Scania Announces CarPlay Integration Coming This Summer for Truck Drivers
Swedish truck and bus manufacturer Scania today announced that it will begin introducing Apple’s CarPlay system into some of its heavy trucks beginning in June 2017, as well as revealing that some of its older model vehicles will be upgradeable with aftermarket CarPlay infotainment systems. Scania is among the first in the industry to introduce CarPlay into big rig trucks.
Scania trucks that come with a Scania Infotainment System and a voice control option will be able to support CarPlay, which functions by connecting to a nearby Apple iPhone through a USB cable — or wirelessly in some vehicles — and displaying relevant iOS information on Scania’s 7-inch touch screen. This way, drivers can use Siri, call someone, listen to music, and navigate without being distracted from the road.
Scania believes that CarPlay will be particularly invaluable for truck drivers “who spend a lot of time behind the wheel.” The specific Scania truck models that will be getting CarPlay this summer have not yet been announced.
“Scania’s infotainment system will work with Apple CarPlay, the smarter, safer way to use your iPhone while on the move,” says Björn Fahlström, Vice President, Product Management, Scania Trucks. “Apple CarPlay support is being introduced in June 2017, and earlier devices can be updated, provided that they have voice recognition. By introducing this functionality, we will offer even more driver comfort and increased safety. For truck drivers, who spend a lot of time behind the wheel, everything that makes life on the road easier, simpler and safer is very much appreciated.”
Moving forward, the company said that it plans to continue to introduce CarPlay support into more of its trucks “in the near future.” For the list of currently available CarPlay vehicles, check out Apple.com.
Related Roundup: CarPlay
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Western Union Debuts Apple Pay Support Inside iOS App for Mobile Money Transfers
Payment services company Western Union today announced that United States users can now pay with Apple Pay within its iOS app when sending out money transfers from the U.S. to domestic recipients, or to over 200 countries worldwide. The company said that Apple Pay will allow for easier-than-ever domestic bill payments within its iOS app, with users able to access their stored bank card information with a tap of their finger using Touch ID.
The same functionality is planned for users in the United Kingdom later this year.
“Today, 60 percent of all Western Union digital money transfer transactions globally are initiated via a mobile device,” said Khalid Fellahi, senior vice president and general manager, Western Union Digital. “By bringing Apple Pay as a payment method in the US and later to the UK, Western Union is delivering an exceptional experience across our mobile platform, allowing our customers to conveniently and reliably move money, whenever they please.”
In its physical locations, Western Union has been one of the earlier adopters of Apple Pay, dating back to early 2015 when the company began rolling out support for Apple’s mobile wallet at its agent locations across the United States.
The Western Union Money Transfer app is available to download from the App Store for free [Direct Link], and users should begin seeing the Apple Pay update today.
Tag: Western Union
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‘Apple Watch Series 3’ Models Expected in Second Half of 2017 With September Launch Likely
The next-generation Apple Watch is scheduled to be released in the second half of 2017, according to supply chain newspaper DigiTimes.
The timeline matches a Chinese-language Economic Daily News report that claimed new Apple Watch models will be unveiled in the third quarter of 2017, aka fall, with battery life and performance improvements.
Apple Watch Series 2 models and slightly upgraded Series 1 models launched in September alongside the iPhone 7, so it is reasonable to assume that Series 3 models could launch in September as well. The original Apple Watch, now dubbed Series 0, launched in April 2015.
In addition to a faster processor and longer battery life, cellular connectivity has been a long-rumored addition to the Apple Watch, and SIG analyst Christopher Rolland believes LTE capabilities could be included in Series 3 models. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also said LTE could be added as early as 2017.
With a cellular connection, Apple Watch owners would not need a paired iPhone nearby to do things like make phone calls or stream Apple Music content, but a separate data plan from a carrier would likely be needed.
Apple is also expected to switch to a glass-film touchscreen this year in place of the current touch-on-lens solution, but it is unclear if this change would have any obvious consumer-facing benefits.
The overall design of the Apple Watch has not changed since the original models launched in April 2015, but one report yet to be substantiated claims Series 3 models will have few if any significant hardware changes. Apple has instead introduced new bands each season to offer a fresh look and feel.
