If Samsung’s new flagship smartphones aren’t blingy enough for you (even in their golden color variants), and if you have enough money to burn, you should have a look at Legend’s 24K gold-plated, diamond-studded Galaxy S8 and S8+.
The Helsinki, Finland-based brand has developed a new way to cover the Galaxy S8′s glass back as well as its metal sides with 24K gold. The company will also add VVS1-grade diamonds around the Samsung logo at the back.
The company has priced the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ at €2790 and €2890, respectively. However, if you want to spend even more, the company’s designer will help you add a custom logo, hand engraving, and even exotic leather to your device.
It’s Friday, so it’s time for another edition of Watchface Friday! For those unaware, every Friday, we highlight a selection of our favorite watchfaces for the Gear S3 classic and Gear S3 frontier. All of the offerings are available to download through the Galaxy Apps Store, so you can rest assured that you won’t have to search all over the Internet to find something we’ve listed.
We publish a lot of stories on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the majority of news breaks during our European hours of operation, which makes it difficult for our readers in the US (and other regions) to keep up. However, we think we’ve come up with a fantastic solution — a daily recap.
Samsung Display, the world’s largest smartphone OLED panel manufacturer with more than 95 percent market share, is looking to expand its market share even further. The company will reportedly start the production of its seventh-generation smartphone OLED panels soon, while competitors are still trying to focus on sixth-generation OLED display panels.
An analyst told The Investor that Samsung’s new A4 production line will start manufacturing seventh generation OLED panels for smartphones as early as Q2 next year. The company will reportedly add foldable OLEDs, chip-on-plastic OLEDs, and 4K (800 ppi) OLED panels in its arsenal to keep its dominating position for years to come.
“Its smaller rivals will be catching up with Samsung in production volume of sixth-generation OLED panels in the coming years. Samsung is likely to turn its eyes to the larger seventh-generation OLED panels for better productivity,” Yi Choong-hoon, CEO of display research firm UBI Research, said in a recent report.
Sprint has today kicked off a BOGO deal on the newly-launched Galaxy S8. As part of the promotion, customers can snag themselves two handsets for the price of one for just $31.25 per month. The offer is available for both new and existing customers from April 21 through April 27, but they’ll need to activate a new line to be eligible.
The operator is also offering those interested an opportunity to enrol in the Galaxy Forever program, which makes it possible to upgrade to the latest Galaxy smartphone any time after 12 consecutive lease payments — so if you’re looking to pick up the Galaxy S9 (yes, Samsung’s already started working on it) when it launches, it’s in your best interest to sign up.
After waiting for what felt like an eternity, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ have finally launched. Although, Samsung’s claiming the handsets are only available in four markets — Canada, Korea, Puerto Rico and the United States — but that’s not technically true, as customers all over the globe started receiving pre-orders as early as Wednesday.
For those in need of a refresher, the Galaxy S8 sports a 5.8-inch Infinity Display, an Exynos 8895/Snapdragon 835 processor, a 12MP rear-facing camera, an 8MP selfie shooter and a 3,000mAh battery. The Galaxy S8+, on the other hand, packs almost identical internals, with the main differences being it has a larger 6.2-inch screen and a 3,500mAh cell.
The Galaxy S8 or S8+, which were officially launched today, come with a newer user interface with improved icons and a lot of new features. One of those features is the Important Call feature in its dialer app. When you want to let the other person (the callee) know that you need to talk to them urgently, you can activate this option through the dialer app.
When the Important Call feature is activated by the caller, the callee can see the Important Call tag in front the caller’s name. The person will then know that it’s an important call, so they won’t miss it even if they’re in a meeting. The Important Call tag also shows up in the call log section. However, this feature just works between two Galaxy S8/S8+ devices as of now.
For a limited time only, you can pick up a 128GB PRO Select microSD card for $81.91 (9% off). What’s neat about this promotion is that it’s available worldwide, so folk in both the UK and US will be able to take advantage of the unit’s snappy transfer speeds for the reduced price.
Like the sound of 128GB PRO Select microSD card and want to bag yourself one? Simply hit the Buy Now button below. We advise you to hurry, though, as Amazon only has a very limited amount of inventory available for this specific deal, and once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Samsung has just announced that it has partnered with Google to offer a free three-month subscription of Google Play Music to owners of the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+, and the Galaxy Tab S3. In addition to streaming music and podcasts, users can also upload and stream up to 100,000 songs (twice of what’s available for general users) from their offline music collection to their Google Play Music accounts. It will also be the default music player on all the Android devices launched by Samsung in 2017.
Users can listen to music, free curated radio, and smart music recommendations based on their preferences, mood, or occasion. Besides, Galaxy S8, S8+, and Tab S3 owners can also watch ad-free music videos on YouTube Red (where available) during the trial period. This is Samsung’s effort to cut down on duplicate apps that coincide with Google’s offerings. Of course, you can download and install Samsung’s music player from the Play Store or the Galaxy Apps store. The company killed its Milk music streaming service last year.
