Samsung Galaxy S8 review

Research Center:
Samsung Galaxy S8

With pre-orders through the roof, it looks like Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus may be unmatched in sales this year (perhaps until the next iPhone at least). It’s certainly a win for the company, considering its new phones are $100 more than we’re used to paying. More importantly, this is Samsung’s first major device since it recalled the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7, and it looks like people are hungry for a successor.

The Galaxy S8 is worth the hype and the wait since the year-old Galaxy S7 Edge (which frankly looks dated now with its home button). But in a time where you can get a fantastic smartphone for $400 or less, is it worth dropping $750 or more on the S8? We think so, if only for its brilliant screen, but it is a big ask if money is tight. The Galaxy S8 has exceptional build quality, design, and a stellar displays, not to mention plenty of power to crush any task. Let’s take a closer look.

Brilliant screen, eye-catching design

So far, the Galaxy S8 is the prettiest smartphone of 2017, and it will certainly be tough to beat. It’s smooth and soft to the touch, and the all-glass design means you won’t feel a disconnect between the back and the front of the smartphone — it’s seamless.

But we can’t talk about the S8’s design without first addressing its brilliant screen. Both the S8 and the S8 Plus have a resolution of 2,960 × 1,440 pixels, allowing for crisp image quality. The Super AMOLED screen gets impressively bright, offers darker blacks, and its mobile HDR Premium certification means it boasts greater color volume, meaning you can watch colorful High-Dynamic Range (HDR) content, which is the new hot thing in video. This has the best screen we’ve ever seen on a smartphone.

To showcase this vibrant display, Samsung added skimpy bezels (edges around the screen) on the top and bottom, and utilized its Edge display. As such, the screen takes up 83 percent of the front panel, and it’s absolutely the first thing anyone will notice on the phone. It looks “futuristic,” my sister told me; she hardly cares or pays attention to technology at all.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

The bigger display improves the smartphone experience. Even sending an email feels nice because the screen makes well-designed apps look even more gorgeous. But while eliminating bezels may be the current smartphone trend, gripping the phone without triggering the screen is difficult. It takes some getting used to, but that’s because we have to rethink smartphone sizes, and what they mean.

The Galaxy S8 Plus is 6.2-inches, and the S8 is 5.8-inches — those are some of the largest screens we’ve seen on a smartphone. But as the screens have gotten larger, the smartphone’s frame has stayed nearly the same size. The curved edge-to-edge screen coupled with minimal bezels make it tough to grab the phone from a flat surface at first, for example, but it gets easier after a few hours. You also may find yourself accidentally triggering the screen when gripping the phone (more so with the S8 Plus), but again we adapted fairly quickly. You probably will, too.

The all-glass design means the phone is slippery and fragile, not to mention a fingerprint magnet. (Make sure you grab a case and keep a microfiber cloth handy at all times.) You’ll find the power button on the right side, and the volume rocker and Bixby button on the left. Bixby is Samsung’s new Siri, and we’ll talk more about it later. The headphone jack is on the bottom, to the left of the USB Type-C port. To the right of that port is the phone’s sole speaker, which is bottom-firing, like the iPhone.

This has the best screen we’ve ever seen on a smartphone.

The decision to only go with one bottom-firing speaker is unfortunate. As is the case with most single, bottom-firing speakers — such as the ones on the Pixel and the LG G6 — our hands end up blocking sound when holding the phone horizontally. The S8’s speaker quality is pretty good, but it doesn’t get as loud as the iPhone 7.

The back of the phone feels like an afterthought, though perhaps it’s simply overshadowed by the beauty of the front. There’s nothing special about it. The design looks almost the same as the Galaxy S7. The camera sits flush, next to the flash and heart rate sensor, and a fingerprint sensor. That’s right, for the first time Samsung has removed the home button from the front of the phone. Despite the rumors, the company hasn’t embedded a fingerprint sensor in the display so you’ll have to use the one on the rear. This causes two major problems, but we’ll dive into that later.

