Samsung unveils Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones

Samsung has unveiled its new flagship Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones, the handsets the vendor is banking on to regain its market dominance after losing ground during the global recall of the Galaxy Note 7.

The Galaxy S8 and S8+ feature a 5.8″ and 6.2″ respectively Quad HD+ (2960x1440) screen, which compares to the 5.1″ 2560x1440 screen found on the Galaxy S7 and the 5.5″ 2560x1440 screen on the S7 Edge.

The Galaxy S7 uses an octa-core processor consisting of four 2.3 GHz cores and four 1.7 GHz cores, while the S7 Edge has four 2.35 GHz cores and four 1.9 GHz cores. The devices both have 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64 GB of UFS2.1.

New features in the devices include iris and face biometric authentication in addition to the fingerprint sensor found in the S7 family; a redesigned user interface with a customisable, always-on display; and a new intelligent interface and virtual assistant named Bixby.

Bixby can be activated with a press of a dedicated hardware button or with a voice command, and supports voice control for apps. The voice control feature allows users to control two apps simultaneously with both gesture and voice commands.

Bixby’s Vision interface meanwhile uses the smartphone’s camera to detect what users are looking at and making it easy to search for contextual information or perform translation and other functions. Bixby also supports other virtual assistant functions including intelligent reminders.

Another new function with the S8 line of smartphones is Samsung DeX, which allows users to access their device’s functions including apps, web browsing and messaging from a larger display including a television without having to carry multiple pieces of equipment. DeX supports keyboard and mouse gestures and is compatible with the Microsoft Office and Adobe mobile app suites.

Samsung’s Knox security platform has also been expanded to support keeping private information encrypted within a secure folder, and the new Samsung Pass, which allows the new biometric authentication functions to be used as verification while logging into mobile banking apps.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ will be available for pre-order from tomorrow and will launch in Australia on 28 April.

In Australia, the S8 will cost $1199 to buy outright while the S8+ will cost $1349. This compares to a base price at launch of $1079 for Apple’s iPhone 7 and $1269 for the iPhone 7 Plus — the S8 line’s chief competitors in the market.