Samsung Galaxy S8 is finally here. After rounds of speculations and leaks, the South Korean smartphone makers finally unveiled their new flagship smartphone on Wednesday. It is undoubtedly the most important launch for the company following the Galaxy S7 debacle which put a big dent on the reputation of the brand in the market.
Galaxy S8 comes in two variants, Samsung Galaxy S8 with 5.8 inch display and Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus with 6.2 inch display. Both the phones' most eye-catching design is the almost bezel-free free display which covers the full width of the device, a feature that the company is calling to be the "infinite display". It also curves around the edge similarly like that of Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
The screen, with a resolution of 2960*1440 pixels on both models, is also the first on a smartphone to be rated as Mobile HDR Premium, reported The Guardian.
Samsung Galaxy S8 is the first ever smartphone to sport the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip, the latest and the most advanced processor by Qualcomm. It will boast a 4 GB RAM and 64 GB flash storage, which can be expanded to 256 GB with microSD card. Samsung Galaxy S8 runs the latest Android 7.0 (Nougat) as its operating system.
Mostly similar two variants of Galaxy S8 have another difference other that the display size. While the larger variant sports a 3,500 mAh battery the smaller version stores 3,000mAh.
The camera in Galaxy S8, however, remains largely similar to that of Galaxy S7 – a 12 MP rear camera with optical image stabilisation and an 8 MP front camera. Both have an F1.7 aperture.
Samsung Galaxy S8 sports biometric lock types, such as, Iris Scanner, Fingerprint Scanner and Face Recognition. The fingerprint sensor is situated right beside the camera on the back side of the device.
This is going to be the first smartphone by Samsung with Bixby, the very own AI assistant of the company. However, for now Samsung has only confirmed that Bixby will be launching support for Korean and US English, which means it might just not work if your device is set to a different language. Samsung has also announced that US English will launch a month after the Korean version. On both the variants there is a devoted button for Bixby on the left side of the phone, which will open the agent so that the user can speak a command.
It indeed retains the other notable features, such as the water resistant body to the IP68 standard and wireless charging.
Pricing starts at $750 for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus is $100 more expensive. The phones will be available from April 21 in selected markets and it will be available in the Singapore market around the same time only.
Point to note: Best Buy will offer buyers up to $100 off the Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+ when they preorder the handset from BestBuy.com or in Best Buy retail stores, including the Samsung Experience Shops. Verizon is here with another exciting pre-orderer offer. Here customers can choose between two additional options: 1). The new Gear VR controller and Oculus content bundle for free, or 2). the Experience Box, which includes the aforementioned free bundle plus a pair of Harman Kardon headphones and a 256GB microSD card, for $99.
Along with the new smartphones, Samsung has also unveiled and updated a number of related products.
Samsung DeX: Samsung has announced its Dex Dock, which can turn Galaxy S8 into a desktop computer. It also lets users add a mouse, keyboard and monitor to the phone.
New Gear 360: Samsung has updated its 360 degree camera Gear 360. It is now able to take videos in 4K resolution and also can livestream 360 degree videos instead of just recording them for later.
Gear VR: Already teased at last month's Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Samsung formally unveiled its updated Gear VR headset. In addition to adding compatibility to the new S8 phones, the new Gear VR includes a controller in the box. It'll be a free add-on for initial S8 preorders, reported CNET.
