5 Things We Love About The Samsung Galaxy S8+

Going Big

Smartphone power users might have a new champion in the Samsung Galaxy S8+. The phone has one of the largest smartphone displays available, while being a manageable-size device overall, and it's got plenty of horsepower for the demands of both work and leisure. The Galaxy S8+ debuts April 21 with prices starting at $840.

In the following slides, the CRN Test Center lays out five of the best features and specs to know about with the Samsung Galaxy S8+.

Also, check out the CRN Test Center's full review of the Galaxy S8+.

Display

The Galaxy S8+ display measures 6.2 inches diagonally, offering a very generous amount of space for productivity or fun. And its quality is amazing. The Super AMOLED display can get so bright and sharp that most of the time we didn't have the settings nearly as high as they could go. We mostly kept the resolution at FHD+, 2,220 x 1,080, rather than WQHD+, 2,960 x 1,440, and it still looked great.

The huge screen also supports a pretty good experience of typing into a doc in the Word or Google Doc apps, or of looking through a spreadsheet or PowerPoint. Scanning social media is also better on such a large display.

For off-duty hours, Netflix watching and gaming makes more sense on the S8+ than on just about any other phone out there.

Design

Along with the introduction of a huge display, the bezel above and below the display is almost totally gone on the Galaxy S8+ -- leaving a device that's mostly screen. The curve of the display down the left and right sides of the phone is an appealing look, too. And even though the screen is so large the phone is easy to hold in one hand thanks to the nearly bezel-free design. It's remarkably thin (0.31 of an inch) for such a big device. The design is terrific all around -- we found ourselves wanting to pick up and use the device even if we didn't have anything in mind to do.

Speed

Along with the display, performance is the other biggest high point with the Galaxy S8+. It's the fastest and smoothest-performing Android phone we've tried out to date, thanks no doubt to the new Snapdragon 835 processor from Qualcomm and 4 GB of RAM. We found quick load times in apps and web browsing even while having multiple apps open at once, and it performed great while playing Super Mario Run, too.

Split-Screen Mode

One area where having a 6.2-inch display is crucial is in using split-screen mode. There's a bit of a learning curve in using the S8+ in split screen, but we ultimately think it's a very useful feature. Keeping your calendar open in one window while using email in another can come in handy, for instance. Watching a YouTube video in one window while checking Twitter on the other could be one of the many other uses.

Fast-Charging

We found the battery life on the Galaxy S8+ to be good, but not astounding. However, when you do drain the battery, getting it charged back up is a quick process. In our testing we found we could get 20 percent of the battery life back in 25 minutes.