Samsung makes some of the best smartphone hardware, and the Galaxy S8 series is all the evidence you need. Both models feel incredibly smooth, thin, and the construction is seamless. We suggest opting for the S8 over the S8 Plus, because it’s compact and far easier to hold.

Top specs

The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are the first phones to feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor (international variants use Samsung’s Exynos 8895), which means it’s supposed to deliver 27 percent better performance than phones that use the Snapdragon 821, such as the Google Pixel and the OnePlus 3T. Qualcomm also claims the 835 is more energy efficient, though we haven’t seen a noticeable improvement in battery life from last year.

You’ll find both S8’s have 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of internal storage — though you can expand it with the MicroSD card slot.

Initially, we ran into a horrible bug. Our Galaxy S8 Plus was stuttering all over the place, particularly in the notification drawer and the Recent apps section. A factory reset fixed the issue, and we’ve tested each of our originally installed apps to figure out what caused the issue, but we can’t figure out what went wrong. We’ll update this review if we run into the problem again. So far, it was an isolated problem.

Now, the S8 flies with almost zero hiccups. We tested games such as Asphalt Xtreme and FIFA Mobile, and found no performance issues. Dawn of Titans ran well for the most part, but we did see some occasional stutters. We had no problems moving through apps and multitasking.

We ran through some benchmark tests, and the Snapdragon 835 more or less outperformed the Google Pixel’s Snapdragon 821:

• 3DMark SlingShot Extreme: 2052
• AnTuTu: 155253
• Geekbench 4: 1762 single core, 5723 multi core

For reference, with Geekbench 4 the Pixel earned 1,665 in single core and 3,691 in multi-core; the iPhone 7 Plus received 3,367 in single core and 5,491 in multi-core.

We’re hoping we don’t see the initial issues again, and we’re enjoying the smooth performance from the Snapdragon 835. Still, we don’t think the Galaxy S8 offers smoother day-to-day performance than the Pixel, and that’s likely because Google can optimize its software and hardware far better than anyone else (except Apple). Samsung phones also tend to slow down a little over time, so we’ll keep you updated if anything changes.

TouchWiz UI is stylish

TouchWiz, Samsung’s Android skin, has never been the company’s forte. At times, it had a less than appealing design, and bogged down the operating system. That has changed with the Galaxy S8.

There is a clear, attractive design aesthetic — with uniform app icons and slick fonts. The lack of a physical home button also gives the smartphone a more modern look. Samsung has embedded a pressure-sensitive home button at the bottom-center — it’s not just an on-screen button, because you can press and hold it to go home even in full-screen apps or if the screen is off.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

One of the first things I did when setting up the S8, was reverse the layout of the navigation icons. Samsung has gone against every other Android manufacturer for years, offering the Recent apps icon on the left, and the back button on the right. Well, on the S8 you can finally reverse it thanks to the on-screen navigation icons.

Choice is a prevalent in Samsung’s latest interface. You can choose where you want the brightness slider on the notification drawer; you can customize the display resolution; turn the Edge screen on and off; toggle Bixby on or off; use the LED indicator or not; turn on basic swipe gestures for the fingerprint sensor … you get the idea. There are a ton of features in this phone — most of which have been in Galaxy devices for a while — and they all feel polished and useful.

There is a clear, attractive design aesthetic.

I recall using Smart Stay on my Samsung Galaxy Captivate back in 2011 — it keeps the screen on as long as your eyes are staring at it. It was far from good then, but it’s useful on the S8.

Multitasking also offers more options than any other Android device — in splitscreen mode, you can reverse the app position or trigger picture-in-picture mode. You can even swipe from the top corners of any supported app to make it a floating window, and it works surprisingly well.

Even Bluetooth is improved. The Galaxy S8 is the first smartphone to utilize Bluetooth 5, which has 4x the range of Bluetooth 4.2, 8x the data throughput, and 2x the data speed. That means you can walk up to 200 meters (in direct line of sight) from your device and still listen via your Bluetooth-connected earbuds — that’s a lot further than ever before.

