The day is finally here. After months of rumours, Samsung is all set to unveil its Galaxy S8 at its Unpacked event in New York today. Before we get into the details, Samsung Galaxy S8 already has a pretty high standard to beat and after the Note 7 debacle, Samsung’s Galaxy S8 has to be perfect. Further, rumours have it that the South Korean giant might also reveal a bigger sibling named the Galaxy S8 Plus. So what’s all the fuss about? Let us first brief out the specifications.
Samsung Galaxy S8
>>5.8-inch QHD+ Super AMOLED display
>>4GB RAM | 64GB of internal storage
>>12-megapixel dual Pixel rear camera | 8-megapixel front camera
>>IP68 Dust and Water Resistant
>>Iris Scanner, Secured by Samsung Knox, Samsung Pay,
>>3.5 mm Headphone jack, wireless charging
>>Android Nougat
>>Battery: 3000 mAh
>>Bixby Personal Assistant
Samsung Galaxy S8+
>>6.2-inch QHD+ Super AMOLED display
>>4GB RAM | 64GB of internal storage
>>12-megapixel dual pixel rear camera | 8-megapixel front camera
>>IP68 Dust and Water Resistant
>>Iris Scanner, Secured by Samsung Knox, Samsung Pay,
>>3.5 mm headphone jack, wireless charging
>>Android Nougat
>>Battery: 3500 mAh
>>Bixby Personal Assistant
What Else?
The main highlight of this year’s Galaxy S8 is the EDGE to edge curved display. Similar to what we saw with LG, Samsung is expected to fit in a 5.8-inch display in a relatively small frame which is apparently evident from the image leaks recently.
Another notable highlight is Bixby, which is Samsung’s own AI-based personal assistant. Samsung’s Executive Vice President, Head of R&D, Software and Services – InJong Rhee recently went on record and explained every bit of company’s upcoming AI-powered voice assistant. Rhee claims that – “When an application becomes Bixby-enabled, Bixby will be able to support almost every task that the application is capable of performing using the conventional interface (ie. touch commands).” unlike other current voice assistants which can perform an only limited number of tasks inside an app. Moreover, Bixby will also handle multiple versions of same commands even after taking in fairly large amount commands. To minimise confusion, Bixby will be smart enough to understand commands with incomplete information and execute the task accordingly.
Apart from this, we have had rumours which claimed the upcoming flagship to capture slow-motion videos at up to 1000 frames per second. Samsung is expected to embed a DRAM chip physically to the rear camera module. Further, Samsung is also expected to put an iris scanner which would be much stronger and with a dedicated 3.7-megapixel RGB sensor, which approx. half the size of the front-facing camera (8-megapixel). Also, we expect the China variant of the device to boast 6GB of RAM instead of 4GB.
Price
Although the price is never finalised until officially announced by the company, here is what rumours have to say so far. The Galaxy S8 is expected to be priced at EUR 799 (approx. Rs. 56,200), the elder sibling i.e. the S8+ at EUR 899 (approx. Rs. 63,300) whereas the new GearVR is expected to come at a price of EUR 129 (approx. Rs. 9,000). Further, the new Gear 360 will be priced at EUR 229 (approx. Rs. 16,100) and DeX, which is probably an accessory that could provide a Continuum-like called will be priced at EUR 150 (roughly Rs. 10,500).
Where to watch the Live Stream?
If you are not in New York, don’t worry as Samsung will be live streaming the event on its official website. The event kicks off at 11 AM EDT (8:30 PM IST). Watch the Live Stream on
Samsung Website
Samsung Mobile Facebook
Samsung Electronics Facebook
When is it coming to India?
Well, given the past record, Samsung generally brings its flagship in India sooner than later, however, giving a date right now would be unfair. As a guess, we expect it to be sometime in May 2017.