The Samsung Galaxy S8.
My durability tests have become a rite of passage of sorts for every new smart phone
that comes out, and this brand new flagship from Samsung is no different.
I’ll put it through a few years worth of abuse in just a few minutes.
I’ll make sure the phone can survive the test of time and see if the S8 is worth the
investment for those concerned with durability.
Let’s get started.
[Intro]
This orchid gray color is the one lucky enough to end up on my desk; a new color variation
for this round of smart phone.
It’s nice to see something different than the standard black, gold and silver that pretty
much every manufacturer has.
The phone is cold and solid feeling in my hand so we’re off to a good start.
The scratch test is always first.
My Mohs picks do a pretty good job of seeing how scratch resistant the screen is.
Plastic screens, like the Galaxy S7 Active would scratch at a level 3.
Last year’s Galaxy S7 Edge scratched at a level 6, which is pretty much the standard
for smart phones at the moment.
A sapphire screen would get into the levels 8 or 9 on the hardness scale, and I’m working
on getting my hands on one of those phones, but they are pretty rare.
The good news is the Gorilla Glass 5 on this Galaxy S8 scratched at a level 6, so your
normal keys and coins won’t do any damage to this glass.
There is no physical home button on the bottom of this screen.
Aesthetically, it looks pretty sweet.
I’m a fan of the larger screen size taking up the whole front face.
Looking at the earpiece is where I run into my first issue.
Definitely a minor issue, but still something to think about.
The speaker grill is recessed slightly below the glass surface which is a very interesting
design choice.
If it was protruding, like on the Galaxy S7, it would help protect the screen a little
by not allowing the glass to rest directly on its surface if set face down.
Or maybe if it was flush like the LG G6, at least it would look cool and uniform with
the rest of the screen.
But recessed under the glass is just asking for it to collect all kinds of lint and dust
and other goodies from your pocket…or even makeup off your face.
Recessed isn’t the most ideal design choice.
The good news is is that the grill is made of metal, so when it does need to be cleaned
out, it’s pretty secure and won’t be falling out on its own like we’ve seen with some
of the other phones I’ve tested.
One more thing is the speaker size.
The S7 Edge that I’ve been using for the past year is already pretty quiet, and the
grill on the S8 is less than half of the size.
So if they shrank the internal speaker inside of the S8, it would be a terrible move.
I’ll have to check that speaker size when I open up and tear down the phone tomorrow.
The sensors, like the iris scanner and the 8 megapixel front facing camera are all covered
by the same glass that’s on the screen so my razor blade is not leaving any marks.
Since the screen is harder than my razor blade.
Now for the back of the phone.
The back panel is made of glass and the Samsung logo is printed on the underside of the glass
so there’s no chance of removing it from this side.
If we jump up to the flash and the focus sensors, they are also covered by this same glass rear
panel.
This is the first time I’ve ever seen a glass covered flash on a phone; normally it’s
plastic.
It think that see-through window to the sensor is pretty awesome.
If there was a totally clear version of the S8, I would buy it up in 2 seconds.
My favorite gameboy was the clear one back in the day, and older-me hasn’t changed
a bit.
Would you buy a clear phone?
Let me know in the comments.
The camera lens is also covered with glass and luckily my razor blade leaves no marks
on it.
Definitely scratch resistant.
The Galaxy S8 has a subtle ring around the camera that protrudes ever so slightly.
It’s almost flush, but the ring is defiantly there.
It’s made of metal and hopefully if you’re the type of person who walks around without
a skin or a case, it will be enough to help protect that camera lens if you ever set your
phone down.
Now the fingerprint scanner.
Off to the right of the camera, it’s definitely in a unique spot.
It will take some getting used to.
After heavily scratching this fingerprint scanner, I was able to set my fingerprint
with no major issues.
It still unlocked the phone almost every time.
Without looking though, it was pretty hard to differentiate between the camera lens and
the fingerprint scanner with my finger tip since they are pretty close together.
Hopefully muscle memory will improve with time and I’ll get better at it.
Now it’s time for the hypothetical apocalypse test.
The Galaxy S8 has a 5.8 inch super AMOLED display.
Now in the past when I roast an AMOLED display with my lighter, like with the Galaxy S7,
it will start to go white after about 10 seconds and never recover.
But this Galaxy S8 lasted 30 seconds.
The screen still went white but then completely recovered.
I’m happy about the success, but I’m also all about second chances.
But even after another 30 second round of flame, the screen had no markings.
Definitely impressive.
Speaking of apocalyptic scenarios, I talked Audible into giving a free book to every single
one of my subscribers.
So if dystopia novels are your thing and you like free stuff, I highly recommend “Fahrenheit
451” by Ray Bradbury.
Or another book called “1984” by George Orwell.
Both of these books reshaped my entire way of thinking.
And, well, thought provoking books are the best kind of books.
If you use this link, audible.com/jerryrig, all lowercase, you get to keep the free book
you download even if you decide not to use Audible after your free 30 day trial.
It’s a pretty good deal.
I’ll also include the link right below this video in the description.
A burn proof phone would be incredible, but in order to make sure, I tried the flame test
one last time.
It was only then, on my third burn, that I was able to get a permanent mark on the screen.
I would definitely certify this thing for a mild to moderate apocalypse.
But with any extinction level events, you’re going to need a little more protection.
Now the sides of this phone are made from pure metal.
Everything from the SIM card tray to the actual borders of the phone.
The phone might look a little beat up at this point, but it’s still less violent than
flying United.
All of the buttons are made from metal.
Even Bixby, our permanent new best friend that nobody asked for, is also metal.
Down at the bottom of the phone we have the USBC port which I prefer at this point.
The transition to USBC is pretty much mandatory on all flagships this far into the game.
There’s also a headphone jack down here.
You can charge your phone and listen to music at the same time.
How ridiculous would it be if your phone couldn’t do something basic like that.
Another interesting thing about the Galaxy S8 is that the rear panel is structural; it’s
embedded inside the metal frame instead of rest on top.
I managed to permanently borrow the rear back panel of What’s Inside’s Galaxy S8 that
we cut open a few days ago.
It looks like the glass coloring can be scraped off from underneath the glass, leaving a cloudy
clear surface beneath the logo.
I think it looks pretty cool.
That clear Galaxy should defiantly be a thing.
It took several hard hits with my knife to destroy the back panel, and when it finally
did crack, a spider web similar to the LG G6, where everything was still relatively
intact.
Much safer than the HTCU Ultra where the large un-laminated glass chunks were falling off
all over the place.
And now it’s time for the ultimate test of build quality, the bend test.
Two years ago the Galaxy S6 was the first phone I ever did a durability test on and
Samsung has never disappointed since when it comes to building physically solid devices.
There is almost zero flex to this thing and more importantly no seals are being broken
either so everything is still water resistant.
It’s nice that you can count on your phone even if an irresponsibly large amount of pressure
is applied to both ends.
The flashlight complained for a few seconds about the abuse, but other than that I’d
have to say that the Galaxy S8 is an incredibly well built phone and definitely a candidate
for my daily driver.
My Twitter and Instagram followers got a spoiler free preview of the phone before this video
went live.
So if you like seeing tech tested, follow me over there.
And don’t forget your free 30 day trial from Audible.
For real, it’s free.
With Audible you can read or listen directly from your phone so you’ll always have something
productive in your pocket.
Link is in the description.
I’ll see you guys tomorrow for the tear down.
Thanks for watching!
I’ll see you around.