The Galaxy S8 is many things: a gorgeous smartphone, a Note 7 comeback, a top-tier premium-spec'd flagship, and perhaps the most important of all, living proof that Samsung is increasingly getting better at designing its devices, perhaps even levelling Apple, if not totally eclipsing it.
Part of what makes the Galaxy S8 stunning is its Infinity display, a 5.8-inch behemoth Super AMOLED screen that's far more beautiful than any LCD on the market.
But Samsung knows AMOLED screens are prone to burn-in problems. That's when the display retains a "ghost" of the image displayed for too long.
To pave the way for a larger screen, Samsung eliminated the home button and replaced it with a virtual one. But since Samsung gives Galaxy S8 owners to have the home button displayed at all times, burn-in could be an issue.
How Samsung Is Trying To Solve Burn-In Issues
To prevent it from burning in the screen, Samsung made a small refinement. For those of you worried about burn-in problems, fear not: the button actually moves around a bit to prevent image retention.
It's a simple adjustment but a genius one, and it displays the company's attention to detail. Samsung clearly wants to do right by the Galaxy S8 after the whole Note 7 fiasco.
People over the Galaxy Club were the first to test this feature. They put a tape on the screen to demonstrate that the button moves around a little bit in different directions.
It appears the home button only moves when the phone is switched off, otherwise all three buttons on the navigation bar are static when it's switched on.
It's actually not the first time Samsung has used this solution. Last year, it announced that the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge's Always-On Display feature wouldn't cause any burn-in issues because the onscreen elements keep changing positions. The company has simply applied the same trick for the Galaxy S8.
Burn-In Issue: What Is It?
For the uninitiated, plasma and OLED displays are prone to burn-in issues, one glaring disadvantage these screens have over LCDs. When images stay displayed for too long, they burn up certain diodes, so that's why Samsung's virtual home button moves ever so slightly.
Samsung Galaxy S8 And S8 Plus
The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are Samsung's newest pair of flagships, announced late March, and released a month later. Both are Qualcomm Snapdragon 835-powered devices, with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage.
The standard version features a 5.8-inch Super AMOLED Infinity Display; the bigger variant bumps that up to 6.2 inches. Aside from the slightly higher-capacity battery and the screen on the Galaxy S8 Plus, both devices are virtually the same.
On the back is a 12-megapixel camera that can do 4K video, and on the front is an 8-megapixel camera.
The Galaxy S8 is the first phone to feature Bluetooth 5.0. It also features wireless charging, water resistance, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack, even.
Check out our Galaxy S8 coverage to get the full specs.
Have you suffered from burn-in issues in the past? What do you think about Samsung's little solution to prevent it? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