Few other details are known about the next Apple Watch at this point, and no parts have leaked from the supply chain yet.
Apple has filed patents for a number of ideas that could eventually be included in an Apple Watch, such as a heart rate identification system, modular bands, haptic feedback band, and a band with a built-in charger. More significant health and fitness features could be added pending further FDA approvals.
Quanta Computer is expected to remain the primary manufacturer of the Apple Watch, with some production reportedly shifting to Compal Electronics.
Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
Tag: digitimes.com
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
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Surprise: Galaxy S8 has the ‘best smartphone display’
Improved color gamut, smarter always-on display and extremely high peak brightness are among the highlights, according to DisplayMate.
I got some face time with the Galaxy S8 and S8+’s screens last week, and I can tell you they look good. What I can’t tell you is exactly how good, and that’s where DisplayMate, a longstanding expert in display technologies, comes in.
The publication has gotten its hands on early Galaxy S8 samples, putting the them through a rigorous suite of tests covering just about every aspect of the displays. As you’d expect, there are significant improvements across the board, but there are also a few surprises along the way. Highlights include:
- Contrary to pre-announcement rumblings, the GS8 uses a diamond subpixel pattern (as opposed to an RGB stripe, as was rumored.)
- The GS8 supports subpixel rendering, where each (red, green or blue) subpixel can be addressed and rendered to, improving perceived sharpness.
- Viewing angles have been improved, with a smaller reduction in brightness when viewed at 30 degrees.
- The display supports 100% of DCI-P3, bringing its color gamut in line with current 4K TVs.
- Peak brightness is a whopping 1,000 nits in high ambient light mode. (610 nits when the level is manually adjusted.)
- As well as being certified for Mobile HDR Premium, there’s also an Expanded Dynamic Range mode to upscale non-HDR content on the phone.
- There’s an ambient light sensor on the back of the GS8, to give a more accurate reading of environmental light levels.
- The core functionality of the Always-On Display mode is reportedly now handled by hardware, as opposed to the app itself. This won’t affect the user experience, but should save power.
- Display power consumption is comparable to that of the Galaxy S7, only with a wider color gamut, this making it more efficient overall.
The verdict?
The Galaxy S8 is the first in a new generation of OLED Smartphones that have a Full Screen Display design. It has many major and important state-of-the-art display performance enhancements, features and functions, with mobile OLED display technology now advancing faster than ever. The Galaxy S8 is the most innovative and high performance Smartphone display that we have ever lab tested. So the Galaxy S8 becomes the Best Performing Smartphone Display, earning DisplayMate’s highest ever A+ grade.
DisplayMate’s write-up goes into great detail on all aspects of the Galaxy S8 and S8+’s displays, so be sure to take a look if you want to pour through all the technical details.
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Honor 8 Pro specs
High-end Honor handset has hearty Huawei hardware.
Honor has just announced its latest flagship-tier handset for Europe, the Honor 8 Pro. We’ve got a full review ready for you right now. But if you’d prefer to take a quick glance down the spec sheet so you know what you’re in for, look no further than the table below.
Behold! Numbers, acronyms and more!
| Operating System | Android 7.0EMUI 5.1 |
| CPU | Huawei Kirin 960 |
| RAM | 6GB |
| Display | 2560×1440 (Quad HD) IPS LCD |
| Speaker | Single bottom-firing |
| Storage | 64GB + microSD (uses SIM slot 2) |
| Dual-SIM | Yes |
| Rear camera | 12MP + 12MP, 1.25-micron pixels, f/2.24K video |
| Front camera | 8MP f/2.0 |
| Battery | 4,000mAh non-removable |
| Charging | USB Type-C, 9V/2A quick charging |
| Dimensions | 157 x 77.5 x 6.97 mm |
| Weight | 184 grams |
More: Honor 8 Pro review
Honor 8 Pro is official: 5.7-inch display, giant-ass battery, Kirin 960
Honor’s latest phone for Europe is a beast, and it’ll cost £475 in the UK.
