Samsung Galaxy S8 vs. iPhone 8: Which one would you prefer?

Comparison of Specifications:Samsung Galaxy S8 vs. Apple iPhone 8

The rumor mills have been working overtime speculating the specifications and design of the two mostly awaited 2017 flagship smartphones, Galaxy S8 and iPhone 8 from the tech giants, Samsung and Apple, respectively. While Apple’s iPhone 8 is months away from its release this year, Samsung unveiled its latest smartphone, the Galaxy S8 on March 29.

The sleek Galaxy S8 smartphone’s standout features are a screen that goes nearly to the edges of the device, and a virtual assistant named Bixby.

Based on what we know about the Samsung Galaxy S8 and rumors that we are hearing about the iPhone 8, let’s have a look at the specifications and features of Galaxy S8 and iPhone 8.

Display

Samsung Galaxy S8 comes with a 5.8” Super AMOLED Quad HD + display [2960 x 1440 pixels (570ppi)] with an aspect ratio of 18:5:9. It offers a curved glass panel called as Infinity Display by the company along with reduced bezels on the top and bottom thereby putting the content in front and center.

The iPhone 8 models too are expected to have OLED curved screens, which will stretch across the entire face of the smartphone, creating a borderless appearance and larger viewable surface.

Performance

The Galaxy S8 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor (in some markets) while being powered by Samsung’s Exynos SoC in others along with 4GB of RAM. As far as Apple is concerned, iPhone 8 is expected to be powered by an A11 chip, which could be built on a 10-nanometer process.

Internal Storage

While the Galaxy S8 comes with 64GB in-built storage which is expandable by up to 256GB via a microSD card, Apple too is expected to offer up to 256GB internally for the iPhone 8, according to rumors.

Battery

The Samsung Galaxy S8 comes with a 3,000-mAh battery, which is expected to last 13.6 days on standby and 33 hours of continuous use before you need to recharge it. On the other hand, Apple too is also reportedly planning to offer a “big battery” in the iPhone 8. However, there are no details yet on the battery capacity.

Home button

Samsung has eliminated the physical home button on its Galaxy S8. The home button is now virtual and lives inside the handset’s software, along with other contextual keys.

As for as Apple, a large number of reports have claimed that iPhone 8 will be the first device not to come with a physical Home button, as the Cupertino giant is looking to expand the functionality of its touchscreen. Instead, users will simply touch the iPhone 8’s screen to navigate around the device, much like many existing Android smartphones. Rumors suggest that the iPhone 8 will feature an all-new ‘function area’ which will change depending on what app or service is being used.

Iris/Facial Recognition/Fingerprint Sensor

The Samsung Galaxy S8 offers you an iris scanner and a facial-recognition scanner in addition to your fingerprint sensor. Samsung has moved the fingerprint sensor to the back, next to the camera lens, since it has ditched the home button. There’s a chance that you might smudge your lens, as its placement makes it a little more difficult to reach than you might like.

On the other hand, rumors suggest that the iPhone 8 may include facial recognition system rather than iris recognition or could have a mixture of both technologies. Also, many rumors suggest that Apple will keep its Touch ID fingerprint sensor, but move it under the display. In fact, Apple is said to be testing technology that would bake Touch ID directly into the screen and potentially allow users press anywhere on the display to activate its features.

Camera

The Galaxy S8 comes with a 12MP rear facing camera (dual pixel) with an f/1.7 aperture and optical image stabilization. It also comes with rocking Sony’s new IMX333 sensor, which should result in some very impressive uplift to overall performance. The front facing camera is 8MP with an f/1.7 aperture with autofocus.

Apple iPhone 8 is expected to retain the dual-lens camera added to the iPhone 7 Plus suggests rumors. The company is also reportedly working on adding 3D capabilities to its camera, which enable all sorts of augmented reality applications.

AI Assistant

Samsung Galaxy S8 is the company’s first smartphone to include its own newly launched virtual assistant, Bixby. The AI will reportedly be able to use the cameras on the Samsung Galaxy S8 to scan your surroundings, surfacing useful information about what it is looking at. This will allow the smartphone to identify the objects it is pointed at – and will be able to direct you to online retailers where you can buy the item. The search functionality will reportedly be closely tied with Samsung Pay. Bixby can also learn your manner of speaking and will do a better job as time goes on learning what you say and how you say it to deliver more accurate results. By pointing your camera at words in another language, Bixby will translate it for you on the fly.

On the other hand, Apple’s Siri is consistently getting smarter and will get some updates this year. While there aren’t many details available, but one concept envisions Siri working simultaneously with the camera to enable near-instant object recognition.

Water Resistance

Samsung’s Galaxy S8 features an IP68 water resistance rating, which means that it can be under water for 30 minutes at depths of up to 1.5 metres, and are protected from dust, dirt and sand.

In the meantime, Apple recently introduced an IP67 water resistance rating on the iPhone 7, which means it is fully protected against dust ingress and can withstand being submerged in water for up to 30 minutes in 1 metres depth. Apple too is expected to boost the iPhone 8 up to an IP68 rating.

Wireless Charging

Reports expect wireless charging as an obvious feature for the Galaxy S8 that was introduced on the Galaxy S6. In order to allow wireless charging support, Samsung had upgraded its device design from plastic to glass and metal on the Galaxy S6.

However, wireless charging could be a new feature for the iPhone 8 if rumors are true. The iPhone 8 is expected to have a revamped glass design to allow for wireless charging support. Apple has also joined the Wireless Power Consortium, which could mean that Apple is going to add inductive wireless charging to the iPhone 8.

USB-C

The Galaxy S8 features a USB-C port. On the other hand, the iPhone 8 too is expected to offer a USB-C port for the power cord and other peripheral devices instead of the company’s original Lightning connector, suggests rumors.

Other features

On the connectivity front, the Samsung Galaxy S8 comes with Wi-Fi 802.11ac, MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, GPS, Glonass, Galileo, BeiDou, LTE Cat.16. Also, the handset runs Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 was unveiled at a special press event in New York City on March 29 and the company started offering pre-orders on its site, as well as on carrier and retailer sites, on March 30. The Galaxy S8 will be available globally starting from April 21 in as many as five colours: Midnight Black, Orchid Gray, Arctic Silver, Coral Blue and Maple Gold. However, if you pre-order Galaxy S8 on Samsung.com, the company has promised to deliver it at your home on April 20.

Samsung is selling the Galaxy S8 for $750, which will vary depending on the carrier you select and region to region. For instance, Verizon is selling the Galaxy S8 for $720.