Samsung S8 was launched last night, March 29 local time, and most of the rumored specs were true. As Samsung’s mobile chief DJ Koh said, it is marked “a new era of smartphone design” and it certainly is.
There are 2 variants of the phone, the S8, at 5.8 inches and the S8+, at 6.2 inches, but both phones support a Quad HD+ Super AMOLED screen with a pixel density of 570ppi and 529ppi respectively. Both units also share an infinity display, meaning, both are bezel-less, full-frontal, edge to edge screen. The phone comes with IP68 water and dust resistance. The phone can withstand being submerged into 1.5 meter of water for 30 minutes.
Both phones’ cameras have a 12MP-Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) for its rear end and an 8MP with auto-focus front selfie cameras. Both rear cameras of the two variants also have support for RAW format, which make your handy smartphones into your own professional shooter. Both run Android 7.0 Nougat.
Samsung’s S8 may come with an octa-core (2.3GHz Quad +1.7GHZ Quad), 64 bit, 10nm processor or an octa-core (2.35GHZ Quad +1.9Quad, 64 bit, 10nm processors. This means your phone will run and perform at its snappiest. You may receive a different version depending on your region. The smaller S8 version packs 3000mAh battery and the bigger one at 3500mAh, which can last up to 1 day or so, for light to moderate usage.
The S8 comes with a 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage which is expandable up to 256GB. It has a hybrid sim tray, one for your nano sim card and one for your microSD card. Both phones also come with Qualcomm’s wired fast charging and wireless charging.
One distinct feature of this phone is a level up to one’s security. Aside from the traditional fingerprint scanner and PIN codes, the phone packs an additional security layer with its iris scanner and facial recognition. The now defunct Note 7 first saw these technologies but were pulled out due to battery issues. Aside from these functions, the new S8 comes along with the new Bixby, Samsung’s version of Microsoft’s Cortana and Apple’s Siri. Samsung claims that their artificial intelligence companion gets smarter as you use the phone.
Samsung’s S8 and S8+ comes to the Philippines on May 5 according to Ivan Pua, product marketing head at Samsung Philippines. The smaller S8 is priced at 39,990PHP and the larger 6.2 variant at 45,990PHP. Pre-orders are available starting April 17 until April 29. The Philippines will be getting 3 colored variants, midnight black, maple gold and orchid gray.
As of posting, Samsung Thailand has not announced its launch date and pricing.
