When many people talk about the newly launched Blackview S8 as a Samsung Galaxy S8 clone, I understand how they want to bury this phone and this brand. Maybe the company has made it with some similarities with the Galaxy S8 in mind, but if compared with the latter the Blackview S8 will have no chances. Thus it’s completely unfair to say this is a Samsung S8 replica. Why I tend to think so is related to the facts there are a couple of outstanding features coming with this phone, and we should focus on them more if we want to assess its real value objectively. Say, have you heard it comes with a quad-camera or there is a glass body? I guess no. So let’s forget the Blackview S8 is a Samsung Galaxy S8 clone, and think of it as a good-looking ultra-budget phone with a couple of really worthy selling points.

Blackview S8 Appearance

When talking about the look of this handset, many target its 5.7-inch screen with an 18:9 screen ratio. Moreover, most of the reviewers 鈥榝orget’to mention it provides only an HD resolution. Thus this screen is not that eye-catching as you can think. But on the other hand, it occupies about 90% of the front panel, which is very close to the Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 result. At last, the phone is covered with a 2.5D arc glass as well as protected with a Corning Gorilla Glass 4 to avoid all kinds of scratches and accidental drops.

In this sense, it’s more important to mention the Blackview S8 comes with a double-quad-curved design. This simply means all the edges on front and back are curved. So regardless your palm size as well as the dimensions the phone comes with, it will fit in your hand comfortably. Plus, the manufacturer has rounded the corners a lot to make it even better in terms of ergonomics. I really appreciate this design and think it’s the best phone of the company when it comes to design.

Apart of this, the body of the phone is made of glass, which means there are not antenna ribbons on the back panel. Do not look for U-shaped or T-shaped antenna design. The phone’s rear panel is blank. Such a design allows the company to make it from a single piece, which increases the phone’s build quality level. Moreover, the frame is made of metal. So the Blackview S8 looks like a premium flagship.

The only complaint refers to the fingerprint scanner, which is placed on the back. I guess the company has acted in this way because it narrowed the upper and lower parts on the front so much that no fingerprint scanner could be located there. As you know, there is no finished under-glass fingerprint technology yet. On the other hand, the newly launched Huawei Mate 10 comes with an identical design, and the number 1 company in China has risked putting a very narrow home button with a fingerprint identification below the screen.

Anyway, the back also carries a dual-camera using a 13+0.3MP sensors combination. It’s not difficult to guess such a camera module has been designed with only one goal in mind ’provide the much-liked bokeh effect when the background is blurred to bring the main/focused object to the very front layer. However, the same camera sensors are on the front. So you can get blurred-background selfies as well. the large sensors carry a model number of Sony IMX258 that comes with an aperture of f/2.0 and wide angle lens.

Actually, this phone can’t be compared with 鈥榬eal’dual-camera phones such as the Xiaomi Mi Note 3 . But it can compete with many front dual-camera devices such as Gionee S10 or Oppo F3 Plus.

As for the interfaces and holes on the Blackview S8, we can say the front camera is placed above the screen along with a speaker, sensors, and a flashlight. As usual, the power button and the volume rocker are on the right side.

What surprised us more is the 3.5mm audio jack removal. The company has decided not make an additional hole for it and offers you to use a USB to 3.5mm Jack output cable for this deal. It’s included in the box. The bottom side carries a USB Type-C port placed between two speaker grills. By the way, as the frame is made of metal, you can notice two plastic ribbons for better single transmission.

Another antenna ribbon is on the top. Next to it, we can see the microSD card slot.

That’s not difficult to guess, the left side is absolutely blank.

At last, the Blackview S8 comes with dimensions of 154 x 71.9 x 8.5 mm and weighs 190 grams. In comparison to the Galaxy S8, which comes with 148.9 x 68.1 x 8 mm and 155 gram, the S8 looks larger. However, there is an interesting trick made to grab more customers’attention. The Blackview S8’s back panel has been made using an exquisite draft technology. So when it is put under the sunlight, the back panel will reflect gorgeous and delicate stripe. Something like that has been seen on the Xiaomi Mi 6 . But the most popular devices with such an effect are the Nubia Z17S and Z17 miniS . The latter differs from all other color options due to the manufacturing process ’it requires up to 2524 processes to complete the adjustment. It’s also the first in the market that uses a 3D curved design with a gradient coloring. There are three color options to choose from ’magic black, silk gold, and coral blue. I guess blue is the most popular color for smartphones this year. Will Meizu use this chance to sell more Blue Charm line devices?

