC temperature due to the lack of compatible utilities. However, the drop in performance in practice is not felt. Even after throttling, the Exynos 8895 is slightly faster than the Kirin 960 under optimal conditions.

Exynos 8895 provides full performance for short periods of time, the back of the Samsung Galaxy S8 only reached 41°C

In general, Samsung's 10nm LPE process justifies itself. In the AnTuTu 6 test, the smartphone scored 172,000 points, but the reason lies mainly in the GPU. The same goes for 3DMark in a Slingshot run: 3,900 points is impressive. Except that the PCMark scores of the Galaxy S8 are not as high as we would like. The smartphone is 30% faster than its predecessor, but 6.100 points was only enough to enter the top ten models on SoC Snapdragon and Kirin.

But back to practical observations. In tests, none of the applications were able to load the Galaxy S8 to the limit. The new smartphone provides more than enough performance for all applications, and two to three years ahead. Of course, if the memory does not become a "bottleneck". The smartphone is equipped with 4 GB LPDDR4 memory.

Too bad it's not supported. So if the user decides to install a smartphone in VR glasses, then either ordinary cardboard glasses or the Samsung Gear VR branded model will do.

Galaxy S8 has everything you need

But Exynos 8895 shows convincing results not only in terms of CPU and GPU performance. Samsung has beefed up data transfer technologies compared to the Galaxy S7. The built-in LTE modem supports Cat 16 and 13, which is well ahead of the networks of mobile operators in Russia and Europe. The Galaxy S8 can download data at gigabits per second (Cat 16) and upload at 150 Mbps (Cat 13). Therefore, for the coming years, the capabilities of a smartphone to work in LTE networks will be more than enough. We had no complaints about the quality of the connection. During the tests of the Galaxy S8, we did not encounter any disconnections or frequent network switching.

Of course, voice quality is just as important. Thanks to well-functioning microphones (in the amount of two pieces), the smartphone reliably suppresses background noise. In tests, our interlocutor heard his voice clearly, the earpiece provides sufficient volume and closes the most important frequencies. For hands-free calling or music playback, a second speaker is provided, it is located on the Galaxy S8 from the bottom of the case. It also gives a fairly high volume level, although you should not expect mids and low frequencies. Stereo functions, unlike the same or Huawei P10 Plus, are not supported here.

In Russia, Samsung sells a Dual SIM version, there is also a high-speed LTE modem

The 802.11ac standard is supported for WLAN operation, thanks to the support of MU-MIMO (VHT80 and 1024QAM), not only high speed is guaranteed, but also stable operation even with many devices on the same network. The Bluetooth standard works at a slower speed, but it is no less important. For the first time we get a smartphone with Bluetooth 5 support, compared to 4.2, the transfer rate has increased to 2 Mbps. The Bluetooth SIG promises further efficiency gains. However, the standard is backward compatible, so there will be no problems connecting old accessories.

Not without NFC. The Galaxy S8 also supports the ANT+ protocol, which is very popular with heart rate monitors and other sports accessories. There is also support for MST. This feature can simulate the magnetic stripe of bank and other cards, which Samsung uses for its Samsung Pay payment service. Satellite navigation capabilities have expanded, now the smartphone can receive signals from Galileo satellites in addition to GPS, Beidou and GLONASS.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 has an audio jack for connecting a headset, and a USB Type C jack for charging and data transfer.

Samsung has not spared two physical interfaces: a 3.5mm headphone jack and a USB Type C port that is compatible with the DisplayPort standard. The transfer speed is USB 3.1 Gen 1, which is a pleasant surprise. But the built-in memory of the Galaxy S8 is not the fastest. 64 GB of flash memory is connected via UFS 2.1 interface, according to the Androbench test, the read speed is 411 MB / s, the write speed is 68 MB / s. The PCMark test gives better results: a read speed of 628 MB / s and a write of 126 MB / s. The results are good, but some competitors give faster speeds. However, the speed of working with a memory card is even lower. The smartphone can install a microSD memory card up to 256 GB, but only instead of the second SIM-card.

