Samsung improved the front camera of the Galaxy S8 Plus. It now has an 8 MP sensor with autofocus as well as an aperture of f/1.7, so it captures a lot of light. Videos can be recorded in Full HD (1920x1080 pixels). The preloaded beauty filter offers numerous settings. Besides the skin color and the shape of the face, you can also change the size of the eyes. There are many other filters or you can just download them. Samsung also preinstalls 3D animations, which adjust to the picture and some of them are animated. We like the results and they also work well in environments with low lighting.

Bixby Vision is another new feature, which can easily be activated by a small icon. The camera is supposed to analyze objects and text, so you can edit them. It is even supposed to collect information about the product via Internet or translate texts. Unfortunately, this did not work very well. The smartphone was not able to give us shopping recommendations, and Bixby Vision did not even recognize the product information for the Galaxy S8+. Texts had many gaps, so translations were useless. The idea itself is very good, but Bixby Vision still needs improvements.

The specs of the main camera did not change compared to the previous model. It is still a 12.2 MP dual-pixel sensor with a pixel size of 1.40 μm. The aperture did not change at f/1.7, either, and you also get an optical image stabilizer (OIS). Samsung supposedly improved the software. The actual pictures look great, just like they did on the Galaxy S7 Edge. The results are even a little brighter in low-light situations and the edges are a bit sharper than before. However, these differences are only noticeable when you enlarge the pictures.

You can also use a manual mode once again with settings for the white balance, light sensitivity (ISO 50 - 800), exposure (1/24000 - 10s) and adjust the focus manually. It is also possible to store RAW pictures in the Pro mode, so Samsung did not change a lot. Even the issues are still there, because the Live-View mode only works up to an exposure of one second, before the view and the result do not match anymore.

The video mode is also identical to the Galaxy S7 models, which means you can record at 3840x2160 pixels (Ultra HD @30 fps, up to 10 minutes at once). The quality is still very good, but Samsung unfortunately missed the opportunity to improve the functionality. Great features like the automatic chase function of the auto-focus and HDR are still not available in Ultra HD or at 60 frames per second. A look at the spec sheet of the Exynos 8895 shows that the ISP of the SoC can handle much more, including Ultra HD at up to 120 fps. This means Samsung is still number one in general, but it cannot increase the technological advantage.