I should start off by saying that I’m not a blind fan of brands. I’ve used Android phones for most of my life until my switch to another brand three years ago, so I’m pretty comfortable with both operating systems.
Having heard plenty of excellent reviews about the camera, I decided to test if it would match up to the DSLR I use on a daily basis.
The results of my experiment surprised me though, with the quality of the photos taken using the S8 almost on par with the ones from my DSLR. Just compare the photo on top with the photo below.
They say to save the best for last, but I’m going to let you in on the best secret of the S8: There’s an option to shoot in RAW. For people who take their photography seriously, you’ll know this is vital so any data is not compressed.
That means that photos taken with this phone have more details captured and thus will be of higher quality, and photo editing will be much easier thanks to the additional information captured in the file.
Still having doubts? Look at this photo I took at Five Marbles Craft Beer Restaurant and compare it with the photos I took with my phone below.
It was 9.30pm and the restaurant was dark enough that the photos taken with my phone were dark and grainy. The S8, however, did a decent job with minimal grain and excellent preservation of detail.
With the ability to adjust shutter speed, exposure and ISO settings, the Pro mode in the camera app is a godsend to anybody who knows the basics of photography.
If you’re not one to enjoy fiddling with settings, just change it to the Food mode and enjoy an instant bump to the saturation and bokeh at the background to boot.
There are instances when I eat a certain dish outside and wished I knew how to recreate it back at home; here’s when Samsung’s newest application, Bixby Vision will come into play.
There are so many uses for this, but I’ll narrow it down to the most useful one for foodies: the ability to scan what the camera is pointing at and pull up a list of results, such as food recipes or just the names of dishes that you might not have already known.
Many times, I screenshot something interesting to show to my friends, but when I want to go back to the URL to find that item again or make a restaurant reservation, I find myself at a loss. Well, not anymore.
Every screenshot taken of web pages is now automatically tagged with the website URL, thus removing the need for forgetful people like me to painstakingly go through my browser history. Kudos!
By the end of the week, I found myself leaving my DSLR at home and turning to the Galaxy S8 when I’m out for food tastings. It might compromise just a little on photo quality (18MP DSLR compared to 12MP on the S8), but the difference in weight and the functionalities of the phone far outweighs the slight downside.
Honestly, I never would have thought that I would be so tempted to change phone brands, but if upcoming phones can’t match up to the bar that the Galaxy S8 has set, I might find myself the new owner of a Samsung phone very soon.
Expected damage: RRP $1,148