A headset with the AKG logo is included with the smartphone. This brand is now owned by Samsung, which has a positive impact on the quality of the bundled headphones. Compared to most bundled headsets, here we get a more harmonious and powerful sound.

Fingerprint scanner and iris help little

We did not receive significant changes in sensors. There are accelerometer and gyroscope, barometer, proximity and light sensor. Below the LED flash is once again a heart rate sensor that can also measure blood oxygen saturation.

Additional protection is provided by two sensors: a fingerprint and an iris. The first during the transformation was moved from the front side of the smartphone to the back, now it is located next to the camera. The latter is installed above the display. In our tests, both sensors failed to convince, so most users will probably prefer to unlock the Galaxy S8 via PIN or pattern.

The fingerprint scanner (to the right of the camera) on the Samsung Galaxy S8 is difficult to reach, recognition accuracy leaves much to be desired

The fingerprint scanner is poorly located, it is very inconvenient to reach it. Moreover, it works with low accuracy. The same goes for the iris scanner. If you wear glasses, you will need to remove them for the initial iris scan, but you can unlock your smartphone while wearing glasses. Unfortunately, even without glasses, recognition accuracy also leaves much to be desired.

Facial recognition is hardly an alternative. This technology has already been deceived after the introduction of two smartphones through photography.

Galaxy S8 lasts longer than its predecessors

Let's move on to the battery. The capacity of the built-in battery was considered insufficient by many after the announcement of the Galaxy S8. Of course, the 3,000 mAh capacity is comparable to the direct predecessor of the Galaxy S7. But when you consider the size of the display and body, the Galaxy S8 still follows the Galaxy S7 edge more. In this case, the capacity decreased by 17%.

But capacity is only one side of the coin. Still, do not forget about the hardware and software. There have been changes here. Let's start with the Android 7 operating system, which supports the improved Doze feature and various optimizations. In addition, the SoC is produced according to a modern process technology, which allows us to hope for greater energy efficiency. On the other hand, increased resolution leads to higher power consumption.

The good news: The Galaxy S8 didn't outperform the Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge in three battery life tests.

The battery life of the Samsung Galaxy S8 exceeds that of its predecessor, despite the higher pixel count and larger display diagonal.

In our video looping test, the smartphone lasted 14.5 hours, so it could well keep the user entertained over a long flight. Compared to the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, the increase was about 27 and 7%. In the PCMark test, the Galaxy S8 showed a decent nine hours. Here we got an increase of 21 and 7%.

But in practice, the increase is felt weaker. In our usual test, when we made several short phone calls every day, browsed websites and emails via WLAN and LTE, used instant messengers and social networks, the smartphone lasted 53 hours. Then we turned on the Always-On function, but it did not significantly affect battery life. The difference was one to two hours.

If you want to get more battery life, then in the system settings it makes sense to select alternative resolutions and performance levels. Special power saving modes are also available. However, they will not help much if the user will run games. In such scenarios, you should not leave the outlet for a long time. If you run demanding applications (the same games), then the battery life drops to five hours.

Fortunately, wireless charging (Qi and PMA) is supported, as well as high-speed wired charging. The included power supply provides up to 15W of power, and it takes less than 130 minutes to fully charge your smartphone.

Where to begin

Sooner or later, all owners of various electronic devices, mainly smartphones or tablets, are faced with the problem of quickly discharging the battery of their gadget. Some users immediately turn to service centers or stores, believing that the problem lies in some components, such as a battery. Others try to solve the problem by installing different firmware or trying to modify the installed software. Still others immediately begin to scold the manufacturer and change the device with the hope that this will not happen again. In this article, we propose to understand the issue and understand how to do the right thing if your smartphone or tablet is quickly discharged. Let's start with the main thing - before you panic and take any action, you need to ask yourself three questions:

1 How long should my device last? A day, two, maybe a week? What kind of work time do I expect from him?

2 How often do I use it? Every five minutes or once a day? What if I don't turn it off? Or vice versa, do not use?

3 What is the use case for it? Do I play games or listen to music? Or maybe I'm always on social media? What exactly do I use the most?

The answers to these simple questions will help us understand the situation and understand whether something really happened to our smartphone or tablet or if it is something else.

