From a performance standpoint, the Galaxy S8 is undoubtedly the best Android smartphone in the game, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should plunk down nearly $800 for one right now.

Top-of-the-line camera, Long battery life, Outstanding performance

Poor fingerprint-scanner placement, Useless virtual assistant

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is the best smartphone available, full stop. It has raised the bar for top-end smartphone design, is one of the most future-proofed phones you can buy and squeezes a large selection of cutting-edge technology into a consumer-friendly package that anyone can use.

Pros: 64GB + microSD card slot, wireless charging, IP68, brilliant screen, tiny body, great camera, iris scanner, 24-hour battery, pressure-sensitive screen, notification LED

Cons: fixed battery, only Android 7.0, no USB-PD, fingerprint scanner placement not ideal

The Galaxy S8 marks a big change for Samsung—the company has finally updated its phone design. The Galaxy S7, with its hardware buttons and giant front SAMSUNG logo, was a design that had been frozen in time for four or five years. It seemed very dated.

A slim-bezel design finally brings a more modern design to the Galaxy line., On-screen buttons allow for smaller bezels, bigger screens, and a customizable (and correctable) button order., Samsung's always-on hard-press home button is an awesome and innovative feature.

The gimmicks. The iris scanner, curved screen, and heart rate sensor all seem designed to give talking points to your local Verizon salesperson, rather than provide a good user experience for customers., The glass back is fragile and a fingerprint magnet., Touchwiz is still a janky lag-fest.

The Samsung 2017 flagship, compact edition. Can the Galaxy S8 make even the die-hard fans of the big-screen experience consider converting? Think about it - you get so much screen in a phone that's practically as wide as a iPhone 7.

This phone sure is pretty.

Bixby.

To determine how the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ compare to other smartphones phones, with respect to battery life, we ran the devices through two battery benchmarks you can find on the Google Play store -- AnTuTu Tester's Battery benchmark and PCMark for Android's Work 2.0 Battery Life test.

Gorgeous, near-bezelless design, Beautiful, wide-aspect AMOLED displays, Fastest Android phones on market, Excellent camera performance, Impressive battery life, Super-premium design

Pricey, Maybe a little too slippery for some, Black units are smudge magnets

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is the first of what is effectively a new class of Android smartphones. Extra large display, excellent camera performance, large battery, cutting-edge design/materials, next-generation performance, and networks: these are the attributes of the Galaxy S8, and they all contribute...

Stunning design, extra large display, Excellent photo experience, Fastest Android hardware and networking, Stunning design, extra large display, Excellent photo experience, Fastest Android hardware and networking

No support for wide-angle photography, No support for wide-angle photography

The new S8 and S8 Plus aren't perfect, but they are damn close

Gorgeous design, Meticulous fit and finish, Great camera, Big screen, but not a big phone, Gorgeous design, Meticulous fit and finish, Great camera, Enormous, stunning display

Annoying preinstalled apps, Atrocious fingerprint scanner placement, Merely average battery life, Bixby is useless, Annoying preinstalled apps, Atrocious fingerprint scanner placement, Bixby is useless, Larger size can be cumbersome

Deal update: Amazon Prime Day has delivered a huge saving on the Samsung Galaxy S8, meaning you can now pick up the SIM-free handset with a 64GB Micro SD card for just £429 . The original RRP of this package was £645.99, so you’d be saving a significant stack of cash.

Now, where do I begin? Perhaps I should start with the moment I picked this smartphone up. The sudden rush of wonder that coursed through my body caught me by surprise. I had seen this handset before in photos and in videos but here, actually holding it in my hand, gave the smartphone an entirely...