The upgrade means you can stream music to two different Bluetooth devices at the same time. We connected a pair of Bose wireless headphones and a speaker from Cambridge Audio — the two played music perfectly in sync, and the pairing process took less than 1 minute.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

The facial recognition technology on the Galaxy S8 is also noteworthy. Sure, it may not work 100 percent of the time — especially if you’re moving or are in a darker environment — but it was often faster than using the fingerprint sensor. You can also choose to use the iris (eye) scanner, though we didn’t find it as effective. The fingerprint on the rear is the third option, and here’s where those two downsides come into play.

The fingerprint sensor is almost impossible to reach on the Galaxy S8 Plus — and that’s coming from someone with large hands. And even if it is reachable, you probably won’t make use of the fingerprint gestures, because the placement is so unnatural. The second problem is how your fingers will naturally touch the camera sensor on both models. Samsung knows this is a problem, and even warns you to clean the camera often to make sure there are no smudges. But it all could have been avoided if they placed the sensor lower, like almost every other Android phones that opts for a rear sensor.

All in all, the software experience on the Galaxy S8 is surprisingly useful, and you can toggle most options on or off to your heart’s content.

Stellar shots in the right conditions

The 12-megapixel rear camera hasn’t changed much from the Galaxy S7. That’s not a bad thing. The S7 also offered stellar photos.

In broad daylight, Galaxy S8 photos have great picture quality and accurate colors, but things were a little trickier in different lighting conditions. Occasionally, we had to take a photo twice to make sure it wasn’t blurry.

Low-light photos sometimes suffered in picture clarity, but other times photos were relatively sharp in dark environments.

We wish Samsung had done something different, new, or exciting with the rear camera, like a dual-camera setup. At least there are quite a few modes to choose from, including Selective Focus (like Apple’s Portrait Mode), Panorama, and even a Pro mode, where you can change the shutter speed, focus, and ISO if you’re more experienced with a camera.

But the 8-megapixel front-facing camera is where the camera experience shines, largely because it comes with a variety of stickers, filters, and masks, similar to what you’d find in Snapchat. They’re fun, and work pretty well. We imagine they’ll take off in popularity if Samsung adds new content often (they even work on groups).

Speaking of groups, Samsung has a “Wide Selfie” mode that lets you snap a photo, then twist the camera to your left and right to capture your friends. The photos are stitched together and the end result is surprisingly seamless. It’s a neat way to add group selfie capability without using a wide-angle lens.

Bixby? Bixby? Are you there?

If Bixby, Samsung’s new digital assistant, piqued your interest in picking up a Galaxy S8, you will be disappointed. Voice commands are not available yet and won’t be here until “later this spring.” So that leaves Bixby Home, Reminder, and Vision.

Home is an assortment of random information, such as your current step count, next calendar event, the weather, what’s trending on Twitter, and even a random GIF from Giphy that we’re not really sure how to use. It’s so much easier and faster to go into these respective apps, because the Bixby button is ridiculously slow and unreliable at activating Bixby Home.

Reminders is the equivalent to setting reminders on Google Inbox or with Google Assistant (which is also available on the S8 by pressing and holding the home button).

You can stream music to two different Bluetooth devices at the same time.

That leaves Vision, which is arguably the most useful feature of the bunch at the moment, but it’s use cases are limited to specific moments, like when you see a shoe and want to shop for something similar — point the camera to the product and tap the Bixby icon. You’ll be directed to an Amazon search link, or Bixby can show more images of similar products. I’ve used it once or twice, and it largely feels like a gimmick. Your mileage may vary, though.

Bixby very much feels like an unfinished product. If the assistant is one of the reasons you’re excited about the Galaxy S8, don’t expect it to be as useful as Samsung claims.

