Samsung Galaxy S8's new home button is its most innovative feature

Samsung finally unveiled the Galaxy S8 to the world a few days ago and it has set the tech world on fire with its stunning design and 'Infinity' display.

The launch of the Galaxy S8 marks an extremely crucial and pivotal time in Samsung Mobile's history. The device has to be embraced warmly by customers and not face any problems or issues if the company hopes to restore its position and reputation in the market, which took a big dent due to the Galaxy Note 7 debacle.

While everyone is talking about the Galaxy S8's stunning new 'Infinity' display with a 18.5:9 aspect ratio, Iris Scanner, face recognition and Bixby, there is one more feature of the S8 which is not receiving the attention it deserves.

The last few years have seen almost every major Android manufacturer ditching physical keys for on screen buttons. From the first Galaxy S smartphone in 2010, all the way to the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 in 2016, Samsung has doggedly stuck with a physical home button on its smartphones.

All that has changed with the Galaxy S8, with the company finally embracing on screen buttons. Like every other Android smartphone out there, the S8 features a bar of three buttons - back, multitasking and home on the bottom of the screen.

But where Samsung's implementation differs from the rest is the fact that the company has made the home button pressure sensitive in a bid to aid the transition from a physical key to a virtual on screen button.

Samsung has finally embraced on screen buttons with the Galaxy S8

A somewhat similar approach was seen in the iPhone 7 last year, in which Apple replaced a physical button with a force sensitive capacitive button. This new static button uses Apple's taptic engine to stimulate the feeling of a click.

Samsung's approach however takes things a step further. Users can push the bottom of the screen to activate the home button even when a full screen application is covering the three button overlay. This is a very clever move in our opinion and does away with one of the single biggest drawbacks of on screen buttons - the need to always bring up the three button array in full screen apps in order to use the home button.

Another area where Samsung's implementation scores big over Apple's is the fact the headphone jack did not have to die to make way for the pressure sensitive home button as in the iPhone 7. One of the main reasons cited by Apple for ditching the headphone jack (apart from 'courage') was to accommodate the new updated taptic engine.

This decision to ditch the physical home button, with all of its positives has led to some compromises as well. The fingerprint sensor had to be relocated to the back in order to accommodate the 'Infinity' display and pressure sensitive home button. While we have seen several perfectly usable implementations of rear mounted fingerprint scanners on smartphones such as the Google Pixel and LG G5, Samsung's placement is odd and un-ergonomic.

Users can push the bottom of the screen to activate the home button even when a full screen applications is covering the three button overlay

Instead of placing the smartphone below the camera lens (in the middle of the back panel), Samsung has decided to place it right next to the rear camera on the right hand side. Not only is it difficult to locate blindly, its proximity to the camera lens will surely lead to a lot of smudges and fingerprints on the camera lens over time.

Samsung is relying heavily on the fact that people will eschew the fingerprint sensor in favour of their new Iris scanning and face recognition technologies in the Galaxy S8. However a lot of early reports have claimed that the Iris scanner is not as convenient as a fingerprint sensor and the face recognition can be fooled easily with a picture.

So there are a few caveats that come with the new home button placement but all in all, in our opinion, this is a great move and is the best implementation of on screen buttons we have ever seen on a smartphone. All Samsung needs to do is fix the location of the fingerprint scanner in the Galaxy S9.

Galaxy S8 specifications

The Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ are powered by Qualcomm's latest flagship processor - the Snapdragon 835 in the U.S, Japan and China and the 3GHz Exynos 8895 processor in other regions including India alongside 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage expandable via a microSD card (up to 256GB).

The only difference between the two smartphones is their display and battery sizes. The Galaxy S8 comes with a WQHD+ 5.8-inch display and a 3,000mAh battery, while the Galaxy S8+ features a WQHD+ 6.2-inch display and a bigger 3,500mAh battery. Both smartphones come with fast charging and wireless charging support.

On the imaging front, both smartphones come with a 12MP 'Dual Pixel' camera at the rear with an aperture of f/1.7 and laser autofocus alongside an 8MP front facing camera with an aperture of f/1.7.

Additionally, both smartphones come with IP68 dust and water resistance, Samsung Knox, Samsung Pay, 4G LTE support and earphones tuned by AKG.