Liyo Kikon
The Samsung s8 launch event happened on 29th Mar 2017 and they had a ton of awesome new stuff to show off along with their flagship device. Here’s a look at what Samsung is gonna come up with in the next few months.
Galaxy S8:
The much awaited Galaxy S8 has finally been unveiled and it really is a beautiful device with a screen which is oh-so big that the entire device looks like one large screen in a small body. Samsung announced that there will be two models – the S8 which will sport a 5.8 Inch display and the S8 Plus which will come with a 6.2 Inch screen. Like the S7 edge, the S8 also comes with a display which curves on the side, giving it a bezel-less appearance and this display smoothly blends into the aluminium shell on the side. Samsung claims that this is the first mobile device with a Mobile HDR Premium certification, what this means is that you will be able to watch HDR (High Dynamic Range) content from sources such as Amazon Prime. The S8 has a larger display and it has been stretched both upwards and downwards, even covering the home button. Yes, they got rid of the home button to make room for more screen but apparently, the home button is still there “behind the screen”, sure we can clearly see that they are talking about on-screen buttons, but it seems that on pressing the home button, users will “feel” like they are actually touching a real button with tactile feedback, I guess we’ll have to wait and see what that’s like. As for the colours, the S8 will come with 5 different choices – the Midnight Black, Artic Silver, Maple Gold, Coral Blue and Orchid Gray so you can customise it as per your style. The Camera on the S8 is almost the same as as the one on the S7, but it has a dual pixel sensor and multi frame processor which will combine multiple photos to create one clear image. But aside from that, it is rather disappointing to see that neither the s8 nor the s8 plus will have a dual camera, although the phone is now equipped with a much faster processor which is supposedly 10% faster than the S7 and it has 21% higher GPU processing power. The S8 will come with a 3000mAh battery and the S8+ will have 3500mAh. The one thing which was pretty cool about the S8 is the new wireless charging pad, unlike the older wireless pads, it can be tilted up for better visibility while charging, I know this may not sound like a big deal to some, but if you have used wireless charging, you will agree that being able to tilt your phone up while charging is indeed a big deal. The S8 will also come with iris scanner and face recognition to securely lock your device or you will be able to use the standard fingerprint sensor, which has been moved to the back of the device. Fans of the Samsung Galaxy mobile series will be able to purchase it from April 21st onwards.
Bixby:
Voice recognition is becoming a trend these days and Samsung has decided to join the voice game with Bixby. Bixby is a voice recognition software which understands context, what this means is that when you are on a screen and press the ‘Bixby’ button, you can say things like “capture this” and it will automatically capture the screen. But that’s not all, with Bixby, you can point your camera at a certain object you would like to purchase and it will automatically search for that object online. I doubt that this feature will work in Nagaland, but hopefully we will be able to see it in a few years or less. Much like Google Now, you can swipe to the left on the Bixby screen to get a contextual personalised page which anticipates your needs and updates accordingly, so the more you use Bixby, the more it will understand your routine and be an even more efficient assistant and since it supports third party apps, we can only hope that it will get better and better with future updates.
New Gear 360:
This new 360 degree camera from Samsung is a sleek device which shoots 4K (4096×2048 at 24fps) video and it has a live broadcast feature so that you can broadcast your content directly to Youtube or other sources. It is a beautiful device and extremely portable with just a few basic buttons to power on the device and to start and stop recordings. You can easily add picture effects using the app and with the f2.2 dual fish eye lens, you can be assured that the picture quality will be beautiful even though it is only 15 Megapixels.
Samsung Dex:
If you are a hardcore mobile user and want to use your mobile as a desktop for some reason, then the Samsung Dex is the way to go. It is a small dock which will sit on your desk and connect your keyboard, mouse and monitor via the ports on its back and when you want to use it, all you have to do is simply place your phone on the dock and your phone will instantly become a full fledged android desktop. The software has been customised to resemble a standard desktop which is capable of multi tasking and basic office work but other companies such as Motorola and Microsoft already have similar devices and for some reason, people were never too keen on using it, I guess we still have ways to go until a mobile can actually replace a desktop.