Average daylong battery

The Galaxy S8 Plus packs a 3,500mAh battery, while the smaller S8 has a 3,000mAh capacity. We found the S8 Plus to last a full day with moderate to heavy use — we ended up with around 25 percent around 8 p.m. after a long day of taking photos, music streaming, and browsing. On a day with regular use — where we checked and responded to notifications, listened to music, and did some light browsing — we came home with a little under 40 percent by 6 p.m.

We’ll need to spend more time with the Galaxy S8 to see how long it lasts, but we’re expecting more or less the same results due to the smaller screen.

Samsung Galaxy S8 Compared To

LG G6

HTC U Ultra

Huawei P10

OnePlus 3T

Lenovo Moto G5 Plus

Meizu Pro 6 Plus

Xiaomi Mi Mix

Huawei Mate 9

ASUS Zenfone 3 Deluxe Special…

Lenovo Phab 2 Pro

HTC Bolt

Lenovo Moto Z

Nexus 6

HTC One Remix

Huawei Ascend Mate 2

Both devices support high-speed wireless charging, which is always a plus, as is the USB Type-C connector, which is probably new for you, but will soon be a standard on most devices.

Warranty information

Samsung offers a standard 1 year warranty for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus. That covers manufacturing defects, but not much else.

The company has started an advanced warranty program called Premium Care, which will run you $12 per month (first month is free). This plan covers accidental drops, cracked screens, water damage, and mechanical defects. Samsung will provide you with a new or reconditioned device, though you’ll have to pay a $99 deductible. The device is either shipped or hand-delivered to you.

With Premium Care, you also get access to help via HelloTech, a company that will send authorized technicians to teach you about all the features on your phone.

Our Take

The Galaxy S8, in both its sizes, is an excellent smartphone with great build quality, a fantastic screen, solid cameras, and standard daylong-battery life. The Bixby voice assistant is underwhelming, but you can turn it off and opt for Google Assistant instead (or use both). Bixby will get better over time, we hope.

The DT Accessory Pack

Samsung DeX Station

$149.99

Samsung Gear 360 (2017 Edition)

$399

Samsung Gear VR (2017 Edition) with Controller

$199

Samsung Gear S3 Frontier

$299.99

If you prefer compact phones, the standard Galaxy S8 is your best bet. The S8 Plus might have slightly longer battery life, but it’s unwieldy for many hands (especially reaching that fingerprint sensor).

Are there better alternatives?

Yes. There are a ton of good smartphones that cost less than the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, such as the Google Pixel and the LG G6, or even the iPhone 7 if you’re not looking for an Android device. We also recommend a number of cheaper smartphones.

However, none compare to the Galaxy S8’s display.

How long will it last?

It should last you a little longer than two years. Samsung, and most Android manufacturers, stop supporting devices after two years. Expect the S8 to receive the same treatment. You should know that Samsung also delivers software updates far later than when Google rolls them out, so don’t expect the next annual version of Android (Android O) any time soon after its release this fall.

Should you buy it?

Yes. If you have $750 or more to spare, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus are among the best Android smartphones you can buy right now. It’s an incredible amount of money, though, and you should note the plentiful number of more affordable options. Still, if you’re eyeing the S8, you’re likely looking for the cream of the crop. Well, you’ve found it.

The new Logitech Pop buttons work with Apple’s HomeKit

Why it matters to you

Logitech’s new Pop buttons will make tasks like switching on a lightbulb easier than ever.

Last year’s Logitech Pop button were an inventive solution to a common smart home problem: A lack of switches to go along with devices. You could wire up Logitech’s spring-mounted Pop buttons instead of having to fish out your smartphone for basic tasks like adjusting an internet-connected lightbulb or thermostat. And now, if you use Apple’s HomeKit, you can do the same with this year’s Pop.

The new Pop has the distinction of being the first internet-connected button inside Apple’s growing smart home ecosystem, Logitech said, and it works as you’d expect: You can control any compatible HomeKit-device you’ve set up within the iOS app.