How long should an Android smartphone or tablet last?

First you need to understand that the operating time of the device depends on a huge number of factors, and not just on the battery capacity (this, by the way, is one of the most common misconceptions).

Factors that affect battery consumption:

1 Use case. The more tasks you set the device, and the more difficult these tasks are, the faster the battery runs out. If you play games with excellent graphics, watch videos, use the Internet or GPS, like to set the brightness of the screen backlight to the maximum - do not expect your smartphone or tablet to show autonomy records, usually with this mode of use it sits down in 3-5 hours.

2 The quality and quantity of applications used. Today, the profession of a programmer is more popular than ever. Everyone wants to write their own application, get into the top downloads and earn fame as a famous developer. In pursuit of these achievements, programmers write thousands of programs and add them to the Play Store or similar stores. However, not all users understand that the quality of written applications can be different, because. not everyone who wrote these applications are really experts, or want to benefit other people. A large number of applications have poor performance or some hidden features that obviously will not benefit your device. For example, the application code may have a bunch of errors that force the device to work constantly and prevent it from "sleeping", or have the functions of collecting and sending a large amount of statistical data to third-party servers. As a result, the processor will run at higher frequencies, drain battery power and constantly leak traffic with your personal data, which will lead to excessive heating and inefficient battery consumption. The number of installed applications also greatly affects the operating time, below we will explain why and invite you to verify this.

3 Technical condition of the device. All things invariably break down and become obsolete, the same fate befalls electronic devices. Over time, the capacity of the battery decreases, some components may fail. As a result, battery life starts to decrease. The built-in software (operating system) can also accumulate errors that lead to unstable operation of the device, its freezes, slowdowns, and rapid discharge.

4 External circumstances. For example, these include weather conditions (at low temperatures, usable battery capacity decreases sharply; on a sunny day, the backlight should work at a higher brightness to improve readability) or the quality of third-party services and services (cellular reception level; Wi-Fi signal quality; correctness data synchronization with third-party servers).

5 Technical characteristics of the device. Engineering solutions may not always be successful. For example, if a smartphone has a large diagonal of the device, but a small battery capacity, then it will sit down in a matter of hours. But it is no coincidence that we put this factor in last place. In 99% of cases, all characteristics change proportionally (more screen or more powerful processor - more battery capacity), so the average operating time is always about the same. In addition, the technical characteristics include the characteristics of the components from which it is made. The fact is that not all of them have the same energy efficiency and performance. The newer the device, the more energy-efficient and efficient components it uses. This can be easily seen on the example of the Samsung Galaxy line of flagship smartphones and tablets. With each new generation, the screen resolution increases, the processor power increases, additional functions appear, but the battery capacity increases only by a small amount of mAh (by the way, why this happens, we will also explain below). However, the average running time does not decrease, but rather increases. In particular, this is due to the use of more energy efficient components (the size of the components is constantly decreasing, and with them the heating and power consumption).

Summing up: answer the question: "My phone runs out of battery for so many hours, is this normal?" very difficult, for this you need to collect a lot of information. To better navigate, we will indicate the operating time in the average mode (per day: a couple of hours of music, an hour of Internet surfing, a couple of hours in navigator mode, 40 minutes of calls, messengers or mail in moderation), this is about one to two days. But remember that everything is individual.

How to increase the battery life of your Android smartphone or tablet

Now let's see how we can eliminate the causes mentioned above, or at least try to reduce their impact.

1 If you honestly answered yourself the questions above and came to the conclusion that you do not let go of your smartphone or tablet, then we have bad news for you. It is impossible to increase the operating time with such use, since this requires a completely new type of battery, which mankind has not yet invented. But do not despair, there is always a backup option. In your case, this is the purchase of an external battery in which you can carry spare energy and recharge the main battery of the device. These batteries are available with different capacities, and you can easily choose the one that is right for you.

