Nearly a year after the first smartphones with 18:9 screens[1] debuted at MWC 2017[2], nearly every manufacturer has jumped on board. This kind of design started out as a novelty, quickly became trend, and is now pretty much a mainstay of smartphone design. It isn't any surprise, since this is the first time in a very long time that phones have looked any different, and people do feel like they're getting something better and more modern. Phones with 16:9 screens, (and heaven forbid, actual buttons on the front) do now seem old-fashioned.
Samsung[3] gained an early lead with its Galaxy S8[4] and Galaxy S8 Plus[5] (Review[6]) at the beginning of last year (though it went with 18.5:9 which it calls "Infinity Display[7]") and then released the Galaxy Note 8[8] (Review[9]) six months later, but didn't seem think the rest of its range deserved the update. Meanwhile, its competitors were clambering over themselves to make sure they didn't fall behind the curve. Over this past year, we've seen dozens of new 18:9 phones launching across the price spectrum. The most notable example of that is OnePlus[10] rushing to replace its barely five-month-old OnePlus 5[11] (Review[12]) with the 5T (Review[13]), just to make sure it didn't cede even the slightest ground[14] to its competitors.
That makes today's review subject all the more interesting - the new Galaxy A8+ (2018)[15] is Samsung's first non-flagship phone to be graced with an Infinity Display[16], and it's priced to go right up against the OnePlus 5T....