Whether you're a long-time fan of Samsung phones or are contemplating the switch from another brand and OS, we're sure that the Samsung Galaxy S8 will impress you. It's selling like crazy, and for good reason - it's got a sleek and polished design, excellent battery life, and intuitive controls that make it a joy to use. Add to that a great camera and HDR edge-to-edge screen, and "impressive" is an understatement.

Speaking of that picture-perfect screen, which delivers 16 million colors and 4.1 million pixels, it's terrific for watching movies thanks to its 18:5:9 aspect ratio. The S8 has a 5.8-inch screen, and if you upgrade to the S8+, it's 6.2 inches. Though these specs are plenty to keep you happy, the Samsung Galaxy S8 paired with the fast and reliable T-Mobile network offers additional features and tricks you will love exploring.

Apps Made for Samsung

You can get all the apps your heart desires at the Google Play Store. However, within Galaxy Apps, there is a section titled "Made for Samsung" where you can find apps specifically tailored for the Galaxy S8. Some of these app versions include special offers for Samsung Galaxy owners, too. For example:

• Kindle for Samsung gives you one free ebook every month for a year.
• Workout Trainer for Samsung offers three months free of their Pro+ Premium program.
• Audible offers Samsung Galaxy owners one free month, 20 percent off monthly membership, and four extra free ebooks.
• The Weather Channel app offers Samsung users a feature called Smart Weather Wakeup which gives you extra time to get ready when the weather's likely to affect your routine.

Bixby

Bixby is Samsung's version of Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa. It's a virtual assistant that obeys voice commands, allowing you to set reminders and search for information. It can help you find photos on your phone, and its visual recognition feature uses the phone's camera to identify objects. If you see an item you love, like those super cute shoes a friend is wearing, Bixby will help you find your very own pair.

Virtual assistants are only as good as their network speed, whether you're on Wi-Fi or a cellular network. According to a recent report from Open Signal, T-Mobile is now the fastest network, beating out Verizon and AT&T. With that kind of speed, Bixby is sure to serve you well, whatever you ask of it.

S Health

Samsung Health is a full-featured app that helps you take charge of your health and improve your lifestyle. The weight management feature tracks your calorie consumption to help you reach your goal weight. You can record your daily exercise routine along with daily activities. Join your friends as you run or walk and compete for distances and other milestones using a game-like interface.

S Health integrates with third-party devices such as blood pressure monitors, O2 sensors, and blood glucose monitors. One of the most interesting features of this app is its integration with the American Well telehealth program which allows you to conduct online doctor visits with board-certified practitioners. You can also use the app to find a physician near you for an in-person visit.

Iris Scanner

Image via Flickr by rhodesj

Fingerprint scanners are nothing new, but the Galaxy S8 adds the Iris Scanner as an alternative to passwords and PINs to protect your phone from unauthorized access. The S8 offers three ways to unlock your phone:

• The scanner recognizes the unique patterns in your eyes so that you can open the phone with just a look.
• Face recognition works just like taking a selfie; raise your phone to your face, and it unlocks.
• The fingerprint scanner is located on the phone's back, next to the camera lens.

These authentication features also allow you to use Samsung Pay to make in-store purchases, check your bank accounts using Samsung Pass, and use their sign-in feature to log on to your password-protected websites. You can also use their private, secure folder to store certain files and apps for an extra layer of security; you can access this folder with the same forms of biometric authentication.

With all the extra features available on the Samsung Galaxy, it may take you a while to figure out some of the hidden treasures it offers. However, you're sure to have a lot of fun along the way!

There was a time when the nearly bezel-less display introduced by Samsung with the Galaxy S8 was considered to be revolutionary, but that time is now officially over. The iPhone X's notch has taken over these days from the Infinity Display as it seems to be the go to choice for almost every other Android manufacturer as well. However, report has it that Samsung is not going to follow Apple this time (for a change!), but instead, they will remove the earphone completely from the Galaxy S10. The new technology will deliver sound directly through the display, via bone conduction technology and that will let them narrow the bezels even further on their next year's flagship smartphone.

Whether the S10 will look anything like what we are seeing in this image remains to be seen, but we have to admit that the modified render by Ice Universe does look pretty damn amazing! Let us know what you think down in the comments and enjoy the picture.

Saikat Kar

A few interesting details about the upcoming Galaxy S10 and the Note 9 has recently been revealed and although there's no way to be 100% sure whether these are rumors or facts, they are quite exciting nonetheless.

Bigger Battery

The Galaxy S and Note line-ups are not exactly famous for their battery life and that fact was painfully obvious with the Galaxy Note 8 last year which sported just a 3,300mAh battery, in spite of sporting a huge display. That is probably going to change this year though as a report from famous leakster Ice Universe suggests that the Note 9 might sport a 4,000mAh battery and we really hope that this one's true. Accommodating the bigger battery would be possible because Samsung will apparently shift its camera positions to make room for it.

No More Earphones

One of the biggest issues with removing the bezels of a smartphone completely is the fact that you have to make room for the earphone up top. Of course, the notch is the new iPhone-led path to follow for smartphones, as made evident by almost every Android smartphone manufacturer adopting the technology this year. However, Samsung could be looking to solve this problem in a different way by removing the earphone altogether! Apparently, the Galaxy S10 will let the user hear the person on the other side via the display itself, through bone conduction technology. Whether this will work better than it did on the Xiaomi Mi Mix or not, remains to be seen.

Saikat Kar

The myth of the Samsung foldable smartphone continues as the latest rumors and reports are pointing towards some additional info. Apparently, the Galaxy X, aka Samsung's first foldable smartphone is coming in 2019, but it will be expensive, very expensive! If you though that latest flagship smartphones touching the $1,000 mark was crazy, wait till the Galaxy X hits the market with a price tag close to 2 million won or $1900!

The 7.3-inch (rumored) foldable phone will either carry two or even three separate AMOLED displays which will lock together into one single device on opening, or there will be just one amazing, foldable display. Given the rumored prize tag though, it better be amazing! In any case, the price tag might just put off buyers because shelling out that kind of money for one smartphone is neither feasible nor intelligent for most users, but then again, you may never know! The phone could make an appearance at the CES 2019 first, but it will likely be a private showing and limited to the eyes of the investors and partners only.

Saikat Kar

The Galaxy S8 was a revolutionary device for Samsung in more ways than one, but it was the design that stood out and made it such a commercial success back in 2017. While the current-gen S9 is definitely an improvement over its predecessor, it never really managed to reach the same height because it remained identical to the S8 in design. However, the S10 could be another revolutionary device for Samsung in terms of design, if a report by ETNews is to be believed.

Apparently, Samsung will not be using the iPhone X's notch to house the earphone, front camera and all the sensors, unlike every other Android OEM out there. Instead, they will slim down the bezels of the Galaxy S10 even further by excluding the earphone altogether! The "sound on display" tech which will be used by Samsung and possibly a few other Android manufacturers, will convey sounds directly from the phone's display itself, by using the bones in the human skull. If I remember correctly, this is similar to what we saw with the original Xiaomi Mi Mix, but the sound produced was too low for the technology to be reusable for Xiaomi in the Mi Mix 2. Hopefully, Samsung will be able to correct those flaws and give us an Android phone that doesn't look like a copy of the iPhone X.

Saikat Kar