In addition, I immediately want to answer the frequent question why Samsung did not make a standard battery with a larger capacity. The fact is that not everyone plays games, watches videos or surfs the Internet. Most people use their smartphone moderately, do not load it with a lot of applications, and the standard battery is enough for them, for example, the author of the article uses a Galaxy S5 and it lasts for two days. If the standard battery had a larger capacity, firstly, the dimensions of already rather big devices would be much larger (you can’t put it in your pants pocket), and secondly, the price would also increase. That is why, with the help of additional accessories, we offer to increase the capacity exactly to the one you need.

2 Let's analyze what is important to know and understand when installing applications.

Every time you decide to install a new application, pay attention to permissions. Permissions are a list of what the app can do on your device once it's downloaded. The more permissions the application has, the more system resources it will use, and the more difficult it will be for the device to go into power saving mode (the so-called sleep mode), because the application can run in the background and will constantly wake it up, even if the screen of your gadget is turned off and nobody uses it. You can read more about permissions in our article.

Necessarily control the number of installed applications, because as we found out, each application has permissions, and if there are a lot of applications, then the permissions increase significantly. If there is an unnecessary application - delete it, do not leave it in reserve.

Try to choose those applications that are written by famous authors, downloaded many times and have a high rating. Of course, this is not a guarantee of stability, but it significantly reduces the risks. It is also useful to know that the functionality and stability of an application can not only improve, but also deteriorate with its updates. It often happens that no new applications were installed on the device, but suddenly it began to discharge quickly. The problem may lie in an unsuccessfully written update for some application.

To diagnose your device, you can use safe mode. It differs from the usual one in that only standard applications work in it, and all downloaded ones are disabled and have no effect on the system. If the problem disappears in safe mode, you can safely conclude that downloaded applications are to blame. However, at the moment there is no tool that allows you to find out exactly what kind of application it is, so they usually act like this: download the gadget in safe mode and check for a problem. If the problem is gone, then they load normally and begin to remove those applications that were installed or updated last until they find the culprit. By the way, you can try to do this test: boot your device in safe mode, note the time that it will work on a single charge, and compare it with the time it works in normal mode, we assure you, you will be surprised. You can read more about safe mode in our special article.

Also, the author of the article met user comments that pre-installed (embedded) applications are also to blame for the discharge. It is possible that there is some truth in this, but numerous experiments suggest that if there is an influence, then it is extremely insignificant. Moreover, the operating system is designed in such a way that the work of many applications depends on each other, and their thoughtless removal can only harm the device.

Nevertheless, it would be dishonest not to tell about all the possibilities, so we share with you "secrets": some of the pre-installed applications can be disabled so that they will not affect the running system, i.e. they seem to fall asleep. How to do this, you can see in this article. You can turn them back on if needed.

3 Now consider which of the components can affect the operating time of the device. There are two possible reasons:

The battery - its service life is designed for a certain number of charge-discharge cycles. In use, usable capacity
starts to decrease until the battery can no longer hold a charge. That's why every one to three years the battery needs to be replaced(depending on the intensity of use). You can purchase original batteries at authorized Samsung service centers, branded stores, as well as from partner companies. The required model can be viewed on the old battery.

In addition, there are several myths that are firmly entrenched in the ranks of users, so I would like to separately note the following: the battery can be charged as you like, you do not need to discharge it to zero, keep it on charge for 15 hours, and do not be afraid to use your battery when charging. device, nothing will happen to it.

The motherboard is the most important component of your device. It can have completely different damage, as a result of which the device can quickly discharge. Professionals are taught to understand these damages, therefore, if you are convinced that the problem is not in the battery or in something else, we strongly recommend that you do not experiment on your own, but contact any of our service centers in our article.

Change your mobile operator if the coverage area does not suit you :)

What other advice can we give? There are few of them, but they are also very important:

Disable auto-sync of added accounts or configure it selectively.

Synchronization is the process of transferring various data from a smartphone to a server and vice versa. This data can be anything: new contacts, music, mail, photos, achievements in games, etc. When you are not using the device, it is in "sleep" mode, in which power consumption is greatly reduced. Synchronization works in the background, so you may not even notice how it "wakes up" the device. If this happens very often, then the device can be discharged much faster, even if you do not use it.

If you have tried all the recommendations in this article except contacting a service center, but nothing has helped, then you need to do a factory reset.

