How much does size matter to you? The 6.2-inch Samsung Galaxy S8+ ($850 as tested) is a slightly larger Galaxy S8, with a slightly bigger battery, for $100 more. I don't think the slightly improved battery life merits the increase in price or the larger form factor, which isn't as easy to use with one hand. But it's still a fantastic phone, and people with bigger hands than mine might very well prefer it to the standard 5.8-inch model.

For most of the details on the Galaxy S8+, see our review of the Samsung Galaxy S8 ($720.00 at Verizon Wireless) . The S8+ is largely identical. No matter which you choose, these are the most powerful handheld computers available today. They're gorgeously crafted of curved glass, with huge screens for their size, excellent cameras, and the ability to yank wireless signals out of the air where other phones can't.

What's Different from the Galaxy S8?

The S8+ ($840.00 at Verizon Wireless) is basically a bigger S8. Like the S8, it's coming out on all the major US and Canadian carriers in a single 64GB unit, in black, gray, and silver.

It measures 6.28 by 2.89 by 0.32 inches and weighs 6.10 ounces, making it narrow but heavy. (The Galaxy S8, for comparison, measures 5.86 by 2.68 by 0.31 inches and weighs 5.47 ounces.) It's certainly small for a "6.2-inch" phone, although its tall, narrow 18.5:1 aspect ratio means you get less screen than you would on a more standard 16:9 phone. Using the aspect-ratio-neutral measure of SQUID (square inches of display), the S8+ gets 15.12, which is the same area that a screen between 5.9 and 6.0 inches would get in a 16:9 form factor. The 5.8-inch S8 screen has 13.23 square inches.

The S8+'s screen is also the same 2,960-by-1,440 resolution as the S8's, just slightly less dense at 531ppi compared with the S8's 568ppi. That means all screen elements will be slightly larger, although it's not a hugely noticeable difference, and the screen is still so dense that you can't see pixels. The reduced density emphasizes what I think is the target market for this phone, though: folks with big hands or imprecise vision who prefer the biggest device possible.

Samsung uses the additional room to upgrade from a 3,000mAh battery in the S8 to a 3,500mAh battery in the S8+, which is nonetheless smaller than the Galaxy S7 Edge's 3,600mAh cell. That resulted in 1-2 hours of additional usage time compared with the S8 in our benchmark test, which streams a YouTube video with the screen blasting at maximum brightness. (The bigger screen requires a bigger backlight, so it uses more power per minute.) We got 7 hours, 37 minutes of streaming time at the phone's maximum resolution—that's two hours more than the S8—and 8 hours, 41 minutes at 1080p resolution, which is one hour longer than on the S8.

Big Enough to Make a Difference?

Carrying the S8+ around for two days after using an S8, though, it feels big and heavy. While the phone isn't that wide, it should go into protective case, and a case makes the phone a little wider. At that point, the S8+ is just a little too wide for me to be comfortable using it with one hand. I've never been a fan of very big phones, and I love how Samsung and LG have both made an effort to make their phones more easily one-handed this year. The S8+ feels like backsliding on that front.

Top to bottom: Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy S8+

Otherwise, I'm disappointed by the lack of differentiation here. The S8+ gets the same scores on benchmarks as the S8. The speaker has the same volume. The cameras and radios are the same. When I've given the Editors' Choice to the bigger version of a phone in the past, it's been because of some key design or feature difference—not just because it's bigger. The Galaxy S7 Edge has Samsung's signature curved glass, which makes it stand out over the standard S7. The iPhone 7 Plus has distinctly better dual cameras than the iPhone 7. The S8+ is just... bigger.

See How We Test Phones

The lack of additional features may be a nod toward the upcoming Galaxy Note 8, which will likely be even larger and have an S Pen, as well as other potential new features. Samsung has confirmed the existence of the Note 8, but no details about it. That said, I'm comfortable assuming it's going to look a lot like a slightly bigger S8+ with additional functionality. Big phone fans may want to wait for that device, which I assume is coming this fall.

I may sound a little lukewarm on the Galaxy S8+, but that's just because I can only name one of them our Editors' Choice. The S8+ suffers from a bit of the middle child problem that the iPhone 7 does, trapped between an eminently pocketable little sibling (the iPhone SE) and a more capable big sibling (the iPhone 7 Plus.) With the Galaxies, like the iPhones, this year I recommend going small or going really big, unless the size of the S8+ specifically appeals to you.

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