The day that all of you had been waiting for is finally here. Samsung took to the stage in New York City today to officially confirm the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ specs and release date. The company says that its flagship pushes the boundaries of traditional smartphones with its seamless hardware design. It comes with multiple new services and apps to truly open up a galaxy of possibilities for users.
As expected, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are available in 5.8-inch and 6.2-inch sizes respectively. The bezel-less display with its impressive screen-to-body ratio has been christened Infinity Display. It's a smooth, continuous surface with no harsh angles or buttons to provide users with a truly immersive viewing experience.
The new flagship has the same metal and glass build that we've come to expect from Samsung flagships. The Galaxy S8's compact design makes it very easy to use one-handed and with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on both the front and back, users can be assured of its durability as well.
Measuring 148.9 x 68.1 x 8.0 mm at 152g and 159.5 x 73.4 x 8.1 mm at 173g respectively, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ offer similar specifications. Both are powered by the same 10nm processor which might either be the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 or the Samsung Exynos 8895 depending on the market, have the same 4GB RAM and 64GB UFS2.1 storage, 12-megapixel f/1.7 Dual Pixel rear and 8-megapixel f/1.7 Smart autofocus front camera. They offer the same 2960×1440 Quad HD+ display resolution.
The Galaxy S8 is IP68 water and dust resistance, has microSD card support up to 256GB, features fast wired and fast wireless charging capabilities, supports simultaneous device-to-device tethering and Wi-Fi connectivity as well as an Always-on Display which lets users check the time or view important notes without having to wake up the display.
Samsung introduced the iris scanner to its flagship smartphone lineup with the Galaxy Note 7 and it has brought it over to the Galaxy S8 as well which also features a pressure sensor. It also happens to be the first smartphone to have support for Bluetooth 5.0. All of this technology is powered by a 3,000mAh and 3,500mAh battery on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ respectively. It runs Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.
Samsung already confirmed last week that its new virtual assistant Bixby will make its debut with the Galaxy S8. The company says that Bixby will help users get more out of their phone. The Galaxy S8 has a dedicated hardware Bixby button with which the assistant can be summoned and be used to control various functions with just voice commands.
Bixby will initially be integrated with several Samsung native apps like Camera, Contacts, Gallery, Messages and Settings before it's expanded to more native apps and even third-party apps in the near future.
The Galaxy S8 ships with new high-performance earphones tuned by AKG by Harman. They offer a comfortable hybrid canal fit for improved noise cancellation and are made form anti-tangle metal-fabric material.
Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S8 is going to be released in Europe on April 28. It will be sold in a variety of colors, including Midnight Black, Arctic Silver and Orchid Gray colors. Availability will vary by market so it may come out sooner in markets like Asia and North America.
What do you think of Samsung's new flagships?
