Curious About The Samsung Galaxy S8 And S8+? Get Acquainted.

Return of the king.

As the elder Wayne taught the not-yet-a-superhero Bruce, “Why do we fall?”, remember what he said said next?
”So that we learn to pick ourselves up”.

Well, someone has picked themselves again, kicking and thrashing their way to progress.

Just like Wayne Manor, Samsung was gutted with fire tests after Galaxy Note7’s volatile exit from store shelves across the globe. Then, with charges of nefarious involvements in South Korea, Samsung’s foundations were almost uprooted.

But now, with the release of it’s newest flagships, the Galaxy S8 and its bigger counterpart the Galaxy S8+, Samsung seems to have reinvented itself. While it did already seamlessly blend together technology and perfection, it’s added a new element into it’s wares — pragmatism.

The phones (they’re actually both phablets) don’t feel like run-on-the-mill phones. Both of them fill your senses like that supercar you dream about. Never before in the field of smartphones, has a phone been so beautiful.

On the “smaller” Galaxy S8 (we can’t really believe we’re using that adjective for a 5.8 inch screened device, either), a large Super AMOLED Quad HD+ display curves around the edges like a beautiful windshield meeting the metal sides, and then curving again, as the rear glass completes the device. It’s the same with the Galaxy S8+, the bigger brother of the two, with 6.2 inches of glass.

So proud is Samsung of these devices, and so sure of their identifiability that they’ve even foregone putting the brand name on the front of the device.

Interestingly, the biggest achievement from Samsung is that the some magic they’ve cast on the screens — a new aspect ratio (18.5:9) allowed Samsung to shoehorn in big screens into bodies the size of the Galaxy S7's! The S8 is narrower than the S7’s, despite having a bigger screen! In fact the Galaxy S8+ is a complete shocker — it’s just about as wide as the Galaxy S7, but has a much bigger screen. Both devices thus tend to be taller than the outgoing glag.

As is usual with Samsung’s flagships now, they’ve decided to go with different processors in different regions. In Asian markets, Samsung is using its own Exynos 8895 chipset, whereas in the models headed to the U.S., they’re going with Qualcomm’s latest, the Snapdragon 835.

That said, the name don’t really matter — Samsung’s packed a tiger in the tank. The RAM is the same as on the Galaxy S7–4 GB; and both the new phablets come with 64 GB of internal storage that can be reinforced with an additional 256 GB of external memory.

The processors are going to be more efficient and kinder towards the battery as compared to other chips (since they’re made on the newer manufacturing process for chipsets).

The surplus battery can be used to power a desktop experience called DeX, which is basically a dock that enables the S8 duo to be used to power a monitor for a full-screen experience — much like Microsoft’s Continuum. The intent is to have this separately-sold dock convert the phone into a mini PC. Equipped with two USB-A ports and an Ethernet Connector, the experience is interesting.
Despite this piggy-backing by the screen and external keyboard etc., the processors allow no lagging to occur. Samsung’s apps too, resize according to your use between the phone and the monitor. If you are being adventurous, then you can stream your actual Windows desktop too! I won’t say that this can replace your desktop, but this is the best that stand in the middle.

As for hard external details, the visuals are eye-catching — the edges of the screen are almost invisible because of the borderless curved display. The fingerprint scanner is curiously placed next to the camera button from where you can comfortably smudge your camera again and again. So it might be tricky; but the facial and iris recognition are fast enough (more on that in our detailed reviews for the devices).

The phones come with IP68 dust and water resistance up to 30 minutes — so you can be a little cavalier with the handling, but don’t go deep!

I’m not going to cover every bit of the hardware and software mix that the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus carry — I’ll leave that to our detailed write-ups for the devices. I only want to let you know about the things that has the world worked up into a frenzy, at this time.

Apart from the details, the launch event for the phone left out two things — the prices and the availability dates.
Estimations are already rolling. In India, the phones can be expected to crank a mean INR 50,000 for the S8, and upwards of INR 60,000 for the bigger S8+.

The release date is supposed to be April 21st in the U.S., but India might have to wait a little bit.

We also don’t know if us Indians would get the Gear VR headset with Samsung’s new wireless controller and an Oculus game pack for free, as the preorders in U.S. are receiving, but I’m pretty sure, Samsung would have something fairly for for us, the world’s second largest smartphone market, too.

It is Samsun’g vehicle for their redemption — and no one is taking it lightly, least of all, Samsung.

Originally published at Chip-Monks.