This is the first in the Active line to support other carriers and the S8 Active continues to be a fantastic option for those who want a rugged smartphone). Width-wise, it’s barely wider than an iPhone 7 and noticeably narrower than the Pixel XL. Titanium Gold Front • Gold Back • Meteor Gray Front • Gray Back. We use industry standard tests in order to compare features properly. The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set (area) of colors that a display can reproduce, with the sRGB colorspace (the highlighted triangle) serving as reference. First, it’s tiny, meaning those times I actually hit it, it doesn’t recognise my finger. It offers the same great display, camera and performance as the original S8, and it can withstand heaps of abuse. Thank you for signing up to TechRadar. Samsung Pay comes preinstalled and works with nearly all card reader terminals. In fact, this screen is so bright that I can keep it on 25% brightness and it’s perfectly visible indoors. with Samsung's heavy TouchWiz UI layer on top. Multimedia apps, audio quality, loudspeaker, 10. The S8 Active measures 6.0 by 3.0 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and weighs a hefty 7.3 ounces, a notable increase from the regular S8 (5.8 by 2.7 by 0.3 inches, 5.5 ounces). Thankfully, this isn’t the case here. Im very dissatisfied, Home Only for AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile customers who want a rugged Galaxy S8 and can’t fathom buying a case, but can spend up to $280 extra. Facebook It's essentially the same device as the standard S8, wrapped in a durable polycarbonate shell that gives it much greater protection against bumps, drops, and scrapes. This shell wraps around the sides of the phone, doing away with the curves that make the S8 so attractive, but also so fragile. 1200 Mbit/s ? The S8 Active trades … The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance (balance between red, green and blue) across different levels of grey (from dark to bright). It sacrifices aesthetics big time, and its ruggedness doesn’t prevent unsightly dings and nicks. One other tidbit that may be worth mentioning, the Galaxy S7 active from last year had the "active" branding in all-lowercase letters, as well as the Galaxy S6 active before it. For a $100 premium over the standard S8, the Galaxy S8 Active gets you more battery life and increased durability. Of course, you can also, buy a regular Galaxy S8 and wrap it up in a protective, How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad, How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill, How to Find Free Tools to Optimize Your Small Business, How to Get Started With Project Management, Read Caterpillar Cat S40 (Unlocked) Review, Samsung Galaxy Note 5 vs. Samsung Galaxy S7, iPhone 12 May Be the Only Future-Proof 5G Phone. Sign up to get breaking news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more, plus the hottest tech deals! Max Parker is the Deputy Editor for Trusted Reviews and Recombu. Although, when you consider that Samsung has demonstrated the best screen tech for a number of years, this isn’t really a surprise. That makes it the best rugged phone money can buy, and our Editors' Choice. As more top-of-the-line smartphones move away from bezels, shrinking or doing away with them entirely, the Galaxy S8 Active does feel like it’s behind the curve. Its resolution is a sharp 506 pixels per inch (ppi), which is actually a little less sharp than the 2,960-by-1,440 S8 (570ppi), but the difference is barely perceptible. A lot of high-performance hardware held back by unfriendly UI and poor design choices. The S8 Active has an all-glass front that is shatter-resistant up to five feet if dropped on a flat surface, thanks to Gorilla Glass 5, which the normal Galaxy S8 also has. I subjected the S8 Active to a series of torture tests, including six-foot drops to wood, tile, and concrete floors. The Samsung Galaxy S8 set the standard for, earlier this year, with a tall-and-narrow build, top-of-the-line specs, and feature-rich software. Samsung Galaxy S8 review Biometric issues aside, ... We spent a week thoroughly testing the Samsung Galaxy S8 when it first came out - watch our video below to see how we got on. The display of third-party trademarks and trade names on this site does not necessarily indicate any affiliation or the endorsement of PCMag. You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers at https://www.parsintl.com/phonearena or use the Reprints & Permissions tool that appears at the bottom of each web page. This is standard fare for a top-tier phone; the only noteworthy inclusion is band 66, which gives carriers more room to combine spectrum and improve downlink. There’s no glass back on the Galaxy S8 Active either, so there’s less to shatter back there. Instead, it’s on the back, next to the camera, and I hate it more every time I use it. Announced Aug 2017. New York, Like the S8, the Active is rated IP68, so it can survive in 6 feet of water for at least 30 minutes. Final thoughts, key test findings, alternatives, verdict, Samsung Galaxy S8 Active review - Reader comments, Programmable Activity Key is now Bixby Key, Verizon and International availability not yet expected. 4. 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But I’d suggest hopping into Settings and switching things up. It survived without any visible damage. Samsung’s 2017 flagship is still an absolute looker and there’s still plenty of gas in the tank if you’re considering it as your next device, even though the Samsung Galaxy S10 is now available and packing a whole load more features. The one additional feature you get on the Active series is the preloaded Activity Zone app. It’s ready for the occasional tumble, whether that be onto hard ground or a puddle. This is a dedicated Bixby button – which I’ll cover in more detail in the Software section – and while it shows Samsung is taking its new virtual assistant seriously, it feels too much for Bixby to have its own button. Like the recently launched LG G6, the front of the Samsung Galaxy S8 is almost all screen – and it’s this that really makes the S8 stand out.