Huawei’s Honor brand has taken the wraps off its latest high-end handset, which just happens to be the biggest, highest-specced Honor phone to date. The Honor 8 Pro breaks cover today, running the latest Huawei hardware and software — and the overall package looks to be competitive with the likes of OnePlus at its launch price of £475. (If it looks familiar, that’s because the Honor 8 Pro landed in China a few weeks back as the Honor V9.)
The Honor 8 Pro’s internals are in the same league as the Mate 9 and P10.
For your money, you’ll get a slim, stylish metal exterior and a 5.7-inch Quad HD display, powered by the latest Kirin 960 CPU — previously seen in the Mate 9 and P10. That’s backed up by a whopping 6GB of RAM and 64GB of base storage, plus expansion via a hybrid slot, which can hold a second SIM or a microSD card. The Honor 8 Pro packs a big screen, but it’s also the slimmest handset we’ve seen with a 4,000mAh battery, which promises top-notch longevity. When it comes time to charge, the 8 Pro supports Huawei’s 9V/2A quick charging (but not the newer, speedier Super Charging tech.)
The camera setup will be familiar to owners of the Honor 8 — on paper, the hardware appears identical to that phone’s dual-lens 12MP setup, however Honor is leveraging the improved ISP (image signal processor) and general number-crunching abilities of the Kirin 960 to step image quality up a notch compared to the 8 Pro’s predecessor, particularly in low light.
This is also the first Honor phone to ship with EMUI 5.1, the latest version of Huawei’s software layer, based on Android 7.0 Nougat. That’s the version that first debuted on the P10, with improved touch responsiveness, low-level tweaks for extra performance, and video-wrangling features in the Gallery app, thanks to the “Highlights” feature developed in partnership with GoPro.
The Honor 8 Pro’s leading color in the UK is the “navy blue” you see above, and it goes up for pre-order today on Huawei and Honor’s vMall store. Regular sales begin on other outlets, including Amazon.co.uk, from April 20. There’s no word on any U.S. release plans for the Honor 8 Pro at present — today’s announcement only covers European markets.
Tempted? Check out our full review for more on the Honor 8 Pro!
More: Honor 8 Pro review
Honor 8 Pro review: Killer flagship
The quick take
Honor’s biggest, highest-end handset is a supersized, supercharged version of one of our favorite affordable flagships of the past year, offering a gorgeous design, speedy performance and legendary battery life for less money than you’d expect to pay.
The Good
- Speedy performance
- Slim, stylish metal chassis
- Epic battery life
- Good value at £475 price point
The Bad
- EMUI will still be too customized for some
- No on-contract buying options
Honor 8 Pro Full Review
The €400/$400 price point is where we’ve seen some of the most exciting phones of recent times, bringing about the rise of brands like OnePlus and Honor. These two in particular have promised — and often delivered — powerful hardware and eye-catching designs for half of the cost of top-tier devices. Last year the Honor 8 emerged as a decent bet for anyone wanting a lot of phone for not a lot of money — but in many ways it was still a mid-range phone.
So what would happen if you took the DNA of the Honor 8 and applied it to a larger, flagship tier product. Well, you’d get this: the Honor 8 Pro.
It’s a bigger, higher-specced, metal-clad version of the Honor 8, with an enormous battery and new software based on EMUI 5.1 and Android 7.0 Nougat. It’s going on sale at a SIM-free launch price of £475 — higher than previous Honor phones, but still comfortably within that “affordable flagship” ballpark.
And you know what? It’s actually really good.
About this review
We’re publishing this review after six days with a dual-SIM European-spec Honor 8 Pro (model DUK-L09) in “navy blue” on the Vodafone UK network, in London and Manchester. Our review unit was running firmware version B120, based on EMUI 5.1 and Android 7.0, with the 1 March 2017 Android security patch.
Honor 8 Pro Video Review
Big and blue
Honor 8 Pro Hardware
After the Honor 8 flirted with a glass-backed design, the 8 Pro brings us back to a more traditional aluminum unibody — mostly a welcome change considering how slippery and scratch-prone that model was. True, an anodized paint job isn’t quite as eye-catching as a reflective glass panel. But on the other hand you don’t need to worry about it slowly sliding its way across flat surfaces — a notorious “feature” of the Honor 8.
