murtaza12

Would prove to be quite ineffective in the dark, and if you want to unlock your phone while it's on a table, just gotta pick it up a bit and put your finger on the back, rather than bringing it up to your face to recognize your eyes and then have it unlock.
May be a fun gimmick for a while, but I feel it'll start becoming very annoying, so I'll stick with the good old fingerprint scanner.

wco81

Fingerprint scanner in the back is sacrificing functionality for esthetics.

You have to pick it up off the table to unlock, as opposed to a front scanner which lets you unlock while leaving it on the table.

nmenaker

I would argue it's sacrificing some functionality for some other functionality - namely the physical home button. at the moment (insert iphone 8 here) nobody has an onscreen fingerprint scanner available, so the objective with the S8 and + was to have the edge to edge screen, requiring the physical HOME button to be removed. It's now all along the bottom as as virtual buttons on screen and works quite well actually, no delay in pressing or pop-up of the home, back, app drawer functionality. I was surprised how well it worked actually and then when it's not needed its gone. Finding the new fingerprint scanner on the back seems pretty intuitive as well, although the S8+ was a BIT of a reach to get to but doable with my normal size hands.

So, I think Samsung is just putting everything on the table for authorization purposes and hoping people will find one or several that work best for their usage and security needs. For something like KNOX i'll put more than one authentication on there.

I'm still on the fence as to the S8 or S8+. I was originally thinking the S8+ was going to be TOO big, but it feels more like a NOTE 4/5 than something larger. The S8 pretty much feels like an iphone 6/7 form factor and NOT the larger PLUS models. As some reviewers have said, the S8+ is more like a mini tablet, but I would totally disagree with that.

WIRunner

The S8 has a bigger display than the iPhone 7+ does, but it is in the body about the same size iP7. (Which was a big selling point for me.) The S8+ to me is going to be a tough sell. The previous samsung phones that were larger offered something beyond a slightly larger battery, and in the case of the iPhone Plus models, they had a better camera as well. I can't see the advantage of going to a larger displayed phone and only getting the larger display, the extra battery in this case probably will zero out with the display size compared to the smaller phone. There is a model that I am very interested in, and which likely will never see the US, is the S8 Mini. It would have a 5 inch display in a chassis similarly sized to the iPhone 5/SE. I'd have that in a heartbeat, even at full retail.

SRQ Guy

Someone has figured out an easy way to remap the Bixby button to open Google Assistant. The Note 8 has become somewhat more interesting for me this fall.

FlyingDoctorwu

from what I've read the placement of the fingerprint scanner on the back was a late addition. The original plan was to have an embeddded scanner but the tech just wasn't there yet so they had to put the scanner somewhere.


while I have never used the iris scanner previous models were a bit cumbersome to use.

The facial recognition isn't secure enough for Samsung pay and has been bypassed by a still photo already.


Fdw

gobluetwo

Or they couldn't make it work in time, at the very least.

Apple also has a patent for an embedded fingerprint scanner which I assume is planned to make an appearance in the iPhone 10/X/whatever. If they can make that work, big first-to-market differentiator.

pseudoswede

Unless they bring back wireless charging to Pixel phones, I won't bother looking at them.

FlyingDoctorwu

That's good news because apparently not all the features of Bixby will be operational at launch (bixby voice).

FDW

WIRunner

Apparently T-Mobile US pre-orders are being assigned tracking numbers. There's a chance that people will start getting them fairly soon. I'm hoping that mine doesn't get to me any earlier than Tuesday. I'm going to be away all weekend for the Easter holiday.

Points Scrounger

Mine was defaulted to pick up at my neighborhood T Mobile store.

LoveHateRelationship

Just ordered my first Samsung product since the S3! Pretty excited to get the S8+ but it looks like I won't be getting it this Friday and the store has no idea when it'll get to me either

WIRunner

got my tracking number and IMEI this morning from T-Mobile. It is unfortunate that I'm going to have to return it fairly soon. I'm planning on porting to Verizon in the next week or so, they put a site up across the street from us, seems pointless to remain with anyone else.

msm2000uk

Mine is hopefully delivered on Friday.

Whether it's massively better than my S7 remains to be known, but I like having new toys!

M

FlyingDoctorwu

Reviews look quite good. Great screen, awkward fingerprint sensor is the general geist.