Samsung launches ‘largest’ Galaxy S8
NEW YORK: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled its Galaxy S8 flagship smartphone as it battles to regain the market leadership it lost to Apple Inc after the withdrawal of the fire-prone Note 7s.
Boasting some of the largest wrap-around screens ever made, the long-awaited S8 is the South Korean tech giant’s first new premium phone since the Note 7 debacle in October, which wiped out $5.48 billion of profit and helped Apple overtake Samsung as the world’s top smartphone maker in the fourth quarter.
Two versions of the Galaxy S8, code-named Dream internally, were launched on Wednesday, with 6.2-inch (15.75 cm) and 5.8-inch curved screens —the largest to date for Samsung’s premium smartphones.
The phones, which will go on sale on April 21, are little longer but comparable in width to their predecessors as Samsung has eliminated nearly all of the bezel borders around the face to maximise the screen surface area.
The S8 features Samsung’s new artificial intelligence service, Bixby, with functions including a voice-commanded assistant system similar to Apple’s Siri. There is also a new facial recognition application that lets users unlock their phones by looking at them.
Samsung is hoping the new features will be enough to revive sales in a year Apple is expected to introduce major changes to its iPhones for their 10th anniversary, including the very curved screens that have become staples of the Galaxy brand.