Otherwise, it doesn’t do much to switch up last year’s formula. The new Pop still ships with an adhesive rear cover, and connects to a smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth. It’s programmable — each button press can be tied to a different action, like dimming the lights and flipping on the television or opening the blinds. And it works with Logitech’s existing Pop companion app, which lets you create IFTTT-like “recipes” with custom delays, timing, and activation orders.

It’s a plug-and-play affair with just about every product that Logitech’s Harmony remote platform supports. The Pop can toggle wirelessly connected Sonos speakers on and off, flip Philips Hue overheads to a certain color, and open and close Lutron window drapes. And better still, it works in tandem with Logitech’s internet-connected Harmony remotes, if you happen to have one or two of those lying around — you can program a Pop to switch off your television with a tap, for example, or tune in to a favorited cable channel with a double press.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg — hardware on open platforms like WeMo, SmartThings, and Insteon platforms are also compatible. And existing Logitech Pop owners are getting a software update — users will be able to control Osram Lighting, Hunter Douglas Shades, and Lutron.

“You still want it to be simple, you still want it to be capable,” Logitech’s senior director of Home Control Neil Raggio said. “And so we landed on […] gestures, as something from a mental model that would be easy enough that a user would know [how to use it].”

The Logitech Pop Smart Button Kit starts at $50, and ships with the bridge necessary to connect it to your Wi-Fi network. Each additional button costs $40, and the product comes in white, alloy, coral, and teal.

HTC unveils bundle pairing the Vive headset with an Nvidia GTX 1070

Why it matters to you

Amassing all the hardware required to enjoy virtual reality can be a huge investment, but HTC’s new package deals allow consumers to split the cost across 24 months.

HTC has announced an expansion to its Vive Financing Program in an effort to prevent consumers from being priced out of virtual reality. The company will bundle the headset with other hardware, offering financing options to allow the package to be paid off on a monthly basis.

Users who simply need to upgrade their current rig will be able to purchase an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition graphics card alongside a Vive headset for $1,000. HTC is billing this bundle as offering a $200 savings over the suggested retail price for both items, and will only offer the deal until April 24.

The company’s financing options mean that the package can be paid for in monthly installments, with the lowest rate set at $49 per month for 24 months, according to a blog post on the Vive website.

The standard price for the Vive headset is $800, and the GTX 1070 Founders Edition GPU is typically priced at around $400, so HTC’s package does offer potential savings. However, if you can find either item for less than its recommended retail price — which is not uncommon — you might be able to save more money buying them separately.

HTC is also offering up options for people who are interested in VR, but would need to start fresh in terms of hardware. The company will offer packages containing a compatible laptop or desktop computer and a headset on a monthly payment plan.

An MSI GS73VR laptop with a 17.3-inch full HD display, an Intel Core i7-6700HQ quad-core processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 graphics card, and 16GB of RAM will be available for $125 per month.

Meanwhile, a CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme desktop with an Intel i5-7600 quad-core processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 8GB graphics card, and 8GB of DDR4 RAM will be available for less than $99 per month.

These packages are perhaps not the most cost-effective way to get on board with VR, if you’re working on a budget. However, if you’re looking for convenience above all else, they might be worth considering — HTC apparently uses the MSI GS73VR as a demo machine at events, so buyers can be sure that this hardware will do VR content justice, which might not necessarily be true if you’re a novice building a PC from scratch.

Close to the Metal Ep. 39: The RX 570 Live Review

     

The rumors are true, and AMD is rolling out the RX 500 Series cards a little ahead of schedule. The RX 480 only made its debut in June of 2016, but the Radeons are moving up the flagpole, and we have an Asus Strix RX 570 in our hands, with the test results to prove it.

At just $189 for our souped-up overclocked version, $20 over the reference model’s MSRP, the RX 570 pumps out strong gaming performance at 1080p, averaging 60 frames per second with the quality up to ultra on every game in our test suite save Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, which is to be expected.