Resetting the settings is the return of the device to the factory settings, which erases all the data, and with them the errors that accumulate in the device after active use. Factory reset is the best prevention against errors that occur over time in the operating system and applications. This is especially noticeable if you use a smartphone or tablet after a reset without immediately downloading a bunch of other applications to it. And especially it is important to do a reset after a software update(firmware). Not everyone knows, but the firmware process on their own and in the service center is very different, which is why many people start to run out of battery just after the update. This does not mean that the update is bad, it means that it was not delivered correctly. Therefore, we repeat once again: be sure to reset after the update, this will greatly reduce the likelihood of various troubles with your gadget.

The world is arranged in such a way that everything has its limits and boundaries. But man was created in order to destroy these very boundaries. This is exactly what Samsung engineers and designers were guided by when they developed their new flagship. I am sure that in front of them the snake tempter did nothing but spin an apple with two cameras. But the Korean mind was not tempted and pushed the boundaries first of its consciousness, and then of ours. We look at - a smartphone without borders.

Samsung Galaxy S8 video review

Design and ergonomics of the Samsung Galaxy S8

This year, Samsung decided not to bet on technical specifications, and the emphasis is on appearance. Yes, LG was ahead of its Korean brothers and was the first to release a smartphone with a large screen and rounded corners. But Samsung just smiled and showed their new flagship - Galaxy S8.

The slogan of the novelty is “Smartphone without borders” and this is true. The display occupies almost 85% of the front panel. But to achieve even more effect, the edges of the display are curved, much like it was in previous Edge-smartphones. In this combination, it seems that the display is floating in your hands.

And in general, the front panel is not at all like what they did in Samsung before. To achieve the “floating screen” effect, the company had to abandon the use of the usual three keys and, oh my God, the inscription “Samsung”. And although these branded attributes are absent from the front of the smartphone, the Galaxy S8 is still recognizable.

Despite, without exaggeration, a large display, the Galaxy S8 is smaller in size than the S7 Edge. And it is also clear that Samsung is learning from its mistakes. The screen in the “eight” is not bent as much as in the S7 Edge, making the smartphone more comfortable in the hand. As for false clicks… You can forget about them, there is no such thing in the S8.

In addition to the display on the front panel, there is a front camera, a speaker and a bunch of different sensors.

On the back side, too, everything is not quite standard for Samsung. Since all the keys disappeared from the front panel, and the fingerprint scanner was just in one of them, it was moved to the back. It is located neatly to the right of the camera. To the left of the camera is a flash and a heart rate sensor. Despite the fact that the designers spent all their efforts on creating the front part, the back also looks nothing.

The first thing that pleases and catches the eye is complete symmetry. The camera and other details are arranged symmetrically in one line. And as a perfectionist, I am very pleased with it.

But there are also things that bring out the Hulk in me. One has only to look at the lower edge and it seems that everything, the forces have completely left the designers. The audio input and speaker are located symmetrically on the same line, but USB Type C has moved down.

The power button is located on the right side alone. On the top side there is a tray for two NanoSims or for one SIM card and a memory card. On the left, there was a replenishment and now, in addition to the usual volume key, there is also a Bixby assistant nuclear rocket launch button.

The Koreans did not forget about protection either. The front and back parts of the smartphone are covered with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protective glass. Well, unless you're wearing diamond earrings, of course.

You can also continue not to be afraid of water, since this year the smartphone has not lost its protection against moisture and dust. It has an IP68 standard, which allows you to immerse your smartphone in water to a depth of 1 meter for 30 minutes.

But the smartphone does not consist only of glass - the edges are made of aluminum body painted in color. Thanks to the painstaking work of designers and engineers, the components of the case fit very tightly, and it seems that the case is one-piece, and not assembled from three parts.

Galaxy S8 did not receive physical control keys on the front panel. Now all keys are onscreen.

In the middle there will always be a home key, which reacts to the force of pressing and vibrates. Thanks to this, after a couple of days of using the smartphone, you will get used to it, and even when the control area is not active, you can press the location of the home key and exit the application. But the additional keys “back” and “list of running applications” can be swapped.