Read: Blackview S8 Unboxing

Blackview S8 Hardware

Let’s make a deal. This device doesn’t come with a super-powerful and high-end hardware. But what we’ll find under the hood is enough for regular daily tasks. Well, the Blackview S8 is packed with a MediaTek MT6750T octa-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz. Want to surprise more? All phones launched with the S8 title and coming our way from Chinese more or less popular brands are packed with this chip. The MT6750T can be found on the Homtom S8 , Meiigoo S8, Leagoo S8, Bluboo S8, and others. So we should dig deeper to understand what’s so great about skating, anyway.

The MediaTek MT6750T SoC is a mid-range mobile processor integrates 8 ARM Cortex-A53 cores consisting of 4 high-performance cores clocked at up to 1.5GHz, plus 4 low-power cores clocked at up to 1GHz each.

The Cortex-A53 is the successor to the Cortex-A7 and introduces 64-Bit support (ARMv8-ISA). Its performance-per-Watt is significantly higher and is even slightly ahead of the old Cortex-A9. If utilizing all 8 of its cores, the Cortex-A53 can rival competing mobile processes in the high-end class range. However, no practical software has been specifically coded to use all 8 cores at such high-performance levels. However, the chip is still manufactured in 28nm process node and so power efficiency is not on par with modern 14/16nm chips. The MT6750T is also paired with a GPU of ARM Mali-T860 MP2 (two clusters) clocked at up to 650MHz. There is also a 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM (up to 833MHz) and 64GB of ROM.

All these aforementioned features don’t make us wow. But this SoC integrates a Cat. 6 LTE radio modem (FDD/TDD, DC-HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, CDMA2000, EDGE) with both 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth. On the modem side, the MT6750 covers the worldwide 4G spectrum and enables an advanced 4G LTE Cat-6 (LTE FDD/TDD R11) features with 2x Carrier Aggregation with capability for VoLTE, ViLTE, VoWiFi, RCS Fast data transfers: up to 300Mbps downlink & up to 50Mbps uplink. Legacy networks compatibility: DC-HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, EDGE, CDMA2000 1x/EVDO Rev. A (SRLTE).

Apart of this, the MT6750T comes with an enhanced photographic experiences via electronic image stabilization (EIS), zero shutter delay or gesture shutter, laser and hybrid auto-focus support and advanced ISP capable of photo and video HDR (iHDR). Though the Blackview S8 sports two flashlights on the front and back, this chip is compatible with RWWB sensors for excellent low-light performance.

The Bottom Line

As I said, the Blackview S8 shouldn’t be considered as the Samsung Galaxy S8 clone. Of course, it looks like that phone. But there are too many great features and design elements we should focus on. Thought its screen resolution isn’t what we wished to say, the front side of the phone looks amazing with the 2.5D arc glass and Gorilla Glass 4 protection. The dual-camera on the front paired with a flashlight promises to provide the way selfies than many other smartphones in the niche. The back is awesome as well. It uses glass as the main material. Thanks to a special technology it comes with a gradient coloring under the sunlight. The dual-camera module on the back looks attractive as well. Of course, it can’t compete with the rumored OnePlus 5T that will come with a 20+20MP dual-camera, but it’s still great to have two sensors on the back. Regardless the shooting quality it will provide the much-liked bokeh effect. Apart of this, the company has canceled the 3.5mm audio jack like a few top manufacturers and high-end models. But it includes a corresponding cable for those who prefer to listen to music via regular earphones. Generally, the box content of the Blackview S8 is stunning. It includes the phone itself, earphones, USB cable, screen protector, OTG cable, manual, the aforementioned earphones adapter, phone holder, and a TPU case. Finally, the phone provides a nippy performance. It would be na茂ve to think the Blackview S8 would come with the latest MediaTek processor, Helio X30, or the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. So the MediaTek MT6750T is sufficient. Moreover, it comes with great connectivity options that are the key features of this chip. Attention, do you know how much this phone costs? The Blackview S8 is available for only $169.99. Amazing, isn’t it?