This year’s successor to the famous flagship Galaxy S series – The Samsung Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ have gone official and these two handsets give us enough reason to keep pondering about them.
These two devices have managed to instantly grab the attention of all the tech enthusiasts worldwide with their high-end specs and newly included features. To take a brief before proceeding with the details, these two handsets feature ultra-sharp Quad HD display, wireless charging feature, Samsung’s own newly introduced Bixby Virtual Assistant and a lot more.
So before we proceed with discussing each and every detail associated with the two handsets, take a look at the Official Introduction for the two flagship Samsung smartphones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=D8Ert5yjMV4
Table of Contents
Design
These two new Samsung flagship handsets come with a very elegant design by introducing the new bezel-less display with tall screen frames and elegant curved edges to its sides and the corners. As the screen bezels smoothly flush towards the side edges, Samsung calls the handset to be having an “Infinite Display”.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 has got a larger 5.8-inch display while the bigger variant Galaxy S8+ comes with a 6.2″ display. Both the handsets have got Samsung’s own Quad HD Super AMOLED display with an ultra-high resolution of 2960 x 1440 pixels. Both the devices have no physical buttons on the front face as Samsung has nicely flushed the Home Button within the screen display itself.
And before you get sad regarding the removal of the fingerprint sensor, Samsung has countered this security measure by using and iris scanner sensor at the top of the handset.
Also, the fingerprint sensor is going nowhere but just a repositioning to the back face at the side of the primary camera. This, however, might not come much handy as it is quite possible that users might end up touching the camera lens often while approaching the fingerprint sensor.
The back of the two handsets is completely made of textured glass in order to support wireless charging for the devices. The curved edges of the handset are thick enough to have a firm grip and to host the volume rocker as well as a special button to trigger Samsung’s own newly introduced Bixby Virtual Assistant.
Camera
Talking a bit about the camera for the two devices, the handsets come with a 12MP primary shooter with f/1.7 aperture with better and refined image processing abilities. The Galaxy S8’s camera sensor come with Dual-Pixel Technology for better autofocusing and regular PDAF solution. The front or the secondary camera has an 8MP resolution which comes with features like face detection autofocus.
Samsung says that it has put a special attention to the camera software of the two handsets to deliver excellent performance in low-light conditions using the built-in HDR mode. Also, the camera app has got some newly added filters and stickers as found in other popular third-party apps like Snapchat.
Hardware and Software
The two handsets have got some very powerful internal as the Galaxy S8 is run by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset for the US models. While the handsets in other countries will be sold with a built-in Exynos 8895 chipsets. Both of these chipsets and made with the 10nm designs that would deliver better battery performance and enhancements.
Looking to many other flagships and especially with the large size of the two handsets, the battery capacity is a bit less impressive. The Galaxy S8 hosts a 3000mAh of battery capacity while the S8+ has got a 3500mAh of battery capacity.
The memory options for the two handsets include a 4GB of RAM and a 64GB of ROM memory. Additional storage for the two handsets could be expanded using a microSD card slot.
At the software side, the two handsets come with Android 7.0 Nougat skinned with Samsung’s own UI, TouchWiz and some of the new features introduced under Samsung Experience. This includes improvements in UI, better-looking and uniform icons, and others.
The onscreen buttons at the bottom, include the Home Button at the center, the back button on the right and the recently used app list button onto its left. Yes, this is opposite to most of the Android handsets and the stock Android UI.
Samsung DeX Station
This is one of the completely new accessories that Samsung has announced with along with the two handsets. The Samsung DeX Station turns the two handsets into portable workstations wherein you can connect these two handsets to a large screen desktop and enjoy even better productivity.
This compatibility feature lets you use the two handsets as PC machines wherein using a keyboard and a mouse, you can access apps, files, edit documents, browse the internet as well reply to the messages on your smartphone.
The Samsung DeX Station can be connected to your desktop via HDMI port and itself comes with a USB 2.0 port, USB Type-C port, Ethernet and a cooling fan. It has got a built fast charging technology to charge your Galaxy S8 much faster.
Pricing and Release Date
The Samsung Galaxy S8 is priced for $750 while its larger variant is priced for $850. The official launch of the two handsets will take place on April 21 but the pre-order for the handset will start on March 30th where the company is giving away an additional bundle of Gear VR headset with controller and AKG branded smartphones for free.
However, this offer is available in few select markets only across the globe. The handset comes in five colour options as shown in the below image.
Stay tuned for getting update about the pricing in India and hands on review!
