Galaxy S8 could be big win for Samsung
Samsung took NEW YORK the wraps off a premium smartphone that it hopes will at long last get you to stop talking about that other smartphone. Two premium phones, actually.
The highly anticipated new S8, and its larger sibling the S8+, are fast, sturdy, good- looking curved glass and aluminum phones, with 64GB of expandable storage, large and stunning displays ( 5.8 inches and 6.2 inches, respectively), iris scanner, water and dust resistance, and a new artificial intelligence assistant named Bixby. It’s all packed in a relatively compact design. They’ll cost around $ 720 on up.
While the S8 and S8+ carry some of the same DNA found in that other device — the Note 7 phablet that badly burned Samsung’s reputation and coffers — Samsung is counting on the fact that none of the shared genes will cause its latest flagships to literally catch fire.
The shame of the whole Note 7 fiasco was how well- received the phone was reviewed by folks like me, weeks before the battery flaws surfaced.
Now that I’ve gotten to touch and feel the S8 and the S8+, my expectation is the new phones will engender praise, too, though I haven’t been able to take the phone home for a more thorough review.
Samsung points out that the devices underwent the rigorous eight- point battery safety test that it put in place in the aftermath of the Note debacle, the same test it has been advertising on television. Suffice to say, the company has no margin to mess up again.
Samsung started taking preorders Thursday. The new phones will go on sale April 21. Folks who preorder get a free version of Samsung’s new Gear VR headset, including its new controller and some Oculus content. The S8 will start around $ 720; the S8+ around $ 840. After the promotion, Gear VR ( including the controller) will cost $ 129.99. You can also buy the controller as an accessory for $ 39.99.
uThe basics: The first thing that gets your attention is the design: Samsung has managed to produce a symmetrical curved glass form factor with a phabletsized 5.8- inch display on an S8 that is thinner, narrower and just a tad taller than the S7 that it replaces. That’s even more remarkable when you consider that the S7 had a 5.1- inch display and a halfmillion fewer pixels. The weights are comparable.
For its part, the S8+ has a 6.2- inch screen; its predecessor, the S7 Edge, had a 5.5- inch display. Both phones still offer secondary content on the curved edge of the display. Samsung accomplished this by dramatically reducing the size of the bezels, following the path taken by Korean rival LG on its own recent flagship, the G6. The physical home buttons on the S8 phones have been removed in favor of pressure- sensitive buttons that reside beneath the screen. The screen- to- body ratio — that is, the percentage of the front of the phone that’s taken up by the screen — is over 83% on both new devices.
The phones will come in five colors globally, three in the U. S.: a silver, a black and gray. Samsung will include AKG earbuds, made by Harman, a company it is in the process of acquiring.
As with its predecessors, the S8 devices are water- and dust- resistant — and yes, a handset survived when I dropped it into a tank of water. These are not, though, ruggedized phones that you’d want to intentionally drop onto a hard surface.
The phones run Android 7.0 and include 64GB of onboard memory, expandable through optional memory cards. Inside are octa- core processors which should make the phones plenty snappy. The phones have big batteries and connect through USB- C. You can wirelessly juice up with an optional charger.
One carrier, T- Mobile, says the new Galaxy will be the fastest phone on its network. uCameras: The rear camera on both phones is a 12- megapixel dual pixel shooter with optical image stabilization and an F1.7 aperture. Samsung says image processing has been improved, leading to shots with less blur and less “noise.” I haven’t yet been able to put the cameras to the test. The front- facing 8megapixel camera has also been bolstered, Samsung says. uBixby: Samsung says that the goal for Bixby is that whatever you can do with touch, you can do with voice. On the phone, you might utter commands such as, “Turn blue light filter on,” or “Send the last photo to my spouse.” Bixby will presumably comply.
With the S8 and S8+, Samsung may have indeed produced the smartphone it so desperately needs to regain consumer trust.
“This is a journey. We’re rebuilding the brand,” Samsung Electronics America president Tim Baxter says.
I’m looking forward to putting the new devices to the test.