Samsung Electronics Co.’s flagship smartphone Galaxy S8 Plus was rated as the best smartphone by Consumer Reports, a U.S.-based consumer magazine. Korean brands from makers Samsung and LG Electronics dominated the first four in the same ranking.

According to industry sources on Wednesday, Galaxy S8 Plus smarphone topped Consumer Reports’s smarphone ratings with a score of 82. The Korean tech giant’s other smarphone models Galaxy S8 ranked the second and Galaxy S7 Edge the third by scoring 82 and 77, respectively. LG Electronics’s G6 and Apple Inc.’s iPhone 7 Plus made the fourth and fifth by a fraction while scorning a rounded number of 77.

Galaxy S8 Plus is user-friendly and “excellent” for sending messages, browsing webs, taking selfies, and is better than its predecessor S7 series, observed Consumer Reports. The magazine had picked Galaxy S7 as the best smartphone last year.

Samsung Gear S3 Frontier was also named the best smart watch by the Consumer Reports with a score of 93. The magazine’s second-best pick was Samsung Gear S3 Classic.

Samsung’s Gear S3 smart watches are great for health and fitness tracking, said the magazine as it picked the device’s mobile wallet, smartphone locator function and wireless charger as features that add strength to the smart watch.

Apple Watch 2 Stainless Steel Case ranked the third and LG Watch Style ranked the fourth.

Shares of Samsung Electronics finished Wednesday at 2,268,000 ($2,016.90), down 0.09 percent from the previous session. LG Electronics shares closed up 0.12 percent at 85,900 won.

By Seo Dong-cheol

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]