While the front of the Honor 8 Pro has the appearance of a blown-up Honor 8 — right down to the branding, the shade of blue used the tapered glass edges and minimal side bezels — the back has seen a major redesign.
Honor’s heftiest phone yet is big, but not unmanageable.
The new look is a little iPhoney, thanks to the placement of the camera module and antenna bands. However the in-hand feel is much less slippery than Apple’s phone, thanks to subtly angled side walls that help with one-handed use. Admittedly, I’m used to wrangling big phones like the Mate 9 and HTC U Ultra, but I never had any difficulty using or pocketing the Honor 8 Pro. It’s big, but not unmanageable.
The chassis isn’t aggressively decorated, with just a few subtle chamfers around the fingerprint scanner and camera lenses, which sit flush with the back of the phone. The design is stylish and uncomplicated, and so most of the personality of this phone comes from its color — a deep blue that’s tough to bring out in photos and video, but which looks fantastic in the flesh.
The 8 Pro benefits from a stylish, uncomplicated look and an eye-catching deep blue finish.
Back around the front, the Honor 8 Pro boasts a Quad HD (2560×1440) IPS LCD display, the biggest we’ve seen in an Honor phone to date — a panel which I guess technically makes it a phablet, if you insist on using that word. The display is bright and vivid, beating the OnePlus 3T in daylight visibility as well as pixel density. And colors are vibrant, without appearing over-saturated, with no noticeable ghosting or overtly unbalanced hues. (Should you want to tweak things further, there’s a white balance option available.)
Overall, it’s comparable to the slightly smaller Quad HD panel Huawei uses in the P10 Plus, a handset which sells for around £200 more. (Only — and I have to mention this — unlike that phone, Honor actually gives you an oleophobic coating on the display.)
When it comes to audio, there’s a headphone jack down below (lookin’ at you, HTC), supported by a single bottom-firing speaker, which gets the job done in terms of volume, but is prone to distortion at higher volume levels.
Other internals? You’re looking at Huawei’s latest and greatest SoC, the Kirin 960, with a whopping 6GB of RAM, 64GB of storage plus microSD — handled via the hybrid slot, which can take either a second SIM or an SD card. Almost everything about the Honor 8 has been stepped up a notch or two, and nowhere is that more evident than in the battery, which is an enormous 4,000mAh cell. That’s an impressive capacity for a phone measuring a hair under 7mm, with relatively slim bezels.
Sure, there’s no water resistance, and we’ll talk about cameras later… but basically everything else on the spec sheet is as high-end as you’ll find in any Android flagship right now.
Honor 8 Pro specs
| Operating System | Android 7.0EMUI 5.1 |
| CPU | Huawei Kirin 9604X Cortex-A73 + 4X Cortex-A53, Mali-G71 GPU |
| RAM | 6GB |
| Display | 2560×1440 (Quad HD) IPS LCD |
| Speaker | Single bottom-firing |
| Storage | 64GB + microSD (uses SIM slot 2) |
| Dual-SIM | Yes |
| Rear camera | 12MP + 12MP, 1.25-micron pixels, f/2.24K video |
| Front camera | 8MP f/2.0 |
| Battery | 4,000mAh non-removable |
| Charging | USB Type-C, 9V/2A quick charging |
| Dimensions | 157 x 77.5 x 6.97 mm |
| Weight | 184 grams |
Considering the spec sheet, it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that this thing absolutely flies — partly thanks to some of the optimizations in Huawei’s new EMUI 5.1.
EMUI 5.1
Honor 8 Pro Software
In the last round of Honor phone launches we were still bemoaning the old EMUI 4.1, based on Marshmallow, which was the last vestige of the truly bad Huawei software. Since then we’ve been treated to the significantly improved EMUI 5, with the Honor 8 having received an update to that version in recent weeks.
EMUI 5.1 builds on that foundation, mainly adding low-level optimizations to what was already a stable and fast software setup. The new point release is still based on Android 7.0, not the newer 7.1.x, which is a little disappointing, but in reality you’re not missing out on much in the way of user-facing features.
