Here’s Everything You Need To Know About Samsung’s New Galaxy S8
The Korean tech giant's latest flagship smartphone has been revealed.
By John Lim — 30 Mar 2017, 01:09 PM
It's the moment many Android fans have been waiting for. Samsung has finally unveiled its latest flagship device - the Galaxy S8 - yesterday, 29 March.
The handsets were showcased in New York City at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on 29 March.
For starters, the device comes in two models with different screen sizes: the 5.8-inch Galaxy S8 and 6.2-inch Galaxy S8 +
They're much larger than last year's Galaxy S7 and S7 edge devices, which were 5.1 and 5.5 inches respectively. However, the devices' edges are curved on all four sides, which makes them seem smaller than they actually are.
On the outside, the device includes a so-called "infinity display" which gives it a bezel-less look
In order to achieve the look, Samsung has removed the physical home button to put it underneath the display, as well as moving the fingerprint scanner to the back of the device.
Because of its edge-to-edge design, full-screen videos look great on it. It also incorporates the mobile HDR standard, which means that videos will appear on the Galaxy S8 the way filmmakers intended them to.
Unlike the iPhone 7, the 3.5mm headphone jack is still there (hallelujah). There's also an addition of another button on the phone, which will take you to Bixby - Samsung's version of Siri.
Bixby will apparently let you do everything from controlling Samsung home appliances and third-party apps to search for objects in pictures and process payments with your voice.
Another cool feature is that Bixby is able to "see" using the phone's camera. For example, if you point the camera at a piece of furniture, Bixby will use computer vision through Pinterest to find out where you can buy it.
Depending on regions, Samsung will utilise either a Snapdragon 835 or their in-house developed Exynos 8895 processors, with 4GB of RAM
Storage wise, it comes with a minimum of 64GB which can be expanded further via a microSD card.
Right out of the box, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is running on Android Nougat, with the latest version of the operating system offering things like Google Assistant to the user, as well as improved battery management.
The handset has retained the 12-megapixel camera from its predecessor. As for the front shooter, it has been boosted to 8-megapixel.
On top of that, it has an IP68 rating, which means it is water resistant to a maximum depth of 1.5m for up to 30 minutes, and is protected from dust, dirt and sand without the need for extra caps or covers.
Similar to previous flagship models, the Galaxy S8 and S8 + are powered by a 3,000mAh and 3,500mAh battery respectively
There's also a full suite of wireless charging compatibility. Fast charging is also enabled through the Qualcomm Quick Charge feature.
Leveraging the processing power of the Galaxy S8 for enhanced productivity, Samsung has also introduced the Samsung DeX - a dock which lets you expand the smartphone into a desktop experience
Here's how it works - place the Galaxy S8 into DeX, which is then connected to a desktop monitor, wireless keyboard, and mouse. The Galaxy S8 and S8+ will then provide a reworked UI for you to utilise on a desktop.
The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus will be available starting on 21 April, and will be offered in a rich colour palette including Midnight Black, Orchid Gray, Arctic Silver, Coral Blue and Maple Gold
The smartphone will also come bundled with AKG earbuds. AKG is known for making products with great audio quality, so this should be an improvement over the earphones that have traditionally been included in the box with Galaxy phones.
For more information, head over to Samsung's official website here.