Why you don’t need the fabled 128GB Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus

You don’t need the top spec Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus. Nobody does.

Customers in South Korea and Hong Kong can buy Galaxy S8 Plus with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and many are now calling for Samsung to release this super-charged model worldwide.

You shouldn't hold your breath though. The stock Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus - with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage - is out worldwide and is enough for even the highest of spec-chasing phone fans.

Running the standard S8 Plus through our various review and benchmarking tests, it proved to be one of the fastest phones in the world right now - there's nothing you can throw at it that it can't deal with (in a software sense, don't go chucking bricks at it).

Save your money

With 64GB of storage some music, movies and gaming fiends may feel a little shortchanged, but the S8 Plus also offers an expandable storage option via a microSD slot which supports cards up to 256GB in size. 

Spend around $20 (£15, AU$30) on a 64GB microSD storage card, and you'll be able to boost your S8 Plus space to around the same amount as the 128GB version.

It may be slightly slower to read/write the information on the microSD card, but it's not a particularly noticeable slowdown on a day-to-day basis.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is also one of the most expensive phones on the market, and upping the spec to unnecessary levels means you'd have to spend even more money on it.

To buy the standard Galaxy S8 Plus outright you already need to part with $825 (£780, AU$1,349), and that's only going to rise if Samsung brings the 128GB version to you. 

It may come... one day

There's also no guarantee Samsung will release the phone outside of a handful of core Asian markets, where spec sheets are more important for consumers - and it's not given any indication that a wider rollout is on the cards.

In the middle of April Yonhap News claimed that Samsung was planning to release the 128GB Galaxy S8 Plus in more markets, but it may be that Hong Kong was the sole destination the article was pointing to.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is our fourth best phone in the world right now, while the Galaxy S8 is our favorite. It has that accolade without the need for extra RAM and storage.

It's the extra cost of the Plus that drops it down to fourth place, so if you like the look of the Galaxy S8 Plus and think you can afford it, you should buy it as soon as possible.

The much anticipated higher spec version may be slightly faster, it may have more storage, but it won't be enough to make the extra money and you're going to have to wait A LOT longer, if it ever comes out at all.

James Peckham

James is Managing Editor for Android Police. Previously, he was Senior Phones Editor for TechRadar, and he has covered smartphones and the mobile space for the best part of a decade bringing you news on all the big announcements from top manufacturers making mobile phones and other portable gadgets. James is often testing out and reviewing the latest and greatest mobile phones, smartwatches, tablets, virtual reality headsets, fitness trackers and more. He once fell over.