Samsung Galaxy S8 is already selling like hot cake, but let’s take a trip down memory in order to put this in perspective. Samsung first stole the thunder from iEmpire with the launch of Samsung Galaxy S2, which went head to head with iPhone 4s to finally get the crown as the best smartphone in 2011. The phone was to record more than 40 million in total sales by the time Galaxy S3 was taking over. When Galaxy S3 arrived, the new flagship of 2012 just needed 6 weeks to break the Galaxy S2’s sales record.
The momentum set by Samsung Galaxy S3 was continued with Galaxy S4 with the phone selling at the rate of 40 million units also in six weeks. Then the lackluster mediocre Samsung Galaxy S5 came into being in 2014, a phone that forced Samsung to go back to the drawing board to later come up with Samsung Galaxy S6. Although the Galaxy S6 had skyrocketing features including the introduction of fast charging battery enclosed in a premium metallic and corning gorilla glass body, the phone wasn’t able to undo the damage done by her predecessor.
Samsung had to wait one more year before getting back the crown of owning the top selling smartphone, and this came with the launch of Samsung Galaxy S7. By the end of second quarter of 2016, Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge were the top selling smartphones globally.
Although the sales of Samsung Galaxy S7 plus her sibling the S7 Edge were supposed to give hope for Samsung fans and shareholders, this hope was quickly put off when a disaster happened in the name of Samsung Galaxy Note 7. The exploding batteries in the Note 7 made some analysts write an obituary for Samsung, with many believing that it will take years before Samsung can reclaim her glory as the top seller of Android Smartphones. But hardly six months after Galaxy Note 7 happened, Samsung is back on track as the crown owner of the best selling smartphone globally.
Samsung Galaxy S8 and her big sister Samsung Galaxy S8+ were launched at the end of last month, and two weeks after launch reports are everywhere that the new flagship from uncle Sam is outselling the already well performing Samsung Galaxy S7. According to News.com, Samsung Galaxy S8 smashed preorder records merely a day after being placed in preorders. ZDNet on the other hand reported that the Samsung Galaxy S8 preorders in Samsung’s backyard was 2.75 more than that of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and 5.5 times more than that of Samsung Galaxy S7 – all figures grounded for the first two days of preorders.
Although Samsung has not released preorder data for the global market, preorders for the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ has already surpassed half a million mark in South Korea alone, and down in Australia the Australian mobile division vice-president Richard Fink said pre-orders for the Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones were outselling its previous flagship phone by “double-digit percentage points”.
For those of us in Kenya, we can also place our preorders through this link, and if you are lucky to be one of the first 2000 Kenyans to place your preorder, then you will also receive a portable Bluetooth speaker dubbed Level Box Slim as shown below. The prices for the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 plus in Kenya have been set at Kshs 85,000 and Kshs 95,000 respectively.
Samsung Galaxy S8 is indeed a relief for the South Korean and global electronics empire. The disaster that happened with Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was such a heartbreak, and Samsung needed a quick fix to both leverage the financial losses caused by the Note 7 explosions and also bring back the brand image that Note 7 almost drove under waters.
For those wondering what’s in the Galaxy S8 that could be making the device such a hot cake, here is the quick specs run down.
Galaxy S8 is a 5.8 inches device boasting of Corning Glass 5 body (back panel and front screen). The screen is a 2K screen (1140 by 2960 pixels) made of Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen technology. The selling point for the device is particularly the screen that Samsung says has no boundaries – that is the bezels have been done away with completely. How a bezel-less phone functions under certain circumstances is something we will need to test, but as I wrote in the Samsung Galaxy J7 article, there could be issues when playing certain games.
Other than the screen the Galaxy S8 is powered by Samsung’s Exynos 8895 Octa – EMEA processor at Octa-core 4 by 2.3GHz and 4 by 1.7GHz. Mali-G71 MP20 – EMEA takes care of the GPU. The standard RAM is 4GB and Internal memory is 64GB but can be expanded to 256GB via the microSD slot. The camera is a 12MP shooter at the back and the front is taken care of by an 8MP shooter. Since most phones have gone the duo-camera route, with some even placing the duo camera at the front, it seems the galaxy S8 focus is not on the camera department.
Kachwanya.com is set to receive the Galaxy S8 in a matter of days for hands-on review. We will keep you posted.
