So, let's talk for a moment about what Samsung got right with this phone.

[krabkakes95]

isn't this what Samsung Bixby is supposed to be doing natively on our phones?

Yeah, it's essentially the same idea however Google has much more experience to implement it.


Remember Google photo search? That was an early test of their deep learning algorithms.

Remember Google goggles? Same thing.

You know those "prove you're a human" picture identification tests by Google? You guessed it, that's another way for Google to teach it's deep learning algorithm.


Google has been working on and teaching their deep learning algorithm for almost a decade. Samsung pulled it out of their a** overnight.

 

[Almeuit]

I may be wrong simply because I've read about Google Lens just once but isn't this what Samsung Bixby is supposed to be doing natively on our phones? I'm just asking because it's funny to me reading all the comments at the end of that article I read of people praising this new technology from Google but the general consensus for Samsung's Bixby is pure hate for it. I know that the dedicated button plays big part for it, but people across the web has just declared Bixby a failure without even given it a fair try first.

I'm neutral right now, as I have used it a couple of times and it looks nice, obviously Samsung should have allowed 2 things, first, the button re-mapping for those that simply don't want to use it, and second, to be d*mn fully ready when the phone was released, but now with Google's announcement of their Lens technology I'm wondering if people will give Samsung a better chance to try their idea, after all, they released it first, well kind of...

Google Lens will do a lot more then just help with shopping (like what Bixby does).

 

[erasat]

Yeah, it's essentially the same idea however Google has much more experience to implement it.


Remember Google photo search? That was an early test of their deep learning algorithms.

Remember Google goggles? Same thing.

You know those "prove you're a human" picture identification tests by Google? You guessed it, that's another way for Google to teach it's deep learning algorithm.


Google has been working on and teaching their deep learning algorithm for almost a decade. Samsung pulled it out of their a** overnight.

I know Google is Google, so that's not for debate here, but where you got it wrong on your post is that Samsung didn't pull it out from anywhere overnight, this has been a calculated move for some time now and the main reason they bought the company founded by the creators of Siri, Viv Labs, back in October of last year.

Viv was founded 5 years ago, and since then and being from the same creators of Siri, their main focus have been AI technology. So even when Samsung seems to be a baby on AI, the real company and technology behind Bixby is at least 5 years old and capable of much more than what it has been available with current AI like Siri, Cortana and Google Assistant.

 

[erasat]

Google Lens will do a lot more then just help with shopping (like what Bixby does).

For now that's the only working feature and some cards, but since it was announced it shows great potential on basically every function of the phone, potential to be a great all around integration. As it is, there is nothing we haven't done before, that's true, but my comments were about what was announced for, all those little neat features that I would love to try first and then decide if it's just a failure or the next big thing.

 

[Almeuit]

For now that's the only working feature and some cards, but since it was announced it shows great potential on basically every function of the phone, potential to be a great all around integration. As it is, there is nothing we haven't done before, that's true, but my comments were about what was announced for, all those little neat features that I would love to try first and then decide if it's just a failure or the next big thing.

I think the difference is Samsung touted Bixby as this amazing AI that is the end all be all... Then said just kidding it won't be out for a few months and only the camera Bixby (for shopping) will be available. If anything that left Bixby with a bad taste in people's mouth. Especially since Google Assistant is out so it is already an AI from Google.

 

[krabkakes95]

Viv was founded 5 years ago, and since then and being from the same creators of Siri, their main focus have been AI technology. So even when Samsung seems to be a baby on AI, the real company and technology behind Bixby is at least 5 years old and capable of much more than what it has been available with current AI like Siri, Cortana and Google Assistant.

I understand that however my point is that Google has been developing a deep learning algorithm for a decade that is specifically for this application. Samsung and it's child companies have not been working on this exact section of AI for very long. Samsung's version of the software is much less developed than I suspect google lens will be.

Pulled it out of their a** was an exaggeration. I didn't mean it literally. Yes, there was a lot of development that went into bixby vision. With that said, the development that has gone into Google lens dwarfs bixby vision.

 

[erasat]

I think the difference is Samsung touted Bixby as this amazing AI that is the end all be all... Then said just kidding it won't be out for a few months and only the camera Bixby (for shopping) will be available. If anything that left Bixby with a bad taste in people's mouth. Especially since Google Assistant is out so it is already an AI from Google.

I know what you mean and like I said before if they announced it and it was an essential part of their new phones they should have pushed harder to have it available at least by the S8 release date, they failed on that. But that's past now and I still love this phone for everything else, so I'll be one of the first to try Bixby once it's finally fully functional and I really hope it is as good as it was advertised, if not, that d*mn button even by knowing it's there, will bother me a lot from that date on.

