Samsung just launched two of the most hyped phones of 2017, the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus. Not only are these the state of the art phones on the Android market, they are also a shot across the bows of Samsung’s biggest rival in the smartphone business, Apple. The iPhone has looked the same for three years in a row now while Samsung has iterated and improved its phones by leaps and bounds each year. So even before the new S8 and S8 Plus phones were launched, the iPhone was looking a little dated. It isn’t just the design either. Samsung managed to make the S7 waterproof even with the 3.5mm headphone jack whereas Apple’s claim that they had to ditch the jack to give the iPhone 7 water resistance made it sound like they had been out-engineered by Samsung. To make matters worse, the new Galaxy flagships from Samsung make even the design of the iPhone look dated. iPhones have never had the best screen to body ratios, with their huge chins and foreheads on their phones, while Samsung has been working at shrinking the bezels on their phones as much as possible for the last few years.
The end results is that the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus cases are both barely larger than the screen itself. The incredible 18.5:9 ratio screen might take a little getting used to and apps and the operating system will have to be tweaked to make best use of all the extra real estate. However, what makes it even worse is that the latest Galaxy phones make the iPhone 7 look dated and old-fashioned, a huge insult for a company that not too long ago sued Samsung for copying their design language.
Too much screen to use safely?
Which brings us to the original question posed at the start of this piece. Do the new Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus have too much screen? When we say too much screen, we mean too much to be used and carried around in your hand and pocket without the certainty that you will destroy the phones if you drop them even once. Also, if you do use one of the many Galaxy S8 cases or designer S8 Plus covers that are available online from sellers, are you essentially ruining what is the most important feature? There are literally thousands of designer cases available online for the new phones already, despite the fact that the phones aren’t even available around the world yet.
Case makers are even allowing people to create a custom case for the Samsung phone that they can’t even buy yet, in most countries. Buyers of Samsung’s latest flagship phones are just going to have to decide for themselves whether they want to live life on the edge or protect their very expensive new phones with a protective case.