Samsung launches flagship Galaxy S8, S8 Plus with Bixby assistant

After much speculation over its built and specifications over past few months, South Korean giant Samsung on Wednesday launched its flagship device, Galaxy S8, that has a voice assistant.

The device comes in two variants with different screen sizes -- the 5.8-inch Galaxy S8 and 6.2-inch Galaxy S8 Plus - and will be available from April 21. Registrations begin from March 30. The device might be priced from $720 (approximately Rs 47,000).

Samsung will release these devices in India in the coming months.

Samsung also revealed Bixby, a smart voice assistant to rival Apple's Siri and Google's Assistant. With a perfect amalgam of voice, vision and touch, Bixby can search restaurants, take screenshots and even book a cab for you.

The technology giant has used the best hardware and provided the best features available to date in the device.

The device has a bezel-less curved edge "infinity display" covered with pristine glass and a 12MP rear camera with multi-frame processing and optical image stabilisation. It has an 8MP auto-focus front shooter.

The device is IP68 rated, meaning it is water and dust resistant. The company has also upped the security feature with iris scanner, face recognition and fingerprint scanner - moved to the back of the device - to unlock the device.

The home button has been shifted beneath the "infinity display".

Available in five different colours, the device has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Octa core (2.35 GHz Quad + 1.7 GHZ Quad) processor. For models that will be available in countries other than the US, Samsung has used Exynos Octa core (2.35 GHz Quad + 1.9 GHZ Quad) processor.

According to The Verge, while Galaxy S8 comes with a 3,000 mAh battery, the Galaxy S8 Plus is fitted with 3,500 mAh battery pack. The devices run on Android 7.0 Nougat and have USB-C and 3.5mm headphone jacks.

The company also launched Samsung Connect app that would allow users to control a number of internet-connected home devices such as TVs or refrigerators. It also unveiled new Gear 360 camera.

There's a lot riding on Samsung S8 devices due to the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco. Samsung ultimately killed that smartphone after two recalls, both related to issues with faulty batteries.

Earlier this month, Samsung launched two new smartphones in 'Galaxy A' series -- 5.7-inch Galaxy A7 and 5.2-inch Galaxy A5 in India which were priced at Rs 33,490 and Rs 28,990, respectively.

Samsung also joined the 'go digital' bandwagon, and last week unveiled Samsung Pay, the company's flagship mobile payments service, in India.

At MWC in Barcelona this year, Samsung announced its innovative "I&G (Infill & Growth) Project" for Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd that will help expand both the current network capacity as well as network coverage. (READ MORE)

Samsung voice-assistant Bixby to debut with new Galaxy S8 smartphone

Samsung announced on Monday that a voice-powered digital assistant named "Bixby" will debut with a flagship Galaxy S8 smartphone set to be unveiled by the South Korean consumer electronics giant.

Bixby enters a crowded field of digital assistants powered by artificial intelligence that includes Apple's Siri, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana and Amazon's Alexa.

Samsung said Bixby will focus on letting people control mobile apps with spoken directives.

"Bixby will be our first step on a journey to completely open up new ways of interacting with your phone," Samsung Electronics head of research and development Injong Rhee said in a release.

"Bixby will be a new intelligent interface on our devices."

A Galaxy S8 smartphone expected to be unveiled next week will have a set of pre-installed applications that will work with Bixby, according to Samsung.

Samsung late last year bought Viv, an artificial intelligence startup with co-founders who were part of the team that built virtual assistant Siri, which Apple bought some seven years ago.

Bixby will differ from digital aides already on the market in ways that include controlling nearly all tasks in applications instead of limited sets, and being flexible when it comes to understanding what users are saying, according to Samsung.

"We do have a bold vision of revolutionizing the human-to-machine interface, but that vision won't be realised overnight," Rhee said.

Amazon, Apple, Samsung, Google and Microsoft are all vying to develop the most sophisticated connected assistant -- working to give software the ability to understand what people say and even anticipate desires or needs.

Amazon virtual assistant Alexa was a star at the Consumer Electronics Show gadget gala early this year in Las Vegas but faces fierce competition.

Chinese giant Baidu also used the show to showcase virtual assistant "Little Fish" that it was preparing for a debut in China.

Microsoft recently bought Maluuba, a Montreal startup focused on making machines able to think the way people do. (READ MORE)