Samsung's officially released the Galaxy S8 and its bigger brother, the S8+ a few days ago , and many of you are already facing the heart-wrenching decision of upgrading to Samsung's newest star in its Galaxy .

If you've read our Galaxy S8 review , you'd already know that the S8 Plus is not that different compared to the S8. The only difference between the two, aside from the dimensions and weight, is the display size and the battery capacity.

* Beautiful design; * Gorgeous Infinity Display; * Impressive Performance; * Great camera; * Great battery life; * Large storage capacity; * Iris scanner

* Most expensive flagship smartphone in the market

Smartphone reviewers throw around the term "flagship" pretty loosely, to the point where it's come to mean "a high-spec phone from a major or mid-level manufacturer." But when you get your hands on a phone with the technical excellence and attention to detail of the Samsung Galaxy S8 series, you're...

Great performance; fine build quality; more configurability than with revious models; dock allows use as desktop computer

Bixby virtual assistant still half-baked; high price in comparison to similar phones

It was a tall task for the Samsung Galaxy S8+ development team - not an enviable position, to say the least. Not only were they looked upon to deliver a meaningful upgrade to the S-series in an increasingly competitive market, but had a Note7-sized gap in the company portfolio to fill.

With a gorgeous 6.2-inch display and a design that needs to be seen, the Galaxy S8+ truly changes the smartphone conversation.

Amazing; brilliant; eye-popping display; An incredible design that makes a 6.2-inch screen feel like a 5.7-inch one; Camera offers nice refinements...

Fingerprint sensor is in a horrible location; Bixby isn't very useful or compelling

It's taller, slimmer, and with good looks guaranteed to turn heads at the water fountain. Or wherever else you take it out of your pocket.

Outstanding design and build quality; Impressive screen quality; Fast performance; Expandable memory; Great camera

Sound quality lags slight behind iPhone 7 Plus; Awkwardly placed fingerprint sensor

I may sound a little lukewarm on the Galaxy S8+, but that's just because I can only name one of them our Editors' Choice. The S8+ suffers from a bit of the middle child problem that the iPhone 7 does, trapped between an eminently pocketable little sibling (the iPhone SE ) and a more capable big...

Longer battery life than the Galaxy S8

Bigger; heavier; and more expensive than the Galaxy S8

You have probably seen the TV commercials focusing on the new Infinity Display and it is rather stunning to hold a Galaxy S8 Plus with a 6.2 inch display next to a 5.5 inch iPhone 7 Plus and enjoy the narrower design and better form factor of the Galaxy S8 Plus.

Stunning display with no side bezels; Big display in device smaller than competitors; Multiple security features; including an iris scanner; Fast and wireless charging; microSD expansion card slot; High level water and dust resistance; Gorilla Glass 5 front and back panels

Tough to accurately tap fingerprint sensor; Fingerprints on back glass; Bixby voice control not ready at launch

There’s no question the S8+ is a phenomenal phone - it’s got a truly top-notch camera, Retina-busting resolution, and a design to die for. The iPhone looks positively prehistoric in comparison. Is it better than its smaller brother, though? That’s tricky. This plus-sized beauty feels thoughtfully big, with Samsung putting in the right features and getting the design right so you can use all that space without it feeling unwieldy. But the screen isn’t dramatically bigger, and battery life is only slightly better. Whether those marginal gains are worth paying £100 extra for are entirely down to how much you value having slightly more screen space. To answer the question asked at the start of this review: bigger might be better - even if there’s not that much differentiation in the S8+’s case. Get the Samsung S8+ (64GB) SIM free here for £779 or on contract here

Stunning design is unbeatable by any other phone right now; Incredible performance that comes into its own with DeX Station; Camera quality among the best you’ll find in in a phone;

Size won’t be for everyone; Fingerprint sensor slightly awkwardly placed; £100 more than the already excellent S8;

So what do we think of the Galaxy S8+? We think it's probably the best phone of 2017 so far, shading the LG G6 and Huawei P10 Plus and Mate 9. But it's not a unreserved recommendation; there are flaws here and not even the incredible display can mask them.

Brilliant 6.2-inch display; Blazing fast performance; Bluetooth 5/dual audio

Rear fingerprint reader placement; Bixby needs to differentiate; Face recognition hit and miss