Samsung today unveiled the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, its flagship smartphone for 2017 and its first major smartphone launch after the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco last year. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ had already leaked numerous times over the last one month or so and Samsung did not really have any surprises up its sleeve at the launch event of the device.
In terms of design, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ share the same design language as the Galaxy S7 from the rear. This means that we are looking at an aluminium chassis sandwiched between glass panels at the front and rear. The front of the handset is entirely dominated by the bezel-less Quad HD+ Super AMOLED display featuring an 18.5:9 aspect ratio that is curved on its edges. Like the Galaxy S7 before it, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ feature an IP68 rating making them dust and water-resistant in up to 1.5m of fresh water for 30 mins.
The highlight of the Galaxy S8 (and S8+) is its bezel-less Infinity Display at the front. The front of both devices is entirely dominated by their 5.8-inch and 6.2-inch QHD+ Super AMOLED displays. Featuring an aspect ratio of 18.5:9 and a resolution of 2960 x 1440, the displays have rounded corners, with the new aspect ratio making them ideal for multitasking. Thanks to the lack of bezels, both phones are more compact than their display size would suggest. The Galaxy S8, for example, despite coming with a 5.8-inch display is smaller than the iPhone 7 Plus featuring a 5.5-inch display.
Galaxy S8 Specs
The full specs of Galaxy S8 can be found below:
- 148.9 x 68.1 x 8 mm, 155g
- 5.8-inch QHD+ (2960×1440) Super AMOLED display, Always On Display
- Exynos 8895 @ 2.4GHz/Snapdragon 835 (US only)
- 4GB RAM, 64GB UFS 2.1 storage, microSD card slot
- 12MP f/1.7 aperture rear shooter with OIS, Dual Pixel, and 1.4um large pixels, CRI LED flash
- 8MP f/1.7 selfie shooter with Autofocus
- Iris scanner, heart rate scanner, Fingerprint scanner (located at rear)
- Gigabit LTE Cat.16, NFC, GPS, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5, USB-C
- 3000mAh battery, Fast charge support
- Samsung Pay
- Android 7.1 Nougat
- Bixby
The Galaxy S8+ packs largely the same specs as the Galaxy S8 with only some minor changes
- 159.5 x 73.4 x 8.1 mm, 173g
- 6.2-inch QHD+ (2880 x 1440)
- 3500mAh battery
Other specs of the Galaxy S8+ remain the same as the Galaxy S8.
Galaxy S8 Features
The bezel-less design and the beastly specs of the Galaxy S8 are just one part of the equation. The handset also comes with some impressive software features, with Bixby — Samsung’s AI assistant — being the key highlight. Similar to other virtual assistants out there, Bixby will keep you up to date with content like weather, reminders, alarms. Dubbed Hello Bixby, this page will act as a home screen of the assistant. In addition, there is also Bixby Vision that lets you quickly scan an object and search for its reviews and price online. This feature is baked into the camera app of the handset, which can now be opened by double pressing the power button.
The voice aspect of Bixby can be triggered by saying “Bixby” or through the dedicated hardware button on the device. Bixby can also be used to control many of the system settings on the Galaxy S8.
https://youtu.be/D8Ert5yjMV4
Impressively, the Galaxy S8 comes with Bluetooth Dual audio that makes it possible to connect the handset to two Bluetooth headsets/speakers at the same time, and you can also adjust their volume individually at any given time. This feature has likely been made possible with Bluetooth 5, with the Galaxy S8 being the first handset in the world to launch with.
Other features on the Galaxy S8 that were also found on previous Galaxy devices like the Note 7 and Galaxy S7 include iris scanner, Samsung Pay, Secure Folder, Samsung Cloud, Face recognition, and Samsung Pass — which allows you to log into websites by verifying your biometric information instead of asking you to enter your login credentials.
Samsung will also be launching a dock-like accessory for the Galaxy S8 called Samsung DeX a.k.a Desktop Experience Station. After docking the phone into the station, users will be able to hook the device to a TV through the HDMI port to convert it into a full blown PC. The dock will charge the phone wirelessly and feature two full-sized USB 2.0 ports and an ethernet port. To ensure there are no overheating issues, the dock comes with an integrated cooling fan and a power supply of its own.
The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ will go on sale in most markets of the world from April 21, with pre-orders starting from March 30.
