Following months of speculation and anticipation, Samsung unveiled its gorgeous Galaxy S8 flagship a few weeks back on March 29 in a special event in New York City.
After three weeks of accepting pre-orders, the company is finally ready to begin shipping the S8 to global markets, starting with a limited release in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico and South Korea, with many more countries to come “in the weeks ahead.”
While the standard Galaxy S8 will retail at $725, the plus-sized S8+ will be available at the price of $825. Safe for the difference in screen size – 5.8 and 6.2 inches respectively – the two devices are virtually identical. You can browse through the full list of specs here.
Samsung was expected to debut its much-touted Bixby smart assistant, but the company later clarified the virtual helper will only ship with limited functionality at launch. The remainder of the features will roll out in a software update scheduled for later this spring.
Earlier this week, Samsung was embroiled in a tiny mishap after a small number of Korean customers, who received their pre-orders early, complained their devices’ screens were affected by a mysterious red tint. The phonemaker was swift to explain the red tint has nothing to do with hardware and can be fixed by adjusting the device’s screen settings.
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Meanwhile, the first batch of reviews are praising the Galaxy S8 as one of the best smartphones to enter the market in recent years.
Update: TNW has since discovered that Samsung has been pre-maturely shipping its handset to some lucky customers in the Netherlands who pre-ordered the device early. Still, Samsung claims the device is yet to officially retail outside of the four countries mentioned above.
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