VIDEO Samsung unveils Galaxy S8
Koh Dong-jin, president of mobile communications business at Samsung Electronics, shows off the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus during an “unpacked” event at the Lincoln Center in New York, Wednesday. Samsung will accept preorders for the smartphone from next month in Korea and the United States. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics
By Kang Seung-woo
NEW YORK ― Samsung Electronics unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8, Wednesday (local time), as it seeks to redeem itself after the Galaxy Note 7 recall fiasco.
The new handset delivers new design innovations, represented by a bezel-less infinity display, while also offering cutting-edge technology, including its digital assistant Bixby.
The Seoul-based tech giant held an S8 “unpacked event” at New York’s Lincoln Center.
The Galaxy S8 will be available starting April 21 and will be offered in a rich color palette ― Midnight Black, Orchid Gray, Arctic Silver, Coral Blue and Maple Gold.
“The Samsung Galaxy S8 ushers in a new era of smartphone design and fantastic new services, opening up new ways to experience the world,” said Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung’s mobile communications business.
“The Galaxy S8 is our testament to regaining your trust by redefining what’s possible in safety and marks a new milestone in Samsung’s smartphone legacy.”
The S8 is Samsung’s first flagship phone since the company was compelled to discontinue the Note 7 two months after its launch last year due to battery fires issues. As a result, Samsung lost its leading position and fell to fifth in the Asia-Pacific smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to U.S. market research firm Strategy Analytics in a February report.
The new high-end phone comes in two sizes: the standard S8 with a 5.8-inch display and a larger Galaxy S8 Plus with a 6.2-inch screen.
The 18.5:9 infinity display with a nearly all screen design forms a smooth, continuous surface with no buttons or harsh angles, leading to a truly immersive viewing experience without distraction.
Despite the large screen, the S8’s compact design enables comfortable one-handed operation and the use of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on both the front and rear boosts durability and a high-quality finish, according to Samsung.
In addition to the new design innovations, Samsung showed off the Bixby, an intelligent interface that it believes will help users get more out of their phone.
With a dedicated button on the side of the device, users will be able to conveniently access Bixby and navigate through services and apps with simple voice, touch and text commands.
Bixby’s voice function will integrate with several of Samsung’s apps and features, including camera, contacts, gallery, messages and settings, with a plan to expand its capabilities to include more Samsung and third-party apps in the near future.
Contextual awareness capabilities enable Bixby to offer personalized help based on what it continues to learn about the user’s interests, situation and location.
Users can also shop, search for images and get details about nearby places with Bixby’s image recognition technology.
“As the Bixby ecosystem grows, it will connect across devices, apps and services as a ubiquitous interface, and open up new experiences and scenarios to simplify life,” Samsung said in a statement.
The artificial intelligence assistant is not the S8’s lone technology to impress users as it also features enhanced biometric security, and an advanced camera among others.
The S8 offers a wide selection of biometric technologies by adding facial recognition to a fingerprint sensor and an iris scanner.
The handset is equipped with an 8-megapixel smart autofocus front camera and a 12-megapixel dual pixel rear camera for the best low-light, zoom and anti-blur photos, with enhanced image processing. Packing a powerful performance and connectivity, the Galaxy S8 features the industry’s first 10-nanometer processor, enabling heightened speed and efficiency. It is also gigabit LTE and gigabit Wi-Fi ready, with support for up to 1 Gbps, so users can quickly download files regardless of their size.
Along with the S8, Samsung also showcased a new Samsung Gear 360 and Samsung DeX to the audience.
The former is a 4K resolution-capable 360-degree camera and the latter allows people to link their smartphones to an external display and use it like an Android-based desktop with keyboard and mouse.