Samsung Galaxy S8 release date and everything you need to know

The Samsung Galaxy S8 has finally been launched and… well, it's entirely as we expected thanks to the myriad leaks that have sprung up all over the internet.

But the good news is that it's actually a rather nifty phone, and you can check it out in some rather sumptuous depth in our hands-on: to get all the morsels of information you could want on Samsung's new flagship. 

We know that some of you are in more of a rush though, and just want to know what's new and whether you should care about the new Samsung phone – and no, before you ask (and we have been asked countless times): it's not going to catch fire this time. Samsung has been very clear about that. 

What it will do is impress you with the large display, faster innards and all-round improvements throughout the user interface – so if you're not going to check out our thorough and filled-with-beautiful-photos  hands-on (the plugs will only get more shameless) we've rounded up all the salient information here.

Want to know the specs? We've got them all here:

Dimensions: 148.9 x 68 x 8mm
Screen size: 5.8 inches
Resolution: 1440 x 2960 (QHD+)
Processor: Exynos 8895 / Snapdragon 835
RAM: 4GB
Storage: 64GB
Rear camera: 12MP
Front camera: 8MP
Battery: 3,000mAh
- Rear fingerprint scanner
- Water- and dust-resistant (IP68)
- No physical home button
- Iris scanner
- Bixby AI assistant
- Headphone jack

Samsung Galaxy S8 release date  

Samsung still hasn't confirmed the actual day it will be throwing the Galaxy S8 onto shop shelves, but we're expecting it to land around April 21 in certain territories. 

The chances are that it will go to South Korea and the US first, with high-priority territories like the UK and other parts of Europe following soon after.

However, this could be the first year that Samsung makes the right amount of phones at the start and the whole world can have them at once. We can but dream.

Samsung Galaxy S8 price

We're still waiting for retailers to announce their pricing for the new flagship phone, but the Samsung Galaxy S8 cost looks a little high, with early rumors pegging it at around $845/£695/AU$1,115.

However, for that money you do get more storage than before, as the phone will land with 64GB of onboard storage, rather than the 32GB of last year – plus there's a microSD card slot and some decent AKG headphones in the bundle too.

The final big change is to the UI – and some people still won't be happy, while others will. The reason for this divide of opinion is that the Samsung Galaxy series TouchWiz overlay, which sits atop Android, has been maligned for years as too overbearing. 

Well, for years Samsung has been refining the experience, making it lighter to use and look at, and this year it's cleaner than ever without losing the Samsung 'look' that many of its users will be accustomed to. 

Design 

Right, that's the big changes out of the way – so let's get on to how this thing looks. The design is covered in more depth through our  hands-on (we told you there would be more plugs) but here are the main points:

The screen covers most of the front of the phone, but we didn't experience any accidental taps of the display simply by holding the Galaxy S8 – there are obviously some smarts coded into the handset to stop that happening.

The home button is gone now – there's nothing visible on the front of the phone any more. There is a pressure-sensitive button at the bottom of the phone, in a similar vein to that on the iPhone 7, where you can press where the home key WOULD have been and you'll get a pleasant buzz. 

The fingerprint scanner is now on the back of the phone, next to the camera, and it's a bit too high up for our liking, meaning we're more inclined to use the facial recognition or even the iris scanner to open the phone.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S8 camera hasn't really been given much of an upgrade compared to the Galaxy S7, which will be a bit of a disappointment for some. The Galaxy S6 had a good snapper and yet Samsung still decided to upgrade it – but no such luck this year. 

Well, if we're being fair there might be some internal tweaks that mean you're getting a better picture thanks to improved software – we'll need to test to be sure, but in our initial look (which you can read here) we didn't see too much different. 

However, the 12MP sensor on the back is still one of the best around, offering speedy snaps and great performance in low light. This year Samsung has added in something called multi-frame image, which takes three snaps and finds the sharpest, so the quality should be improved in terms of what you're looking at, at least. 

There's also the same impressive range of modes and options from Samsung within the Galaxy S8, from the clever auto mode, which manages to pick out a great picture nearly every time, to the professional mode, which offers the chance to really tweak the settings and shoot in raw too. 

The front-facing camera has been boosted to 8MP, and there's also a fun new effects button which you can use to give yourself a range of augmented reality makeovers to entertain your friends, as they wonder why you've not just decided to use Snapchat instead.

Battery

Samsung hasn't really done much to the battery either with the Galaxy S8, which does raise our eyebrows a touch. The new chipset inside has been improved to offer 10% more CPU power and 21% better management on the GPU, so everything should fly along faster and with more efficiency. 

However, there's only a 3000mAh battery in the Samsung Galaxy S8, which is the same as last year – and with more pixels to power on the front of the phone (thanks to the longer aspect ratio and display) that's something to think about. 

It could explain why Samsung has limited the screen resolution on the Galaxy S8 to Full HD by default, with users needing to delve into the settings and boost the sharpness manually. 

Power and operating system

Infruriatingly, it looks like Samsung has split its processor strategy across the world once more, with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 at the heart of the phone in the US, and the Exynos 8895 doing the gruntwork throughout the rest of the world. 

Apart from the fact that this hasn't been explicitly confirmed yet (something Samsung fails to do year after year) this is still a good thing, as it means that either way users will get their hands on one of the most powerful phones around, with Samsung's Exynos-powered S8 likely getting the jump in terms of raw output under the finger.

There's 4GB of RAM in the Galaxy S8 too. Rumor has it that Asian markets will be getting more (and Samsung has cryptically said the specs will vary throughout the world); however, 4GB is more than enough, and in our tests (you can read about them in our in-depth hands-on Samsung Galaxy S8 review... you know you want to) we found the phone to be lightning fast.

As mentioned, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is running on top of Android Nougat, with the latest version of the operating system offering things like Google Assistant to the user, as well as improved battery management.

Wrap up

In short, we'd urge you to read our Samsung Galaxy S8 hands-on review – it's the place to be if you want a really in-depth look at this phone. 

However, if you can't manage to imbibe such a heady brew, then here's the summary…

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is a really, really good-looking phone, with lots of key features that users want – as well as some new additions in the shape of Bixby, although that's not really offering much at the moment. 

Some will be worried by the fact that the camera and battery haven't been given an obvious boost, and that's something that does need to be checked out when we get the phone in for a full review.

However, this is a phone that's far more impressive than the sum of its parts: while a wrap-around screen doesn't sound like enough to warrant buying a phone, it's an incredibly impressive look, and one that will lure in many buyers.
The camera and battery life are likely to be good enough, and the raw power of this phone will see it shine through nearly every task. 

Question marks still remain over the price, of course – if Samsung adds on a few more units of currency to the RRP of this handset, it's going to be an even tougher sell in a world where mid-range phones are starting to really shine for a lot less money. 

However, the Galaxy S8 is a great phone at its heart, and we'll now be waiting with much intrigue to see how Apple responds...