Samsung Galaxy S8 display

The display is the main feature of the Galaxy S8. The first wow effect is achieved by the fact that a 5.8-inch display was placed in a case smaller than the 5.5-inch S7 Edge! It has a custom resolution of 2960x1440 pixels and the same custom aspect ratio of 18.5:9. But as for the matrix itself, there is nothing unusual for Samsung - it is a juicy high-quality Super Amoled.

If for some reason you are not satisfied with the picture and colors on the display, this can be corrected. You have several screen modes to choose from, as well as the ability to manually change the white balance.

As for other screen chips, the first is that you can change the display resolution. Available to choose from: HD+ (1480x720), FHD+ (2220x1080) and the aforementioned WQHD+ (2960x1440). The first mode is useful when you need to save precious battery power. The second mode I consider the most optimal and by default it is launched on the smartphone. Well, the same WQHD + will come in handy if you want to use a smartphone for VR.

The next feature is the "blue color filter" or night screen mode, designed for those who like to watch movies or read before bed.

The third feature is the Edge panel. Despite the fact that the display in the S8 is not as curved as it was in the Edge-smartphones, the side panel is still there. You can fully customize it however you like. Bring applications, contacts, weather, audio player there for quick access. Thanks to the fact that Samsung has been actively using the Edge panel for several years now, you can find a bunch of third-party apps in Galaxy Apps.

Now let's talk about what bothered me the most - how third-party applications from Google Play work with such a non-standard screen aspect ratio. And they work perfectly, the Koreans took care of this. If you downloaded an application from the market, and the developer has not yet optimized it for such a display, the smartphone will do everything by itself.

In the settings, you can set which applications to work in full screen mode, and which ones with a screen size of 5.5 inches. The same procedure can be performed from the menu of running applications. There is a special button for this.

If everything works fine in non-optimized applications, then with video and games, not everything is fine yet.When you open a game or video in full screen mode, the image will be slightly cut off at the top and bottom. In video, this is not critical, but in games, because of this, some button or other control may become unavailable.

Now turn off the screen and talk about its capabilities in this mode. After all, Always on Display is also present here.

By default, the screen displays an electronic clock with a date and application icons that sent notifications, as well as a home key. In this form, you can quickly open the application from which the notification came, switch the music (double tap on the clock opens the player widget), and see the time with the date.

If you don't like the look of the clock, you can replace it with a classic clock, a calendar, any image, or display all the information on the Edge sidebar. You can also turn off everything completely or leave only the “Home” key.

Interface and software

The Galaxy S8 runs on Android 7.0 with Samsung Experience 8.1 on top. By the way, Samsung really “sweated” a lot when developing a new shell. It is well optimized, works without any remarks and glitches. And in work and intuitiveness, Samsung Experience repeats the “clean” Android 7.

But the possibility of customizing the appearance has not gone anywhere. The easiest thing you can do is download and install a third party theme from Galaxy Apps.

You can also change the size and number of icons on the desktop and application menu. You can hide the app menu button and open the app menu by swiping up or down. And also the menu shortcut can be turned off completely, after which all programs will be located on the desktops.

In addition, you can control the style of the icons - leave them as they were invented by the developers or standardize and bring all the icons to the same style.

But the main change was the “murder” and removal of the Briefing panel from the left desktop. A whole era has gone with her, another assistant has died - S Voice. Now on the left desktop is your personal Bixby assistant. Samsung puts so much emphasis on it that it even put a separate assistant launch button on the body.

The main idea of ​​Bixby is to monitor how you use the device and help you do it even better and faster. It also has open APIs, which allows any developer to use Bixby in their application. Right now, Bixby keeps track of what apps I open and how often, what news sources I read, and gives me more suggestions based on that information. There is also an intelligent search for a product or place by photo.

Approximately the same is now doing and Google Now. But unlike Google Now, Bixby can add new features every day, as long as third-party app developers pick up on this theme. From what works now and is really convenient: if you order Uber for a trip to work a couple of times in the morning (that is, Bixby will notice the systematic nature of your actions), the next time the assistant will tell you at the right time that it’s time to call Uber and show how much the trip will cost. The only thing left to do is to press the “Order” button.

