IT has been dubbed as the smartphone that pushes the boundaries of traditional smartphones with its seamless hardware design and a whole lot of new features.
The new Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, which is the latest innovation in the Samsung Galaxy series of mobile devices, was launched in Fiji last week by long time partners, Vodafone Fiji and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
If you’re an avid follower of the ever evolving tech world, the new devices are seamless in design and features a variety of new service offerings. And while the Samsung brand has been popular among many Fijians, the S8 and S8+ is an eye-cathing mobile device, not only for its sleek tall design but most importantly the new variety of service offerings it features.
But before we delve into the particulars of these new cutting-edge devices, let’s look at the local market and how the Samsung brand has evolved here in Fiji.
According to Samsung’s head of mobile product in the Pacific Islands and New Zealand Todd Selwyn, there has been huge growth in the Fiji market with their businesses up fourfold here in the past year. “Fijians seem to love our devices and we have a huge market share and brand love in this country,” he said in an interview with this newspaper.
“For us, Fiji is our number one Pacific market.”
And with the pre-order demand for the Galaxy S8 and S8+ in New Zealand surpassing all expectations, Mr Selwyn said they had 400 per cent year on year growth, which was their largest pre order ever.
“The demand is unbelievable and we are expecting the success around the world to be emulated here in the Pacific,” he said.
* Premium camera
The Galaxy S8 and S8+ are equipped with an advanced 8MP F1.7 Smart Autofocus front camera and 12MP F1.7 Dual Pixel rear camera for great low-light, zoom and anti-blur photos with enhanced image processing.
* See and experience more
The new devices build on Samsung’s heritage of creating stunning designs and functional devices.
Available in 5.8-inch (Galaxy S8) and 6.2-inch (Galaxy S8+), the infinity display and bezel-less design form a smooth, continuous surface with no buttons or harsh angles.
Yes, the new devices have no buttons at all on its front screen, leaving more space for an immersive viewing experience without distractions and makes multi-tasking more convenient.
The Galaxy S8’s compact design enables comfortable one-handed operation and Corning® Gorilla® Glass 5 on both the front and back for both durability and a high-quality finish.
* Powerful performance
Packing powerful performance and connectivity, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ features the industry’s first 10nm processor, enabling heightened speed and efficiency. It is also gigabit LTE and gigabit Wi-Fi ready with support for up to 1 GBPS so users can quickly download files, regardless of the file size.
* Security platform
The Galaxy S8 and S8+ are built on Samsung Knox, a defense-grade security platform. In addition, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ will offer a wide selection of biometric technologies including a fingerprint scanner, iris scanner and facial recognition so users can select a secure biometric authentication method that works best for them.
The Galaxy S8 and S8+ also come with the foundational Galaxy features Samsung fans enjoy, including: water resistance to a maximum depth of 1.5m for up to 30 minutes and dust resistance, MicroSD support up to 256GB, fast and wireless charging capabilities and simultaneous device-to-device tethering and Wi-Fi connectivity.
* New way to interact with your phone
Bixby is an intelligent interface available on the new devices that will help users get more out of their phone.
Much like Apple’s Siri, the new Bixby button, users will be able to conveniently access Bixby and navigate through services and apps with simple voice, touch and text commands.
This, Mr Selwyn said, was their bid in moving into the artificial intelligence space. Users can also search for images and get details about nearby places with Bixby’s image recognition technology.
Meanwhile, Vodafone Fiji chief marketing officer Rajnesh Prasad said more than 100 customers had pre-ordered and received their S8 and S8+ last week.
Mr Prasad said they had launched the new devices with a very competitive price with S8 selling at $1999 while S8+ selling at $2199.
The next launch next is expected to be in Papua New Guinea followed by Tahiti before gradually launching in other island countries.
