Samsung has officially launched the Galaxy S8 along with the
Galaxy S8 Plus. The Samsung Galaxy S8 launch is the biggest
event the tech giant is hosting since the Galaxy Note 7 saga so, the event was
a highly anticipated one. The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus were billed to be the first smartphones to pack
Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 835 chipset and indeed they were launched with the
powerful flagship chip. But whether you’ll get to buy the Snapdragon
835-powered version of the S8 or S8 Plus will depend on where you live.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 features a design which isn’t
entirely different from its predecessors but it comes with an unusually high
screen-to-body ratio. A large display ensured the traditional home button which
sits at the front of the screen under the display was absent. Instead, the
Galaxy S8 features a virtual home button. The bezels are thin and the display
is a curved one.
The Galaxy S8 sports a
5.8-ich Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2960 x 1440 pixels and 570ppi. The processor
is an octa-core Snapdragon 835 chipset clocked at 2.35 GHz on some version while
there is another version powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 8895 chip also clocked
at 2.35 GHz. The United States will get the Snapdragon 835-powered version while
other international countries would get the Exynos 8895-powered version. China
is said to also get the Qualcomm-powered version but there is no official word
on that yet. Both versions are backed by 4GB of RAM while there is 64GB of
storage onboard which is expandable via a microSD slot.
On the camera aspect, the Galaxy S8 packs a 12MP
rear camera with a f/1.7 aperture, OIS and LED flash and at the front, there is
an 8MP selfie camera with a f/1.7 aperture and autofocus. We are yet to see
camera samples of theGalaxy S8’s camera but we believe it would be a very
powerful setup. Keeping the lights on is a generous 3000 mAh battery which
should do a good job in that regard.
Other features include a USB Type-C port, NFC and
MST for Samsung Pay, IP68 water and dust resistance and yes, it still packs a
3.5mm headphone jack. There is also a wireless charging support as well as Cat.
16 LTE. Others include Bluetooth 5.0 which is capable of streaming to two
devices at the same time and Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac. The Galaxy S8 isn’t too wide
despite its large size, packing a dimension of 148.9 x 68.1 x 8 mm and it
weighs just 155g. The device runs on Android 7.0 Nougat out-of-the-box and also
comes with Samsung’s new Bixby Assistant which is launched by pressing a
dedicated physical button located on the side of the phone.
As for the pricing, Samsung left that out
unfortunately but the Galaxy S8 is expected to start at around US$ 750. Both the
Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus will be up for pre-order as from March 30 while
they will be officially released in the US on April 21. Each pre-order
qualifies you to get a free Gear VR headset with a controller and a set of
games. The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus will be available in black, gray, and silver
in the US while Gold and blue are the options on the international edition.