Protection

Samsung has made considerable emphasis in the field of data protection and user information. In addition to the usual fingerprint scanner, the Galaxy S8 has a face scanner and an iris scanner. The face scanner is such a thing, it is easy to deceive it with the help of an elementary photograph.

But the iris scanner is a more serious thing. Near the camera is an infrared scanner of the eye shell, which, in theory, should work at any time of the day.

However, in bright sunlight, the scanner sometimes makes mistakes, and in the dark it takes a long time to determine the correspondence of the retina. It can also be a problem if you wear glasses. At certain angles, the sun may glare on the glasses and the scanner will not be able to recognize you. I’m not talking about sunglasses at all, your smartphone will definitely not recognize you in them.

Another scanner is located near the camera, but already near the main one. Since there is no physical home button on the S8, the fingerprint scanner is placed next to the camera. It is not very well located, but you can get used to it. The first couple of days you will confuse it with the camera, but then it will pass. However, even when you get used to its location, you will still touch the camera with your finger from time to time. So before you take a photo, make sure that the camera eye is clean. The scanner itself works quickly and detects a finger at any angle, there are no complaints about it.

Samsung Galaxy S8 Specifications and Benchmarks

This year, Samsung has again returned to the practice of releasing two versions of its flagship on different processors. Samsung's flagship for the former CIS countries will be equipped with an Exynos processor. Although it is worth noting that this is even good.Samsung Exynos 8895 is the first processor built on 10nm process technology. This has a positive effect on performance and autonomy.

Exynos 8895, like all processors from Samsung, is built using Big.little technology. It has four energy efficient ARM Cortex A53 cores and four performance Samsung Exynos M1 cores. The video accelerator is responsible for the graphics Mali-G71 MP20.

In terms of memory, the Galaxy S8 is also stuffed to capacity. At our personal disposal we have 4 GB of RAM and 61 GB of internal storage. But if this is not enough for you, I remind you of the possibility of expanding the memory using a memory card up to 256 GB.

In terms of wireless technology, everything is state-of-the-art. Wi-Fi with dual band and ac standard, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, GPS, ANT+, Galileo and wireless charging support.

In AnTuTu, the smartphone is gaining about 175 thousand points. In Geekbench 4 we see around 2000 and 6700 in the CPU test, and 8500 in the COMPUTE test.

There are no questions at all about the performance of the Galaxy S8. Do you want to run the top game at maximum settings? Easily. Need to quickly switch to watching a 4K MKV movie is also not a problem. The interface and all programs work not just smartly, but really super-fast.

Samsung Galaxy S8 cameras

But in terms of cameras, unfortunately, no revolution has occurred. In fact, the Galaxy S8 has exactly the same main camera as the Galaxy S7 edge. However, the module itself is of a new generation, and the image processing algorithms are also new, due to which the camera began to work faster and the detail of images in poor lighting increased.

Our respect to the visitor. Today we will find out together how long the battery life of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus is. Both Korean flagships are quite capacious in terms of energy, if the first takes an energy breath at 3000 mAh, then the second as much as 3500. But be that as it may, the numbers are not important for the consumer, he needs the battery to hold the charge as long as possible, and preferably find out before buying exactly how much time, to compare with its competitors.

For this model, the developers have determined the battery capacity of 3000 mAh, I wonder how much it lasts. Let's find out what the manufacturers themselves recorded during its active testing, which can be enough for one full charge of the Galaxy S8.

• On listening to music, at a rate of about 50 hours.
• To watch videos, about 15 hours.
• To talk on the phone, about 20 hours.
• For active use of the Internet, Wi-Fi - about 13 hours, 3G - about 10 hours, LTE - about 11 hours.

Agree, pretty good numbers. But let's not forget that these indicators were obtained in precise, laboratory conditions. It is unlikely that they tested with background applications and other errors. Therefore, it is quite normal if your Galaxy S8 works a little less, in fact, their recent owners have been talking about this for a long time.