That puts it in a position to punch up out of its weight class and into the realm of Nvidia’s stellar mid-range GTX 1060. The two trade blows across both synthetic benchmarks and real-world testing, despite the GTX 1060’s lower 120 Watt power draw.

With so many cards falling so close to each other in terms of performance and price, choosing the right card for $200 grows more difficult by the day. You can check out our full Asus Strix RX 570 review to find out which GPU is best, or join us for our weekly computing podcast, Close to the Metal.

Close to the Metal is a podcast from Digital Trends that takes a deep dive into computing and PC gaming topics. Each show, we’ll focus in on one topic, and leave no stone unturned as we show off the latest in hardware and software. Whether it’s the latest GPU, supercomputers, or which 2-in-1 you should buy,  we break down the complicated jargon and talk about how user experience is affected in the real world. Please subscribe, share, and send your questions to podcast@digitaltrends.com. We broadcast the show live on YouTube every Tuesday at 1pm EST/10am PST.

Researchers use ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ to perfect driverless car systems

Why it matters to you

Grand Theft Auto V is one of the best open-world games ever, but it could also play an important role in developing self-driving vehicles.

Car manufacturers are hard at work making self-driving cars a reality, but there are obvious concerns about putting an artificial intelligence at the wheel. Before this technology is implemented on a large scale, our computer-controller chauffeurs are going to need some training — and believe it or not, Grand Theft Auto V is helping with their tuition.

Last year, the Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany and Intel Labs collaborated on a method of pulling visual information from Grand Theft Auto V, according to a report from Bloomberg. The game has now been modified such that it can be used in research projects designed to perfect self-driving programs.

Grand Theft Auto V is one of several different pieces of software that companies are using to put self-driving cars through their paces. While time on real-world roads is important, virtual simulations also have their own distinct advantages.

The polygonal streets of Los Santos can be reconfigured into the exact same scenario in a matter of seconds, allowing engineers to exhaustively test a range of responses to any one particular situation. It would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming to set up a similar testbed in the real world.

This kind of testing will hopefully help teach automated driving systems how to respond to unexpected obstacles with the same alertness and awareness as a skilled human driver. Anything can happen when you’re on the road, and it’s essential that an AI is able to respond appropriately, no matter what the eventuality.

At some point, self-driving technology will be advanced enough to stand up to trials on the same roads as every other human motorist. However, until we reach a certain level of sophistication, it will be the pedestrians roaming the streets in Grand Theft Auto V who bear the brunt of any unexpected occurrences.

Microsoft’s Edge browser really does have a full-screen mode — here’s how to access it

Why it matters to you

If you’ve been wishing Microsoft’s Edge browser had a full-screen mode, then you’ll love this shortcut that works with all Windows 10 apps.

Microsoft is working hard on making its Edge browser more competitive with Google’s Chrome, and although market share numbers don’t signal tremendous growth, Edge’s features have steadily improved. In fact, Edge features and functionality improvements were a highlight of the recently released Windows 10 Creators Update.

But not everyone is happy with Edge’s advancements. Microsoft pundit Paul Thurrott, for example, called out some of the browser’s most crucial failings recently, and these limitations are definitely glaring. One of his complaints, however, namely the lack of a full-screen view, is actually already mostly addressed, as On MSFT points out.

Thurrott’s complaint was that unlike Chrome, hitting the F11 key does nothing in Edge. However, hitting the Shift-Windows-Enter key combination does essentially the same thing — it puts Edge into the same kind of full-screen mode that shows off just the page contents without any distracting user interface elements.

