Another highlight of the S8+ is Bixby, a digital assistant much like Siri and Google Now. You launch Bixby by pressing the button below the volume rocker. Once activated, the phone launches Bixby Home , where a number of cards will be displayed.

Gorgeous design with enormous dual curved display in a small body; Excellent camera; Great benchmark performance; IP68 build; Iris scanning; Edge panel functions on both S8 and S8

Awkwardly positioned fingerprint scanner; Bixby is still a work in progress; Pretty expensive

Samsung has broken the mould with its Galaxy S8 handsets, producing two devices that are the same spec, apart from screen size and battery capacity. If you want this phone, just pick the size that fits you with no compromises or additional considerations.

Excellent display for movie watching (will be even better when HDR content is available); great camera; refined and full-featured user interface; option to avoid Samsung bloatware for best software experience yet; eye-catchingly gorgeous design

Internal speaker isn't great; Bixby isn't fully realised; rear fingerprint scanner takes a backseat to iris scanning; Bixby button feels like it could be doing something else; undeniably expensive

Excellent premium smartphone that does come for a price but worth it. Samsung Galaxy S8 is also available that is slightly cheaper and comes with slight smaller screen.

My other main reason for getting the S8+ is the battery life. Although our battery tests have shown that the S8's battery life is about a half hour shorter than that of the S8+, I want those additional minutes.

There are two reasons to buy the Galaxy S8+ – an epic screen and solid battery life. Everything else is pretty much the same as the smaller S8, but it's more awkward to hold and carry. There's no doubt it's a great phone that's practically unrivalled on the display front.

64GB + microSD card slot; wireless charging; IP68; brilliant screen; good battery life; great camera; iris scanner; pressure-sensitive screen; notification LED

fixed battery; only Android 7.0; no USB-PD; fingerprint scanner placement not great

The Samsung Galaxy S8+ is a super-sized version of the S8, with an absolutely incredible screen, and electrifying capabilities to match. It's the most powerful mobile device you can get your hands on, but the price is sky high too.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus brings flagship class design and is finally a phone that doesn't look like all others. If that piques your interest, then this is the phone you should buy. It's one of the best smartphones out there today, but an incremental update in everything except design.

Beautiful design; Excellent camera; Great display; Waterproof

Battery life could be better; Fingerprint sensor is tough to reach

When it comes to the Galaxy S8+, Samsung's over-sized version of the S8, it seems that the company has gone about things the right way - at least on paper: it boasts a giant 6.2in screen, the tiniest of bezels and enticing specs.

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

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