According to Samsung, the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ comes with seamless hardware design and a variety of new services, which pushes the boundaries of traditional smartphones.
“The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ usher in a new era of smartphone design and fantastic new services, opening up new ways to experience the world,” said DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics. “The Galaxy S8 and S8+ are our testaments to regaining your trust by redefining what’s possible in safety and marks a new milestone in Samsung’s smartphone legacy.”
Availability
Both, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ will be available starting April 21st. The smartphones will be offered in following colour options ‒ Midnight Black, Orchid Gray, Arctic Silver, Coral Blue and Maple Gold.
Samsung has revealed that both the smartphones will be available for pre-order in the U.S. starting March 30, 2017, at 12:01 EDT. All major carriers including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless along with Cricket Wireless, Straight Talk Wireless, and U.S. Cellular will carry the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+.
Talking of pricing, Samsung has priced the Galaxy S8 at $750 (Rs. 48,664 approx.) and the Galaxy S8+ will cost $850 (Rs. 55,134 approx.).
The devices will also be available at Best Buy stores and its website, ShopSamsung app, Target and Walmart, in the U.S. As an introductory offer, Samsung is offering a Gear VR with Controller and Oculus Content to those who pre-order a Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+.
Samsung is including high-performance earphones tuned by AKG by Harman inside the box of the smartphones. Also, a 256GB memory card and Bluetooth headphones by AKG will be available for $99, as a limited edition premium bundle.
According to PhoneRadar's latest tweet, Samsung will be launching the Galaxy S8 and S8+ in India on May 5th.
Design
Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ has a stunning design. The devices come with, what Samsung calls, Infinity Display. The Infinity Display gives a bezel-less look to the smartphones with a continuous surface and no buttons or harsh angles. "This results in immersive viewing experience without distractions and makes multitasking more convenient," says Samsung.
If you look at the smartphone design, you will notice only three things, the upper and lower bezels, and huge 5.8-inch or 6.2-inch curved display. The bezels on the top and bottom of the display are minimal, which enables comfortable one-handed operation besides having such a huge form factor.
Samsung has removed its highly popular home button, found below the screen, and has replaced the same by pressure-sensitive on screen buttons. This pressure-sensitive button acts similar to Apple's home button but Samsung claims its tactile feedback is better. (You can even say that the Galaxy S8 and S8+ comes with invisible home button :P )
One of the most important features of the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ is Samsung's, Bixby.
Bixby is an intelligent interface by Samsung, that will help users get more out of their phone. Samsung has included a new Bixby button onto the left side of the device via which you will be able to conveniently access Bixby and navigate through services and apps with simple voice, touch, vision and text commands.
Samsung has integrated Bixby's Voice functions in its several native apps and features like Camera, Contacts, Gallery, Messages and Settings. Samsung plans to expand its capabilities to more Samsung and third-party apps in the near future.
Using Bixby, users can shop, search for images and get details about nearby places with Bixby’s image recognition technology. Bixby will power Samsung's Internet of Things.
Samsung DeX, or call it Samsung Desktop eXtension, is a unique solution from Samsung that transforms your smartphone into a desktop by providing a secure desktop-like experience, much like Windows Continuum.
Samsung DeX is a hardware device which comes with full-sized HDMI port, 2 USB 2.0 ports with an USB-C port for charging. On plugging the Galaxy S8 smartphone on the DeX station, you will be treated with a custom desktop interface on the monitor with support for running multiple apps, resizing windows and more.
Samsung has interconnected the Galaxy S8 and S8+ features with DeX for a better experience, as DeX uses biometric authentication on the S8 smartphones to log in. Samsung has included a fan inside the DeX station to keep the phone cool during workloads.
The DeX station also features Adaptive Fast Charging (AFC) technology to charge your Samsung smartphone quickly while connected. According to Samsung, the DeX station will be available globally with the Galaxy S8 and S8+ and may be offered as a packaged bundle depending on the region.
The Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ differ in screen size and battery capacity, rest everything remains similar to both the smartphones. The Galaxy S8 has a 5.2" display, whereas the Galaxy S8+ comes with a 6.2-inch display. Battery-wise, the prior has 3000mAh battery and the latter supports 3500mAh battery.
Talking of specifications and other features, the smartphones comes with Super AMOLED display with a wide aspect ratio of 18.5:9, and has a resolution of 2960 x 1440 pixels. The screen comes with HDR10 support and is also Ultra Dynamic Range certified.
The Galaxy S8, as always, will be available in two different processing options - one will house Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 SoC, and the other will come with Samsung's in-house Exynos 9 series 8895 processor.
You can read complete in-depth specifications of Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8+ below:
- 5.8-inch (S8) / 6.2-inch (S8+) Quad HD+ dual curved Super AMOLED display with pressure sensitivity
- 2.3GHz Octa-Core 10nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 with Adreno 540 GPU / Samsung's Exynos 9 Series 8895 processor with Mali-G71 GPU
- 4GB RAM (6GB RAM in some markets)
- Android 7.0 Nougat with Samsung Grace UX
- 12MP rear camera with LED flash, laser autofocus, f/1.7 aperture, OIS, dual pixel phase detection autofocus, multi-shot image stacking, 2160p/30fps video recording
- 8MP front-facing camera with auto-focus, f/1.7 aperture, 1080p/30fps video recording
- 64GB (UFS 2.1) internal storage with up to 256GB microSD card support
- 3000mAh (S8) / 3500mAh (S8+) battery with Fast Charging on wired and wireless
- S8 – 148.9 x 68.1 x 8mm | 152g
- S8+ – 159.5 x 73.4 x 8.1mm | 173g
- IP68 water and dust resistance, fingerprint sensor, iris scanner
- Dual SIM, 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), Bluetooth 5.0, ANT+, GPS / GLONASS, USB Type C, NFC, 3.5mm headphone jack
- Black, Orchid Grey, Silver, Blue, Gold Colours
- Samsung Pay, Samsung Health, Samsung Connect, Bixby, Samsung DeX, Samsung KNOX
To be updated...