Here’s Edge in normal view:

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Here’s Edge in full-screen view when you hit Shift-Windows-Enter:

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

There has been some confusion over the fact that this full-screen key combo works for any Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app, or Windows 10 app as they’re commonly called. While the effect varies by app depending on how many user interface elements have been implemented, it seems to work for Edge much like hitting F11 works for Chrome. And in fact, there’s even the added bonus of a small set of buttons that pop up if you mouse into the corner to minimize or close the app or leave full-screen mode.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

The real problem here, as OnMSFT points out, is likely that Microsoft has simply failed to point out this functionality to users. It took a Reddit thread and Redditor Phantasm1337 to do the job of letting everyone know about the feature. As noted in the thread, the Shift-Windows-Enter combination is a system-wide shortcut, as opposed to the similar Alt-Enter combination that’s only sent to an application.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Windows 10 is a complex operating system that has introduced a significant number of new concepts, from touchscreen support to Windows Ink to UWP apps and much, much more. It’s likely that we’re only scratching the surface of what’s possible with Windows 10, and can only hope that one day Microsoft catches up in telling us all about it.

Some Galaxy S8 owners in South Korea are encountering red-tinted screens

Why it matters to you

While it’s hard to say how common this issue is, it’s something to watch out for if you’re planning on buying a Galaxy S8 this week.

The AMOLED edge-to-edge curved display on Samsung’s new Galaxy S8 has been widely praised as one of the phone’s crowning features — but unfortunately, it seems some models may not be living up to expectations. According to a Korea Herald report, some customers in the region who have received their devices early are complaining about a red tint to the panel that cannot be corrected by changing the color balance in the settings.

In a response to the article, Samsung reportedly told the publication the phenomenon is “not a quality problem,” and “can be adjusted with the phone itself.” However, if issues still remain, the company is encouraging those affected to visit a service center. The image shared in the report shows both a standard Galaxy S8 and the larger Plus variant affected by the red tint.

Yonhap

Some have speculated the cause might be the unique construction of the display. While typical LCD screens in smartphones utilize three equally-sized subpixels — red, green, and blue — the Galaxy S8’s AMOLED panel features an unconventional layout where small, oval-shaped green pixels sit between much larger, diamond-shaped red and blue pixels. This results in twice as many green sub-pixels as the rest, which, according to industry personnel not identified in the article, initially created a green shift.

Samsung reportedly attempted to correct for this by dialing up the intensity of the red sub-pixels, and in the process, may have made them too strong.

This claim comes several weeks after experts at DisplayMate awarded the Galaxy S8’s panel the highest grade they’ve ever given to a smartphone screen. The review noted the inclusion of a user-adjustable white point setting, and commended the device for its very accurate standard color gamut.

It’s hard to say how prevalent or serious these issues are, as the Galaxy S8 has not officially gone on sale yet in most of the world. However, April 21 is just around the corner, and if this proves to be a common problem with the early run of Samsung’s flagship, you can be sure we’ll hear about it in the days immediately following the launch.

Mechanical engineering students at Michigan build giant working Rubik’s Cube

Why it matters to you

Fancy a bit of fun between your mechanical engineering classes? This giant Rubik’s Cube may help — and teach a valuable lesson about design and teamwork in the process.

In an impressive, fun demonstration of design and engineering in action, the University of Michigan’s G.G. Brown Building is currently home to a giant working Rubik’s Cube.

Created as a senior design project by a team of seven mechanical engineering students, the sizable puzzle is constructed mainly of aluminum, measures 4.5 feet across, and weighs a total of 2,400 pounds — steel stand included. It’s not quite world’s biggest (one built by puzzle enthusiast Tony Fisher claims that record), but it’s definitely an impressive achievement.

“In the past, giant versions of the Rubik’s Cube have been made, but they have either been electronic or very cumbersome to maneuver and solve,” Martin Harris, one of the creators, told Digital Trends. “By suspending our giant cube in a stand, users are free to walk around the cube as they solve it and interact with it from many angles with little additional effort.”

Harris said that the goal of the project was to create an interactive mechanical art piece that would introduce teamwork and collaboration to the problem-solving process, while also providing a lasting piece of artwork to Michigan’s north campus.

