Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ unveiled

Samsung has unveiled their flagship smartphone for 2017 . The S8 and S8+ - the successors to last year's S7 and S7 Edge handsets are now officially here to reclaim Samsung's smartphone dominance which was somewhat tarnished by Samsung's Note 7 fiasco last year, therefore in a way , Samsung is not only competing against rival manufacturers with the S8 , but also with itself as it tries to set the past right with the latest iteration .

Display and Design

Samsung always had an "edge" when it comes to display technology and this year they have done it again as both models are now fitted with a curved display with a 18.5:9 aspect ratio which has enabled Samsung to squeeze in more display real estate onto the S8 and S8+ without increasing the phones overall footprint - this has also enabled Samsung to ditch their home button and the two capacitive leys in favor of software keys which can be customized to your liking . The screen sizes and resolutions of the S8 and S8+ are as follows

Both phones come with a resolution of (2960x1440)
S8 - 5.8” (570ppi)
S8+ - 6.2” (529ppi)




Design wise , Samsung has kept most of its design elements from previous galaxies(courageously including the 3.5mm headphone jack in the process as well) , but due to the new curved display , the company has moved the fingerprint reader to the back (right next to the camera ) ,so therefore the only pieces of hardware at the front are proximity and iris scanner sensors , the 8MP front facing camera , a recessed speaker grille and thats it - no Samsung branding is present on this phone (except for the back that is ) .

At the back of the phone , you still get the somewhat S7 design elements here and there ,and this includes the 12MP rear camera as well . The phone also has the fingerprint sensor at the back and thats about it . Towards the sides of the phone , you get a metal frame which houses your USB type C , speaker ports , headphone jack , power and volume as well as a dedicated key for Bixby - Samsung's latest "personal assistant" software .


Hardware

Samsung like in previous years has kept the Exynos line active in their flagship products and this year is no exception . The European Asian and Middle eastern versions (EMEA) models of the S8 will come with Samsung's Exynos 8895 SOC - Octa core (2.3GHz Quad + 1.7GHz Quad), 64 bit, 10 nm process and Mali G71 MP20 graphics while the U.S versions will come with Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 835 Octa core (2.35GHz Quad + 1.9GHz Quad), 64 bit, 10 nm process with Adreno 540 GPU . Both models will come with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage which can be expanded via MicroSD card slot .

Camera wise , the phone features a 12MP main camera sensor with OIS . This camera sensor is a 1/2.5" module and it has a 26mm (35mm equivalent ) lens and a aperture of f1.7 - close to Samsung's excellent snapper in the S7 last year in many ways . The camera records 4K at 30fps and supports HDR video as well .Up front , we have a 8MP front facing camera also with a f1.7 aperture and autofocus . If you were holding up for some Dual camera action with the S8 , then chances are that Samsung's next note will probably have that .

Battery wise , both models will feature similar capacities as last year , but in a bid to ensure safety from spontaneous combusion , Samsung has assured that the phones have passed a  rigorous inspection phase when they were mated to their 3000 mAh (s8) and 3500 mAh (s8+) batteries . 


Software

This is where Samsung is said to make a few changes to its version of Android 7.0 Nougat . The new Samsung UX , which has embraced more of the the roundish iconography from last year is now focused on minimal tile like designs and flatter colors . The biggest change to Samsung's version of Android is the addition of Bixby - which is basically their latest attempt at a siri/google assistant rival . Sitting at the side of your phone , Bixby can be activated by a press of the dedicated button and activated to search for almost all your assistant needs(setting up reminders , taking a photo of a object to search or buy it online )  .Bixby however is still somewhat new to the assistant trend so most users may prefer Google's native Now assistant instead .

Dex is another software feature which is unique to the S8 , this , which requires a special dock (like Microsoft's ) can turn your phone into a chrome os on a desktop like experience by allowing your phone to render apps in a large format . This is however mostly a novelty feature as most apps excluding Google and Microsoft apps do not take full advantage of the scalling feature just yet .




Pricing

With smartphones becoming more powerful and more fashionable to own , the price these devices demand is probably going to rise every year and the new S8 and S8+ are no exceptions to that . The
S8 is expected to cost $750 and about $850 for the S8+ .Both models will be available on all leading carriers in the u.s and launched elsewhere in unlocked prices mentioned above .



Written by Rakitha for MasHD

Press/Samsung