Samsung has officially unveiled the latest addition to Galaxy premium range, the Galaxy S8 at its Unpacked 2017 event in New York. The company has also unveiled the Samsung Galaxy S8+ with both the flagship devices going on sale starting on April 21, and will be offered in Midnight Black, Orchid Gray, Arctic Silver, Coral Blue and Maple Gold colours.
Samsung has showcased its in-house voice-based virtual assistant named Bixby which will debut with the Galaxy S8. Bixby is set to take on other voice-based virtual assistants powered by artificial intelligence including Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa. The Galaxy S8 will come with a set of pre-installed apps that will work with Bixby.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ will feature iris recognition, which was earlier seen on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 which has been discontinued. The iris recognition feature is simply the scanning of the iris to unlock the phone, verify Samsung account, and much more. Both these devices also include a fingerprint scanner which is now located at the back.
Samsung has also finally introduced its Microsoft Continuum-like feature, Samsung DeX, which will allow users to use the smartphone like a computer by docking it to monitor, keyboard, and mouse. The Galaxy S8 is water-resistant and comes with IP68 certification just like the its predecessor, The Galaxy S7. The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ will run on the company’s UI based on Android 7.0 Nougat.
In terms of specifications, the Samsung Galaxy S8 features a 5.8-inch QHD+ (1440×2960 pixels) Super AMOLED display while the Galaxy S8+ sports a 6.2-inch QHD+ (1440×2960 pixels) Super AMOLED display which Samsung refers to as ‘Infinity Displays.’ Both these devices feature a 12-megapixel ‘Dual Pixel’ rear camera while there is an 8-megapixel front camera on board as well.
Both the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ will come powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 835 SoC. The new Galaxy S8 and S8+ will be powered by an octa-core 10nm processor (four cores clocked at 2.3GHz + four cores clocked at 1.7GHz). Samsung has stated that the Galaxy S8 series will be available in different variants depending on the market.
Both the handsets will boast 4GB of RAM and come with 64GB inbuilt storage while also supporting expandable storage via microSD card (up to 256GB). The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ will also support wireless charging as well as fast charging.
With regards to battery capacity, The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ pack 3000mAh and 3500mAh battery respectively.
The Galaxy S8 and S8+ can also connect to the new Gear 360 to create 4K 360-degree videos and 15-megapixel photos.
The Galaxy S8 measures 148.9×68.1x8mm and weighs 155 grams. The Galaxy S8+ measures 159.5×73.4×8.1mm and weighs 173 grams.