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

I may be wrong simply because I've read about Google Lens just once but isn't this what Samsung Bixby is supposed to be doing natively on our phones? I'm just asking because it's funny to me reading all the comments at the end of that article I read of people praising this new technology from Google but the general consensus for Samsung's Bixby is pure hate for it. I know that the dedicated button plays big part for it, but people across the web has just declared Bixby a failure without even given it a fair try first.

I'm neutral right now, as I have used it a couple of times and it looks nice, obviously Samsung should have allowed 2 things, first, the button re-mapping for those that simply don't want to use it, and second, to be d*mn fully ready when the phone was released, but now with Google's announcement of their Lens technology I'm wondering if people will give Samsung a better chance to try their idea, after all, they released it first, well kind of...

I think that's because Samsung and AI don't usually mix well.

Remember S Voice? That was horrendous back then, and it hasn't seem to changed much over the years.

Samsung had high hopes for Bixby, but Bixby Vision's accuracy seems pretty hit or miss as of this time. Doesn't paint a pretty picture on how the rest of it will evolve.

I'm not in the group of people who wants Bixby to crash and burn miserably because Samsung probably spent time and effort plus money to develop it. But the general uproar over the inability to max the Bixby button is somewhat justified as it doesn't seem to do anything good as of now.

 

[erasat]

Samsung and it's child companies have not been working on this exact section of AI for very long. Samsung's version of the software is much less developed than I suspect google lens will be.

That's my point neither of us, well not too many people right now, can really know one thing or the other, we will need to wait for Bixby to be 100% functional and Google releases Lens so we can compare which one is better. But one thing I'm sure though, Google's implementation will be great for ALL the rest of Android manufacturers but not necessary for Samsung. Maybe Bixby is indeed as good as advertised and you can bet that its implementation on the S8 and future Samsung phones will be a lot better and with even more features than the Lens implementation across all the rest of Android devices.

 

[erasat]

I think that's because Samsung and AI don't usually mix well.

Remember S Voice? That was horrendous back then, and it hasn't seem to changed much over the years.

Samsung had high hopes for Bixby, but Bixby Vision's accuracy seems pretty hit or miss as of this time. Doesn't paint a pretty picture on how the rest of it will evolve.

I'm not in the group of people who wants Bixby to crash and burn miserably because Samsung probably spent time and effort plus money to develop it. But the general uproar over the inability to max the Bixby button is somewhat justified as it doesn't seem to do anything good as of now.

S Voice was and is still an aberration, basically the first thing I disabled in all my previous Galaxy phones. BUT like I said, that was Samsung's idea, Bixby comes from a company created just for this, and on that area 5 years is a lot of time to have developed a great product, good enough that even when it was never released Samsung just bought it after a Demonstration.

One more thing, as in all AI, it gets better after some time as it goes learning from you all the time, the more you use it, the best it gets, as of now that doesn't even count as we are simply using a half baked app, hence why I'm saying that I'll wait for it to be fully functional to decide if it's indeed a great tool or simply another failure from Samsung on the AI field.

 

[ClintRo]

I may be wrong simply because I've read about Google Lens just once but isn't this what Samsung Bixby is supposed to be doing natively on our phones? I'm just asking because it's funny to me reading all the comments at the end of that article I read of people praising this new technology from Google but the general consensus for Samsung's Bixby is pure hate for it. I know that the dedicated button plays big part for it, but people across the web has just declared Bixby a failure without even given it a fair try first.

I'm neutral right now, as I have used it a couple of times and it looks nice, obviously Samsung should have allowed 2 things, first, the button re-mapping for those that simply don't want to use it, and second, to be d*mn fully ready when the phone was released, but now with Google's announcement of their Lens technology I'm wondering if people will give Samsung a better chance to try their idea, after all, they released it first, well kind of...

For me I have little HATE for Bixby, it is that woul love to see those resources used elsewhere since Google Asistant already has most of those features. I used Bixby shopper a few times and it just doesn't work well.

 

[Morty2264]

Great review, OP. I agree with you about the battery - well, everything you've written, actually. Samsung truly did an amazing job this year. And yes, the design is gorgeous. It seems manufacturers like Samsung, Honor, LG, and HTC are really starting to pull out awesome colours and design language to satisfy their customers.

I wish the S8 wasn't so expensive (though I definitely understand why - it's a beast!)... As it would have been in the running for my next phone. However, I definitely think the S8/+ are amazing phones with super potential.

 

[donm527]

S Voice was based of Vlingo. But basically, Samsung presented at the S8 release a phone with a Bixby that looked more complete than it really was... they even dedicated a button on the phone for it before it was ready. People say it's half baked... but if you look at the presentation of features and what it really does... it's less than half baked. I don't even know if you can really say it's really in Beta more than Alpha lol.

It's selling a package of goods that is not there and dedicating so much real estate and pushing options like Google Assistant to the side that's probably irritated people.

