Samsung finally took the wraps off its latest flagship today, the Galaxy S8, and boy is it a beauty of a phone. It brings the same design elements we’ve seen with the Note 7 and S7 Edge and takes it to a whole new level. We’re most likely looking at the next Android king right here. But what else did Samsung include in the S8?
Design
Samsung rules smartphone design right now. The Note 7 was the perfect smartphone until it caught fire, but the S8 and S8 Plus improve what was an already perfect design. Back are the front and back glass panels, but this time Samsung refined the feel with a more natural and ergonomic curve. The front home button has also been removed to make room for what Samsung is calling an Infinity display. It’s pretty much all display on the front, accounting for 83% of the front panel.
Thanks to the slimmed down bezels, the footprint of the device was minimized. The S8 features a 5.8-inch display while the S8 Plus features a 6.2-inch display. And they’re also 1.5mm thinner than last year’s S7 while keeping the headphone jack. Hi, Apple.
Bixby
Bixby is Samsung’s new intelligent user interface. What does that mean exactly? Well, it means you can now navigate seamlessly throughout your phone with just your voice. Bixby allows it so anything you can do with touch you will be able to do with your voice. It features cognitive tolerance which means it’ll be aware of the context of your request. For instance, you can ask it to “send last picture” and it’ll realize you’re asking it to send the last picture you’ve taken with the camera.
Bixby will also have some of the same features Siri and Google Assistant offer like looking up information on a product or finding reviews for restaurants. Samsung created a dedicated button for Bixby that can be accessed anywhere you are on the device.
DeX
Samsung DeX is a new desktop docking station for the S8 and S8 Plus. This will allow your Samsung smartphone to work with an external display, keyboard and mouse and use it as an Android desktop. All Android apps will work with DeX, but not all offer full screen support. Some of the notable apps that will function with the dock include the Microsoft’s Office suite and Adobe’s line-up of services likePhotoshop.
Biometrics
The new S8 and S8 Plus come equipped with Samsung’s full array of Biometrics—Iris scanner, face detection and fingerprint scanner. The fingerprint scanner was first introduced a few years back with the Galaxy S5, the Iris scanner was first seen on the Note 7 last year, and this year Samsung is debuting face detection to unlock the phone. It’s similar to how Windows 10 detects faces. Just peak your face and it should unlock the phone just as quickly as the fingerprint scanner would. This adds another layer to protect your phone if you didn’t want to use the Iris scanner or the fingerprint reader.
Specs
Samsung is packing its new phones with the latest and greatest specs available. They will be the first to come equipped with the Snapdragon 835 processor and will also come equipped with 4GB of RAM, QHD+ edge-to-edge OLED display, 64GB of storage with SDcard expandability and 12MP cameras. Both devices also come with Samsung’s new touch sensitive area at the bottom of the display that will double as the home button since the physical home button has been excluded.
The S8 will come with 5.8-inch display at 2960 by 1440 resolution (570 ppi) along with a 3,000mAh battery. The S8 Plus comes with a 6.2-inch display with the same 2960 by 1440 (529 ppi) resolution but packs a bigger 3,500mAh battery. Each also comes with an Octa-core GPU (2.3GHz Quad and 1.7GHz Quad), 64-bit architecture and an 8MP front camera with smart auto focus and face detection.