EMUI actually looks okay these days, and version 5.1 tunes up performance even further.
In any case, when you combine that with a proven CPU and 6 gigs of RAM, you’ve got a phone that’s lightning fast. I don’t think I saw a single app being unexpectedly bumped out of memory throughout my entire time with the phone, and everything from browsing desktop sites to multitasking and fast app-switching was handled without any noticeable slowdown whatsoever. While OnePlus’s OxygenOS may be a better fit for fans of stock Android, you can’t argue that the Honor 8 Pro isn’t every bit as fast in day-to-day use.
The new version of EMUI also benefits from the complete facelift that came in EMUI 5 — more details in our Mate 9 review —making it much easier on the eyes than older phones running version 4 of the software. The notification area now works the way Google intended, and EMUI isn’t as aggressive at customizing your app icons anymore. There are still plenty of iOS influences here, mostly in the launcher, but elsewhere Huawei has settled into a cool blue-and-white color palette, and it works pretty well.
And finally, finally, it’s possible to add an app drawer to the stock EMUI launcher, instead of viewing all your apps on your home screens — another change first introduced in EMUI 5.
The features that were useful back in the days of the Honor 7 and Honor 8 have stuck around, including the wealth of theming options — dig around in the Themes app to find wallpapers and icons from other Huawei phones — and power controls to help you eke even more out of the 8 Pro’s massive cell. And if you use different profiles across WhatsApp, WeChat and Facebook, you’ll appreciate the twin app feature, which lets you use multiple instances of those apps.
While Huawei has trimmed the fat, the useful parts of EMUI have been left intact.
One of the few user-facing features in EMUI 5.1 is video highlights in the Gallery app, developed in conjunction with GoPro. First seen on the Huawei P10, this lets you assemble your own short highlight reels and match them, beat-for-beat, with your own music, or a selection of built-in tracks. It’s a feature we’ve been seeing in various forms since the days of the HTC One M7, and while it’s hardly unique (Google Photos offers a similar video-maker), the fact that it’s built into the stock Gallery app is an added convenience.
The 8 Pro is the first Honor phone of the EMUI 5 era, and that’s hugely important, making the out-of-box experience the most polished of any of the brand’s phones to date. It’s an important milestone for Honor, and one that does away with many of the pain points we’ve criticised in earlier models.
Epic longevity
Honor 8 Pro Battery Life
Honor has somehow crammed a 4,000mAh cell into a relatively compact handset, and as the numbers would suggest, that makes the 8 Pro an extremely dependable performer, even with heavy use.
The Honor 8 Pro matches the Huawei Mate 9’s strong battery life.
With my normal usage patterns, hopping between Wi-Fi and LTE throughout the day, with continuous web and social app use, the Honor 8 Pro routinely had me finishing the day with more than 50 percent in the tank. That’s on par with what I’ve gotten out of the Huawei Mate 9 in the past, so it seems the increased screen resolution balances out the slight reduction in screen size.
Either way, you’re going to need to push this thing hard in order to kill it off in less than a full day.
Unfortunately, the Honor 8 Pro doesn’t support Huawei’s latest Super Charging tech, for ludicrously fast top-ups — connecting a SuperCharger to the phone just charges at normal speeds. But you do at least get 9V/2A fast charging from the bundled charging brick, which is still reasonably quick.
The same, but different
Honor 8 Pro Cameras
The camera hardware hasn’t changed a whole lot since the Honor 8, with dual 12MP cameras around the back, behind f/2.2 lenses with a laser autofocus module — now hidden off to the left. As before, the phone combines one full color (RGB) sensor with another monochrome sensor for improved contrast and detail in challenging lighting conditions.
But don’t let those hardware similarities fool you — the Honor 8 Pro absolutely takes better photos than the 8, particularly in low light.
If there was ever an example of how processing is just as important as optics in a phone camera, this is it.