I like the S8... but the S8 is kinda half baked. No argument the S8 is still one of the best phones this year so far... but it's half baked.

You look at pictures of S8 prototypes... dual camera set up and the fact they went single and had to scrub the under glass FPS and put the FPS next to the single camera... and on top of that stuff like Bixby not even fully functional... IMO, the S9 will probably be the phone Samsung wanted to bring out in the S8. But it is what it is.

S Voice was and is still an aberration, basically the first thing I disabled in all my previous Galaxy phones. BUT like I said, that was Samsung's idea, Bixby comes from a company created just for this, and on that area 5 years is a lot of time to have developed a great product, good enough that even when it was never released Samsung just bought it after a Demonstration.

One more thing, as in all AI, it gets better after some time as it goes learning from you all the time, the more you use it, the best it gets, as of now that doesn't even count as we are simply using a half baked app, hence why I'm saying that I'll wait for it to be fully functional to decide if it's indeed a great tool or simply another failure from Samsung on the AI field.

 

[ThrottleJohnny]

It was a miscalculation to even put Bixby on the S8 unfinished. Samsung opened themselves up for criticism knowing it wouldn't be ready. It should have debuted on the Note, and the quick launch button should have been remappable and then updated in the fall with a fully functional Bixby.

And it's not just Samsung. Google screwed up Allo messaging as well. But at least Allow was a choice feature.

And we knew people would be foaming at the mouth to bash Bixby because it's Samsung. They shouldn't have made it so easy.

All in all though, this phone is so good it almost transcends Bixby.

 

[donm527]

Even though, Samsung slapped on a button for Bixby that's not really fully functional... it was timely they did it and instead of a useless button they should take advantage of their timing and make it a positive...

New Blackberry is out and they have a fully user programmable button on the phone... The HTC U11 has the pressure sensitive sensors on the side of the frame that's sounds practically fully programmable; squeeze the sides and you can program it to bring up camera, or bring up flashlight (great idea for when in dark and need light just squeeze) or probably program any app you want.

The S8 came out before all those and put in a dedicated button... they should push an update to make it programmable...

single click camera... double click flashlight... triple click voice recorder for jotting notes!

 

[donm527]

You can use the Amazon app... since it's basically based off that.

https://www.androidheadlines.com/2017/04/bixbys-visual-search-on-galaxy-s8-is-powered-by-amazon.html

For me I have little HATE for Bixby, it is that woul love to see those resources used elsewhere since Google Asistant already has most of those features. I used Bixby shopper a few times and it just doesn't work well.

 

[Jon44]

To insert a contrarian voice to the argument--I'm skeptical about the whole premise of AI. Much of the capability seems like it'd only be a help to someone with cognitive impairments (seriously).

The Google Lens promo shows taking an image of a storefront and having Google tell you what store it is and then linking to their reviews of it, etc. Most people can identify the name of the store by looking at it and then might have some personal agenda to pursue after doing so (and for most people, reading a bunch of fake reviews off the internet isn't top on the list).

In sum, much of AI is predicated on this idealized vision of a hyper-efficient, automated existence that just doesn't correspond to messy realities of the real world. (But I was also a naysayer with Google Glass and, of course, it's now impossible to imagine our modern society functioning without it.)

 

[ThrottleJohnny]

AI is as inevitable as the smartphone itself. Someone will eventually nail it.

 

[krabkakes95]

To insert a contrarian voice to the argument--I'm skeptical about the whole premise of AI. Much of the capability seems like it'd be a help to someone with cognitive impairments (seriously). The Google Lens promo shows taking an image of a storefront and having Google tell you what store it is and then linking to their reviews of it, etc. Most people can identify the name of the store by looking at it and then might have some personal agenda to pursue after doing so (and for most people, reading a bunch of fake reviews off the internet isn't top on the list).
In sum, much of AI is predicated on this idealized vision of a hyper-efficient, automated existence that just doesn't correspond to messy realities of how people live their lives.

While AI may not be extremely helpful today, using the current AI products is helping develop AI that will be used in the not so far future.

 

[pinkivy98]

For now that's the only working feature and some cards, but since it was announced it shows great potential on basically every function of the phone, potential to be a great all around integration. As it is, there is nothing we haven't done before, that's true, but my comments were about what was announced for, all those little neat features that I would love to try first and then decide if it's just a failure or the next big thing.

Bixby button doesn't bother me. I don't use the Bixby cards neither do I use Google assistant. I do use the Bixby camera features. I know they have a long way to go before it is ready but I love it. Looking forward to future improvements. I'm just glad that Samsung included the button so when the new features are available I would have the choice to try it out on my current s8+ whether than having to purchase a new phone to get it and then find out Bixby is crap. Isn't this what upset people in the past? Now you have a company not making you purchase a new phone for new features and people are still upset.