These Galaxy S8 problems have users hoping the S9 will be better
The Samsung Galaxy S8 is one of the most beautiful phones money can buy right now.
It’s sleek, has a stylish design and the “infinite display” with a bezel-less setup will wow you for days. But it’s not just a looker — it has plenty of features and functionality packed into its small frame, too.
That’s not to say it’s perfect, though. No electronic or mobile device ever is or could be. Best Android smartphone or not, it could still do with a bit of improvement. Here’s what Samsung can do to improve and make the Galaxy S9, the S8’s inevitable successor, that much more amazing.
DITCH THE DEDICATED BIXBY BUTTON OR ALLOW CUSTOMIZATION
The Samsung Galaxy S8 comes with a dedicated Bixby button on the side. Bixby, if you don’t already know, is the brand’s AI voice assistant akin to Siri or Alexa. There’s just one major problem: At launch, the button — outside of South Korea — doesn’t actually open Bixby. It’s not a glaring problem because Bixby isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You’d be better off using Google Now, Google’s version of a voice assistant.
So, you’d think an extra button would come in handy, right? Can’t you just remap it to something you use more often? Nope. Samsung does not allow users to do this. In fact, the company
In fact, the company is actively preventing users from remapping the button on most handsets.
Let’s recap. If you live outside of Samsung’s home country of South Korea, you can’t use the Bixby button and you can’t remap it to something you do use, which makes it virtually useless.
For the Galaxy S9, we have no doubt Bixby will improve — maybe even to the point where people will love it and want to use it more. Even so, we still think Samsung needs to ditch the dedicated button.
IMPROVED FINGERPRINT SENSOR
It’s likely that Samsung will remedy some of these problems in future firmware updates, but if they don’t, that’s a problem on its own. As it stands,the fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy S8 is sluggish and unreliable.
We can’t even begin to count how many times we’ve encountered an inaccurate reading because it happens consistently.
Even the placement of the fingerprint sensor could be better. Samsung chose to include the sensor on the back, parallel with the camera. That means if you’re trying to use the sensor you’re likely to smudge and fuss up the camera lens, too.
Some major improvements for the fingerprint sensor are certainly welcome in future iterations.
CHARGING NEEDS TO GET WITH THE TIMES
Samsung devices use the 2014-based Adaptive Fast Charge technology. As you’d expect, this means they charge quite a bit faster than conventional methods. But believe it or not, that’s not good enough.
Samsung’s charging protocol makes use of Qualcomm’s outdated Quick Charge 2.0 specifications. This was great at the time, but it has since advanced beyond those limits. Quick Charge 4.0 is available right now, and Samsung could definitely be taking advantage of it.
You see, charging also has to do with the integrated processor and must be supported by the foundation.The hardware to support the new standards exists and is inside the Galaxy S8. And yet, for whatever reason, Samsung is still using slower technology.
SOLVE THEIR BATTERY PROBLEM ONCE AND FOR ALL
The Galaxy Note 7 debacle — you know the one — had everything to do with the battery installed in those devices.
This time around, Samsung decided to be a little more modest and play it safe. And who can blame them? Naturally, that also means the battery in the Galaxy S8 and S8+ are smaller than previous iterations, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they get less battery life. Thanks to a number of software and hardware improvements, there’s still a slight boost.
Can it be done? Certainly! But will Samsung actually invest the resources to do it or merely coast on their existing success? Nobody knows just yet.
Image via Samsung Mobile Press