It does that thanks to the beefier CPU and ISP (image signal processor), and new image processing software to take advantage of it. If there was ever an example of how processing is just as important as optics in a phone camera, this is it. The Honor 8 Pro has the same excellent dynamic range as many other Huawei-built cameras, along with fun extras like low-depth-of-field effects that we’ve seen before. There’s also a highly capable manual shooting mode which, with a little stabilization, can produce excellent long exposures in darker conditions.
Daylight shots come close to the quality we’ve seen from higher-end Huawei cameras like the Mate 9 and P10, though with slightly reduced shadow details and more susceptibility to blurring from hand motion. The latter’s not surprising given the lack of OIS — optical image stabilization — in the Honor 8 Pro’s cameras. Similarly, there’s a pronounced graininess to many night-time shots that you won’t notice on optically stabilized competitors.
Meanwhile, around the front, the 8-megapixel front camera of the Honor 8 gets a low-light boost with a brighter f/2.0 lens — though don’t expect to see a huge improvement in image quality from night-time selfies.
It’s easy to point to the cameras as an area where the inevitable compromises of the Honor 8 Pro’s £475 start to creep in. And sure, low-light performance doesn’t reach the dizzy heights of the Pixel or the G6. But for a phone at this price point, the Honor 8 Pro does a fantastic job.
The Bottom Line
Should you buy the Honor 8 Pro? Yes
Past Honor phones have been pretty good for the money. When we reviewed the Honor 8 last year, there were major caveats around the software, which inherited some of the bugs and general weirdness of EMUI at the time.
Previous Honor phones were great for the money; the 8 Pro is just a great phone, period.
The difference with the Honor 8 Pro is that it’s just a great phone, without the need for any qualifiers. Between the fantastic performance and battery life, the surprisingly good camera and the maturity of EMUI 5.1, this is a phone that I can absolutely recommend.
The £100 premium you’ll pay over the Honor 8 delivers upgrades across the spec sheet, bringing you up to speed with other high-end Android phones of 2017.
The comparison with the OnePlus 3T is less cut-and-dry. For many, OnePlus’s clean, stock Android-ish software may seal the deal. Or they may simply prefer the smaller size of the 3T. In this case, it’s more a question of priorities, with Honor taking the lead on display quality and battery life.
The affordable flagship segment is more diverse and exciting than ever, and the Honor 8 Pro is a fantastic option for anyone looking for a premium phone without dropping a ridiculous amount of cash.
The Honor 8 Pro goes up for pre-order April 5, ahead of general availability on April 20. The UK price is £475, however there’s no word on any U.S. release plans at present.
Xiaomi rolls out the Mi Pad 3 with upgraded hardware, unchanged exterior
The Mi Pad 3 delivers much-needed upgrades while retaining its affordability.
Xiaomi has rolled out an update to the 2015 Mi Pad 2, switching out the Intel SoC — which offered the ability to run both Android and Windows 10 — for a MediaTek MT8176 with two 2.1GHz Cortex A72 cores and four 1.7GHz Cortex A53 cores. The external design hasn’t changed with the Mi Pad 3, and the tablet features the same 7.9-inch 2048 x 1536 screen as its predecessor.
The RAM has been doubled to 4GB, and storage is now at 64GB. The battery segment also sees an upgrade with the tablet now powered by a 6600mAh cell, which according to Xiaomi provides up to 12 hours of multimedia consumption and a standby time of 867 hours. The rear camera has also picked up an update, and now features a 13MP f/2.2 sensor.
Overall, the beefier hardware should make the tablet much more capable, and while MIUI 8 offers a ton of customizability, it is running atop Marshmallow. That said, the Mi Pad 3 will retail for the equivalent of $218 (¥1,499), making it an enticing proposition. No word as of now regarding availability outside of China, and if Xiaomi’s track record is any indication, your best bet of getting your hands on one outside the country is to import it via third-party sellers.
Honor wants a few brave Americans to beta test its buggiest software
Honor is launching a beta program for its current hardware and upcoming software. You can sign up now!
Honor, the youth-oriented arm of Huawei, is launching a new beta program that will allow a select few Americans the ability to test current pieces of hardware and upcoming beta software from the company.