Mikhail, 32 years old
If you do not actively scour the Internet and do not watch videos, what can we say about games. A full charge is enough for me for about a day and a half, considering only calls and conversations on it. I tried to use it actively, mercilessly, the charge was enough for about eight hours. I think it's quite adequate for him.

As you can see, on average, the battery lasts for a whole day. And if you apply ours, it will be more than enough for you.

It's the turn of the debriefing for the more powerful 2017 Galaxy S8 Plus. As we mentioned above, its battery holds 3500 mAh. What kind of energy performance can it demonstrate, and how many hours can it be used.

• For listening to music, it is enough for about 60 hours.
• For watching videos, for about 17 hours.
• For telephone conversations, approximately at 23:00.
• For active use of the Internet, Wi-Fi - about 14 hours, 3G - about 12 hours, LTE - about 14 hours.

Thus, studies have shown the expected result that the Galaxy S8 Plus lasts a little longer than the Galaxy S8. And most importantly, we learned that, on average, these models last for one and a half and two days, if they are used moderately.

Everyone is wondering, what time does your Samsung Galaxy S8 usually show? Ask your questions in the comments, we will be glad to be of service to you!

Video: Battery Charging Samsung Galaxy S8 vs Galaxy S8 Plus

After the first two weeks of using the Samsung Galaxy S8, the battery life of the smartphone seems to be excellent. But after you install a lot of applications and thoroughly clog the device's memory with various processes, autonomy no longer seems so good. The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus have battery issues that are present in other Android smartphones.

Here are some helpful tips to help you get the most out of your Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus battery life. Read all the details below.

Use power saving mode

The easiest way to conserve precious battery power is to use one of the built-in power saving modes. You can find them in the settings, under the battery tab. Also, the power saving mode can be turned on right in the curtain with the quick settings of the smartphone.

The power-saving mode that most users will use is the "medium" level, which offers a balance of power savings and letting your phone do whatever you need without stuttering or lag. When you select "medium" economy mode, the Galaxy S8 will reduce brightness, screen resolution, limit processor performance, and disable background processes and the Always On Display feature. This will add several hours of battery life during the day, but you should not use this mode on an ongoing basis, as it still limits the functions conceived by the manufacturer.

You can also tweak the power saving options to your liking to find a balance that's comfortable for you - just hit "customize" and see what you're prompted to change. For example, you can leave the background process limiter enabled, but also enable background network usage so that apps continue to sync when you're not using them.

For those situations when you have very little battery or you do not know when you can charge your phone again from the network, set the "maximum" power saving mode. This mode drastically reduces screen resolution, limits screen performance, and disables even more features, all to keep your battery running as long as possible while giving you basic phone functionality and calling capabilities.

Remove unused apps

This is one of the easiest ways to reduce battery drain, but for some reason most users forget about it. Many of us install apps that only run once and waste space and battery life. According to statistics, users use only 5 third-party applications on their smartphone every day, the rest gather dust in flash memory. Go to settings, then apps, and scroll through the list to see if there are apps on the list that you don't really need.

Remember that you can always reinstall the app later if you think you still need it. But removing a couple of programs now will allow you to significantly extend the battery life of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus.

Check Power Consuming Applications

The last two versions of Android have introduced some really useful system-level features that help you detect apps that use too much battery. If you notice that the battery of your Samsung Galaxy S8 is draining faster than usual, the problem may lie in one or two installed applications. Go to Settings > Battery, it will display which apps are using the most precious power.

This operation is best done at the end of the day to get an accurate picture of how much battery the app is using. The bottom of this screen will show what percentage of your daily battery usage has been used by the app. Most often, social networks and instant messengers can be found among the most voracious programs on a smartphone, but if you notice something else that looks unusual and suspicious, you can safely delete this application.

Also on the Galaxy S8, Android automatically purges apps that haven't been used in the last 3 days (can be extended up to 7 days in settings). This is convenient and helps save your battery.

Reduce your screen resolution

Another life hack: reduce the screen resolution by half and extend the work of your smartphone for a couple of hours. To do this, just go to Settings > Display & screen resolution to see this menu. The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus don't run at their maximum resolution by default, instead they use "FHD+".