It is a shame that Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 ended up a failed product last year because of its faulty battery.
It was a great smartphone that had everything going for it: powerful specifications; solid features; and a sleek look.
The good news about the Galaxy S8, available in the UAE this week from Dh2,799, is that it picks up where its flawed predecessor left off. Barring another unforeseen fiasco, it should do much to help erase the sting of the Note 7.
The bad news about the S8, and its slightly larger cousin the S8+, is that it does feel like a bit of a rushed product. More on that shortly, but first, the good.
There is no doubt the 5.8-inch S8 and 6.2-inch S8+, which are virtually identical beyond their slightly different sizes, have the best-looking screens of any smartphones produced yet. The Super Amoled “Infinity Displays” are wondrous to look at, with 529 pixels per inch and 16 million colours.
Photos and videos look fantastic and are further enhanced by some under-the-hood software tricks. The screen itself also feels nice to the touch. Combined with the optics, it is a very satisfying phone to hold in your hand.
The redesign also helps in that regard. Samsung has tweaked the S8 and S8+, the device used for this review, so that they are taller and thinner. The bezel has been almost completely eliminated, so the surface is almost all screen.
The extra tallness takes some getting used to, but the new skinniness makes the S8 easier to use one-handed, as is the case with the LG G6.
Samsung has also toned down the screen’s curves, to the point where your fingers no longer slip off the edges when typing. Count me among those who have absolutely hated curved screens for that reason, but the S8 may finally have won me over.
The better design means the S8 now benefits from the curved aesthetic without interfering with usability. Now, if only Samsung could get rid of the dubiously useful Edge toolbar on the side of the screen …
The camera on the S8 is also fantastic, producing similar if not better results than the doomed Note 7. The 12-megapixel camera is the same on paper as last year’s best in class Galaxy S7, but Samsung says it has tweaked some of the behind-the-scenes processing to deliver better results.
It is a believable claim because the S8 produces amazing photos, on par with the Google Pixel, widely believed to have the best smartphone camera on the market right now. The S8’s front camera is also better than that of the S7, getting a boost up to eight megapixels from five. It can now take wide-angle selfies, a neat feature for Snapchatters.
Battery life has also been improved, with 3,000 milliamps providing more than enough juice to get through each day I have been testing. That is particularly impressive considering the power needed to run so much screen.
In a nutshell, the Galaxy S8 excels in the basic functions that most people buy smartphones for. However it is not without one or two flaws.
Samsung announced just before launch that the S8’s most heralded feature, the Bixby voice assistant, would not initially work. Without specifying reasons, the company merely said the functionality would be added at a later time. That is pretty strong evidence the S8 was rushed to launch.
More proof is the poorly thought-out placement of the fingerprint sensor, which now resides on the back of the phone next to the camera. Making the S8 all-screen obviously necessitated the relocation, but there is nowhere worse Samsung could have put it. It is now very easy to smudge the camera – one of the phone’s best features – while fumbling to unlock it. It annoyed me enough to turn off the sensor altogether.
The S8 has several unlock alternatives, including an iris sensor and facial recognition. They mostly work, but they fail just enough to frustrate you into also turning them off. Bewilderingly, Samsung has made it very difficult to easily unlock the S8.
With these few obvious hints of rushed design and the Note 7 disaster still fresh in the memory, you cannot help but wonder if Samsung had enough time to do proper quality assurance. In addition, some who pre-ordered the [hone in South Korea complained of a red-tinyed screen.
Could other things go similarly wrong with the Galaxy S8 down the road? We will have to see.
It would also be a shame because all other things considered, the Galaxy S8 – like the Note 7 before it – is a great phone that deserves to be a success.
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
Watch live
The National will broadcast live from the IMF on Friday October 13 at 7pm UAE time (3pm GMT) as our Editor-in-Chief Mina Al-Oraibi moderates a panel on how technology can help growth in MENA.
You can find out more here
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
more from Janine di Giovanni
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AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
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Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, John Oliver
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
