Samsung Galaxy S8

Amazing, large display ; Huge power ; Great camera

Irritating biometric unlocking ; Very expensive at launch ; Bixby pointless

The large, bezel-less display is truly iconic and beautiful, and the screen quality excellent. The fingerprint scanner being placed on the back is a poor decision from Samsung, as well as the iris scanner / facial recognition not working well enough to...

Brilliant display ; Blazing fast performance ; Bluetooth 5 and dual audio

Rear fingerprint reader placement ; Face recognition hit and miss ; Bixby needs to differentiate

Stunning build and design ; Large, bright screen ; Snappy performance ; Great camera

Full Bixby not yet available ; Fingerprint scanner poorly positioned ; Colour palette could be better ; Sound could be more transparent

The world’s most beautiful smartphone is also one of the best. The S8 is Samsung’s comeback king

The most eye-catching phone design you can buy today ; Great-looking 18.5:1 aspect ratio AMOLED screen is ideal for entertainment (even more so when HDR comes into play) ; Best Samsung software experience to date ; Decent battery life and optimisations...

Fingerprint scanner is poorly placed ; Iris and face recognition logins have limited success ; Bixby button initially useless ; Connectivity can cause issues with perfect playback/graphical functions ; Some features hidden in menus ; Expensive

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is the flagship to rule all flagships. From a design perspective it's an unbridled head-turner, delivering design that's a step above any of the competition out there. The 18.5:1 screen ratio is central to a focus on entertainment...

It’s the most beautiful smartphone ever ; Ridiculous power, put to good use with DeX ; The camera is amazing, as always

Bixby’s full talents not available at launch ; Not all apps are optimised for its 18.5:9 aspect ratio ; That fingerprint sensor position is not great at all

The S8 is close to perfect, from its gorgeous, slim bezel design to its superb camera

Slick hardware that’s easy to carry around ; DeX desktop is simple enough ; Phone is powerful enough to keep things running smoothly

Keyboard and mouse don’t behave exactly as you’d expect ; Some apps just don’t support DeX at all ; Multitasking isn’t as straightforward as we’d like

The best desktop docking station ever still isn’t perfect. DeX is fine for the basics, but for anything more you’ll be longing for your laptop

Exquisite design ; Class-leading display ; Excellent performance

Divisive software design ; Duplicate apps ; Bixby is incomplete at launch

It would seem that the Galaxy S8 not only helps push the troublesome Note 7 further back into memory but also presents Samsung as a company renewed for 2017. Some elements of the phone’s hardware are iterative whilst others break new ground..