Samsung started crafting gorgeous smartphones right from the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, and continued to improve the hardware design even further with the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. However, the company used to ruin its design efforts in a way by slapping carrier logos on the devices. However, that seems to be changing this year with the Galaxy S8 and S8+.
The Galaxy S8 and S8+ look nothing short of gorgeous, and they will also be the first Samsung smartphone to be launched in the US without any additional carrier branding (at least on the four big networks). This is akin to Apple’s iPhones which do not feature any form of carrier branding, be it their logos or any additional software or apps. Samsung has even removed its own logo from the front of the Galaxy S8 to make it look even better.
In comparison, the LG G6 still has carrier logos on its back. The next big step for Samsung would be to stop carriers from putting any of their apps or splash screens on its smartphones. Even better, it would be brilliant on Samsung’s part to roll out software updates to carrier variants of its smartphones from its own servers.
The Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ are officially launching today in the US, but only the carrier variants are available for purchase. Those who are planning to buy the unlocked variant of one of these smartphones in the country will have to wait for a bit longer. However, they can place pre-orders starting today.
Customers in the US can place preorders for unlocked variants of the Galaxy S8 ($829.99) and S8+ ($929.99) through B&H, and the shipments will begin next month. Best Buy had previously mentioned that it would start selling the unlocked Galaxy S8 and S8+ from May 9 for $724.99 and $824.99, respectively.
According to ZDNet, Samsung will distribute a software update for the Galaxy S8 to fix an issue that some early adopters have been experiencing, which resulted in a slight reddish tint appearing on the handset’s display.
The upgrade will reportedly regulate the color balance of the device, restoring the white tones, while also increasing the color range that users can choose should they want to manually tweak the appearance of their Galaxy S8′s screen.
Much to our dismay, a Samsung spokesman failed to provide an exact release date for the update. Although, media outlets in South Korea expect it to start making the rounds next week.
When the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ got announced, Samsung confirmed what the leaks had already told us, that the company’s new phones would be shipping with rather small batteries for their respective screen sizes. Like me, many had probably wondered how the battery could be smaller now that it had to power bigger displays. But I decided to give it a try, even though Samsung’s official stats said that in terms of battery life, the new phones wouldn’t be much better than their predecessors, with the S8 even having lesser endurance in most respects compared to the Galaxy S7.
Again, I decided to give it a chance, and I used the Galaxy S8 for a couple of weeks before our review was published. Well, guess what? Battery life didn’t turn out to be so good. The Galaxy S8+, tested by my colleague Martin, certainly managed to return respectable battery life, but even that was on Wi-Fi and not on mobile data. But hey, why should I, or any of us here at SamMobile complain? We’re paying over 800 Euro for a device that can barely offer 4 hours of screen time on a full charge, unless I turn off things like AOD or even automatic screen brightness. Or, to put it in other words, paying so much for a device that doesn’t even match its direct predecessor in terms of battery life and falls way behind Samsung’s mid-range phones like the Galaxy A (2017) lineup.
It’s not to say I don’t love the Galaxy S8. I like what Samsung’s offering here. That display is beautiful, the camera has gotten notably better (my girlfriend is especially happy about the selfies), and I even think that iris scanner is awesome (if a little slow at times). But why has battery life taken a backseat? Why is such an important feature still neglected? They say we want phones with sleek designs and large displays, but shouldn’t the battery inside these devices be large enough to be able to power those displays comfortably?
Samsung has made so many jokes about Apple and how iPhone users are “wall huggers,” and that is exactly what the company turned its users into with the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, and now, will do the same with the Galaxy S8 and S8+. It’s like every time Samsung innovates with its displays and design, it puts battery life on the low priority list. Wireless charging and fast charging, which are great features in general, can’t make up for the fact that I must worry about taking a battery pack along or be judicious with how I use my phone when I’m out and away from a wall socket.
The newest Galaxy A lineup costs around 500 Euro, and from our experience on at least the A5 and A7, we can see that battery life is way better than any flagship Samsung phone. How and why is this a thing (not just with Samsung, but with other manufacturers as well)? Galaxy A lineup users don’t get all the fancy features, but they can still live free of fear that their phones will run out of juice at any moment.
I would say slim designs and beautiful displays are important, but if a flagship can’t even offer 4 hours of screen time in this day and age, it’s almost tantamount to a slap on the consumer’s face. Like Samsung itself said, we’re living in a display-centric world, so why are our displays so handicapped by poor battery backup?
Samsung has taken to its official YouTube channel to share three short promotional videos for the Galaxy S8, showcasing the handset’s gorgeous Infinity Display. We have to say, the clips are actually pretty neat and do a great job of building excitement for the device’s release later today.
