Apr 27, 2017 09:46 PM
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With the exploding Note 7 battery fiasco, Samsung inadvertently did something that’s increasingly difficult these days: It made smartphones interesting for a flickering moment. Super interesting in fact. Besides the intriguing mournful saga of the Note 7, whose embarrassing recall cost the company billions, Samsung also set up a dramatic release narrative for the Galaxy S8. This wasn’t just another smartphone—this was a make-or-break device charged with saving a company in the throes of an existential crisis. A smartphone that screams at the void.
With the stakes high, Samsung has delivered a device that legitimately stands out from the rest. The Galaxy S8 is a good enough phone that Samsung can likely leave that Note 7 drama behind.(Though, you know, we’re still waiting to see what unfortunate cataclysm will befall the S8 now.) Ultimately, what makes the S8 a winner isn’t any of the assistant smart features that manufacturers have been pushing hard over the last few years—in fact Samsung’s entrant here, Bixby, falls short. The S8 wins with an industry-leading hardware design that challenges the iPhone’s aesthetic supremacy.