“Traditional Rubik’s Cubes have smooth plastic surfaces that slide across one another inside the cube, but on such a giant scale the resistance due to friction would have been magnified beyond what a human user could reasonably overcome,” he continued, describing one of the big design challenges the team faced. “To solve this problem, we designed a network of rollers and transfer bearings that work together to transform every instance of sliding contact into rolling contact, while preserving all of the necessary movability to have a solvable cube.”

The plan is for the giant Rubik’s Cube to stay indefinitely on the second floor of its current residence at the university. Since most of the team of engineers who worked on it have now graduated and moved away from Ann Arbor, Harris noted there aren’t any plans to take the project further — but only time will tell what future classes of Michigan engineers will bring to the table.

“After all, it’s their toy now,” he said.

Dry clothes in about 20 minutes? That’s the promise of the ultrasonic dryer

Why it matters to you

In five years, dryes that suck up lots of energy and take forever could be things of the past.

As dryers have become more energy efficient, dry times have gotten longer. In response, scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory found a way to have the best of both worlds: an ultrasonic dryer that is five times as efficient and also dries a medium-size load in about 20 minutes. Yes, it’s true: You could wear fresh-from-the-dryer underwear every morning.

The secret is using transducers instead of heat, which conventional dryers use. The piezoelectric transducers expand and contract, vibrating to remove water from clothes. Two years ago, when we first covered the ultrasonic dryer, Ayyoub Momen, a staff scientist at Oak Ridge, had created a very small prototype. It was so tiny, it could only hold a small swatch of fabric — but it could dry it less than 20 seconds. Momen was inspired by ultrasonic humidifiers, which turn water into a cool mist using high-frequency vibrations.

Now, thanks to its partnerships with the U.S. Department of Energy and General Electric, Oak Ridge has a full-scale prototype. The DOE has spent $880,000 to help fund the project. If the final product manages to be as efficient as the prototype, the energy savings could be substantial. Right now, Americans spend about $9 billion a year drying clothes in appliances, up to four percent of the residential energy use in the U.S. “This dryer technology has the potential to save somewhere [around] 1 percent of the overall energy consumption of the United States,” Momen told Marketplace in 2015.

In addition to cost and time savings, the ultrasonic dryer would have other benefits. It generates less lint (which can cause fires) and will be gentler on clothes, as heat tends to lead to fading.

But don’t ditch your dryer just yet. It could be another five years before the ultrasonic dryer hits the market, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Reprogramming cells in the brain may help treat Parkinson’s disease symptoms

Why it matters to you

Parkinson’s disease affects up to one million Americans. Scientists in Sweden are working on a technique for reprogramming cells in the brain to act as a possible treatment.

A team of scientists at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute have been working on a technique for reprogramming cells in the brain as part of what might one day be a treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

The research involves modifying neurons in the brains of sufferers of Parkinson’s, a long-term degenerative disease of the central nervous system which predominantly affects motor abilities. Up to 1 million Americans live with Parkinson’s disease, a number that’s more than the combined total of people in the U.S. diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The inability of people with Parkinson’s to properly control their movement is the result of a shortage of dopamine, a chemical which plays an important role in signalling in the brain.

For many years, scientists have attempted to develop a Parkinson’s treatment allowing for lab-grown dopamine neurons to be implanted into the brain. The new research carried out at Karolinska Institute, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, describes a possible way to do this by changing regular brain cells called astrocytes into ones that resemble dopamine neurons.

The project has been underway for six years, but is only now beginning to deliver on its promise.

In an experiment, a virus engineered to carry four genes for reprogramming astrocytes was injected into the brains of mice. After five weeks, the mice showed significant improvement in motor movements, including areas like walking. There were no unwanted side effects observed.

While there’s still a way to go until this could be used to treat Parkinson’s in humans, there is some evidence to suggest that this might be possible. That is based on the team’s use of the same four genes to convert human astrocytes into dopamine neurons in a dish. The next question to answer is whether this will work as effectively in an older, living human brain. If so, the research may represent a breakthrough in Parkinson’s treatment.