Facilitated through the company’s Facebook page, the Honor Beta program will ask fastidious early adopters to give feedback on current hardware, along with software launches up to two years in advance of them being released to the greater public. The company claims that because it has no carrier footing, its customers are generally discerning and well-versed in the tech sphere, and are therefore primed to offer constructive feedback that could be worked into future product releases.
As a provider of unlocked devices, that allow for direct to consumer relationships, in addition to significant R&D resources, Honor can quickly evolve its products and strategy on a regional level.
Honor will explore what U.S. consumers want and adapt products and strategy each step of the way. Honor Beta is one big step in preparing to lead the unlocked smartphone market of tomorrow.
This is not the first time we’re seeing a program like this from a Chinese manufacturer with nascent presence in the U.S. ZTE has been giving a small number of customers access to early builds of its software, and even Honor itself has offered a few software betas of its own for products like the Honor 5X, Honor 6X and Honor 8. Applicants to this program must live in the U.S. and be native English speakers.
Interested? Head to Honor’s Facebook page to sign up
Honor 8
- Honor 8 review
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- 5 things to know about the Honor 8 in Europe
- All the Honor 8 news
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Galaxy S8 camera is amazing: Here are the first photos and video samples
What kind of photos and video does the Galaxy S8 capture?
The Galaxy S8 is arguably the most important Android phone of the year. Samsung’s most popular brand is the world’s most popular Android phone, and it goes without saying that what Samsung does, others follow.
That’s why we were surprised to learn that Samsung didn’t make a big deal of its flagship’s camera this time around, opting to maintain the status quo. It doesn’t hurt that the status quo is a 12MP rear sensor and f/1.7 lens combination with optical image stabilization that, even a year later, still beats the proverbial pants off most of its recent competition.
We also now know that Samsung is indeed using a couple of newer 12MP sensors in its Galaxy S8 series: Sony’s IMX333, which we don’t know much about other than it is a successor to last year’s IMX260; and Samsung’s own S5K2L2 ISOCELL, a previous version of which was found in some Exynos variants of the Galaxy S7. The front-facing camera is also a new sensor, the 8MP Sony IMX320.
We spent a couple of days taking photos with the Galaxy S8 to see how the camera fares in real-world scenarios. None of these photos have been retouched or edited in any way. The Galaxy S8 that we briefly used to test the camera was a Snapdragon 835 model with the Sony IMX333 sensor.
We’ll be doing comparisons, including to the Galaxy S7, in a separate post. But now, the photos.
Outdoor
On first glance, Samsung’s done a great job maintaining detail throughout all the photos captured on the Galaxy S8, and appears to excel in balancing exposure between light and dark scenes, even when HDR isn’t explicitly turned on. The phone seems to be incorporating HDR seamlessly in every photo unless it is otherwise turned off.
Movement
The Galaxy S8 deals with movement quite well, but like all phone cameras doesn’t appear to automatically prioritize shutter speed in fast-moving scenes, leading to blur in exchange for a lighter photo. Less aggressive movement is captured with aplomb, and looks great.
Low light
One area we really hope the Galaxy S8 does better than its predecessor is in low light. From our initial tests, it does maintain detail slightly better than the Galaxy S7, but it’s not an out-and-out upgrade. Still pretty great, though.
Macro
I’ll let these speak for themselves. The Galaxy S8’s default focal length is slightly longer than the S7’s, which leads to closer in-focus macro shots. I’m drooling over some of these.
Indoors
As with all phones, the Galaxy S8 tries its best in artificial light, and it seems to do a fine job exposing properly given the challenging environment.
Portrait
I’m not going to say I’m good looking or anything, but the Galaxy S8 makes me look good — in daylight or dark. It also makes Zadie look super cute.
Front facing camera
The big upgrade to the Galaxy S8’s optics this year is in the 8MP autofocus front-facing camera, and it does a fantastic job in daylight. Low light captures, though — no better than last year.
Slow motion
120fps of slo-mo perfection.
More to come
We’ve got lots more photos and video examples to show off very soon, so stay tuned. In the meantime, let us know what you think in the comments below, and jump into our forums to keep the discussion going!
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