Samsung's Galaxy S8 is the most feature-filled, beautiful smartphone you can get, period. It has the best camera, design, and screen, as well as the latest specs.
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The Galaxy S8 can do 8 things the new OnePlus 5 can't, but I'd still get the OnePlus 5
The Galaxy S8 is let down in one tiny but crucial way.
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Yet despite these accolades, I'm still more attracted to the new OnePlus 5.
What could the Galaxy S8 possibly do wrong that makes me drift toward the OnePlus 5 instead?
I want to give the Galaxy S8 the credit it deserves, so check out all the things the Galaxy S8 can do that the OnePlus 5 can't — then see why I'd still pick the OnePlus 5:
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The Galaxy S8 has a striking design compared with the OnePlus 5.
There's no competition here. The combination of the invisible home button, curved display edges, rounded display corners, taller aspect ratio, and ultra-narrow borders around its display makes the S8 a strikingly beautiful smartphone that's also more modern than the OnePlus 5 with its utilitarian design.
The Galaxy S8 has a sharper display.
You can set the S8's display to a 1440p resolution, which is sharper than the OnePlus 5's 1080p resolution.
The Galaxy S8 is water-resistant. The OnePlus 5 is not.
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Samsung is keen to boast about the S8's IP 68 water resistance, which allows it to survive down to a depth of 1.5 meters (nearly 5 feet) for up to half an hour.
The Galaxy S8 features wireless charging.
Wireless charging is a nice feature to have for topping up the Galaxy S8 during the day. I can rest the Galaxy S8 on its wireless charging dock more easily than plugging it in when I'm not using it, and it pretty much guarantees I'll never run out of battery.
You can unlock the Galaxy S8 with your eyeballs.
I can hold up the Galaxy S8 to my eyes to unlock it without reaching for the fingerprint scanner.
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You can also use your face to unlock the Galaxy S8.
The Galaxy S8's facial recognition also lets me unlock the phone by simply waking it up with the power button.
The Galaxy S8 features Samsung Pay, while the OnePlus 5 has only Android Pay. There's an important difference.
Samsung Pay on the Galaxy S8 works almost anywhere because it uses similar magnetic-based technology as a regular credit card. Meanwhile, Android Pay on the OnePlus 5, based on near-field communication, works only on payment terminals that have NFC technology.
The Galaxy S8 is the reigning champion of smartphone cameras.
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The OnePlus 5's dual-lens camera certainly has its merits — it's an excellent camera that can do things the Galaxy S8 can't, like enabling the professional-looking portrait mode or enhanced optical zooming thanks to that second telephoto lens. Yet at the end of the day, the Galaxy S8 has the superior camera, especially in low-light situations.
There are so many great Galaxy S8 features, so why would I go for the OnePlus 5?
The first thing that gets my attention is the OnePlus 5's $480 price tag, compared with the Galaxy S8's $720 starting cost. Price, on its own, is a huge factor. I can buy a lot of things I like for the $240 I'd be saving by going for the OnePlus 5, such as video games, computer parts, and wine.
Price isn't the only thing. The Galaxy S8's fingerprint scanner is surprisingly frustrating to use.
I simply don't like the Galaxy S8's fingerprint scanner on the back of the phone. It's a matter of personal preference, and mine is a fingerprint scanner on the front of the phone because it's easier to find. I can also unlock phones with front-facing fingerprint scanners while they're resting on a table without first lifting the phone.
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That said, Samsung may not have been able to make the Galaxy S8's borders so narrow had it kept the fingerprint scanner on the front. So, I can understand why the scanner is on the back.
I should note that the Galaxy S8's fingerprint scanner is inaccurate unless you place your finger perfectly on the scanner. That's a big problem, as the scanner isn't easy to find with your finger. I always end up placing my finger near the scanner and sliding it over to the scanner's center, and nine times out of 10, it wants me to rescan my fingerprint.
It's easier to find the S8's fingerprint scanner with the Samsung silicone case, but it's still not great.
The case's groove around the scanner helps guides my finger to its center. But the groove is so deep that not enough of my fingertip lands on the scanner unless I push hard with my finger. The Galaxy S8 often asks me to rescan my fingerprint two or three times with the case, too.
The OnePlus 5's fingerprint scanner is accurate and incredibly fast.
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Meanwhile, the OnePlus 5's front-facing fingerprint scanner is easy to find, and it has never asked me to rescan my fingerprint. It's also incredibly fast — much faster than the Galaxy S8's fingerprint scanner.
Above, I'm pressing each phone's fingerprint scanner at the same time. The S8 has a delay to unlock compared with the OnePlus 5.
The Galaxy S8's iris-scanning feature isn't great either.
The Galaxy S8's iris scanner is fast and accurate, so long as you're holding the phone at a perfect distance from your eyes and they're lined up perfectly with the guide circles on the screen. Add that it's a multistep process to use the iris scanner — press the home button, swipe the lock screen, line up your eyes with the phone — and it quickly becomes a frustrating experience. I turned it off eventually. It works, but it's not as fast or convenient as a fingerprint scanner.
Facial recognition on the Galaxy S8 doesn't always work well either.
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The best way to unlock the Galaxy S8 I've found is facial recognition. It's fast and requires far fewer steps than the iris scanner. Yet it'll occasionally fail to register my face, and I either have to tap the tiny button to reattempt, use the ineffective fingerprint scanner, or enter my PIN.
"Boo-hoo," you might say. But you'd feel the same way if you had difficulty unlocking your phone.
The Galaxy S8 is a fantastic phone, but I quickly became disenchanted with it because I simply couldn't unlock it as quickly and easily as other phones — and that's not great, because it's more expensive than those other great Android phones, including the OnePlus 5.
Unlocking a phone is a mundane task, but it's also extremely important: You're going to unlock your phone many, many times a day, so if it's a less-than-stellar experience, the monotony can become disheartening.
That said, my experience with unlocking the Galaxy S8 may not be the same for all S8 owners or prospective S8 owners. For me, though, the OnePlus 5 is a solid Android phone that's simply more reliable than the S8, despite the latter's exciting features.
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