The Galaxy S8 launches tomorrow, and if you preordered one you might already have it by now. It’s Samsung’s latest flagship, and as such it packs a myriad of new and improved features. But Samsung has a tendency to overload its users with excessive features and settings. Here are a few tips to make setting up your Galaxy S8 a bit easier…
Take full advantage of the high-res display
The QHD+ AMOLED panel on the Galaxy S8 is one of the best-looking displays we’ve ever seen, but by default it downscales to just 1080p. This was probably done in an effort to help reduce power consumption, and most users won’t notice the difference in resolution. But if you like to use every pixel to its fullest potential, you can adjust the system scaling in Settings > Display > Screen resolution.
Change the virtual button order
Removing most of the top and bottom bezels on the S8 meant also removing the home button and surrounding capacitive keys. Samsung has finally joined the ranks of … well, just about every other Android manufacturer, and finally transitioned to on-screen navigation buttons. For some reason their reverse order is still the default setting, but thankfully you can switch the order around as Google intended in Settings > Display > Navigation bar > Button layout.
Secure your phone
The Galaxy S8’s newly positioned fingerprint sensor has been … controversial, to say the least. Like it or hate it, it’s the most quick and accurate way to secure your phone, but it’s not the only way. It feels like Samsung knew how unpopular the sensor’s new placement would be, since there are three other ways to unlock your phone listed in Settings > Lock screen and security.
Face Recognition and Iris Scanner do exactly as their names imply, and both are fast enough that you might not even have time to see your lock screen before you’re into the phone, but they both struggle in low light situations and there are reports of the facial recognition being tricked by photos. Alternatively, Smart Lock will allow you to assign trusted places, devices, and voices to unlock the phone automatically when in proximity.
It’s also well worth a visit to Settings>Advanced features and enabling finger sensor gestures. This allows you to open and dismiss the notification shade with a vertical swipe in either direction along the fingerprint sensor.
Has your Galaxy S8 or S8+ come in yet? Got any other tips for getting started? Sound off in the comments below!
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