Tech News

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is now available to pre-order in Europe through third-party retailers. Specifically, those in Germany and Italy can now place their pre-orders on Amazon. Pricing and availability details for both the markets are different. Amazon Germany has the phone listed for €799, with shipments beginning April 20 onwards. On the other hand, Amazon Italy is selling the phone for €829, with release set for April 28 - the pricing is inline with what we already know. Source 1 2 | Via

A few more smartwatches have started receiving the Android Wear 2.0 update. These include the Fossil Q Wander, Fossil Q Marshal, Michael Kors ACCESS smartwatches, and Nixon the Mission. The list, shared by a community manager at Google, also contains the Polar M600, but we already know that the wearable has started getting the update. Other smartwatches that are already getting the update include Fossil Q Founder, Casio Smart Outdoor Watch, and Tag Heuer Connected. There's, however, currently no information on exactly when popular smartwatches like the Huawei Watch and Moto 360 2nd...

Google has announced a new service called Reserve with Google, which, for now, will be able to help you book your next fitness class from your Google Search or even Google Maps app. With this service, you can look up places around you. If they are signed up for this service, you will be able to book a class with them from within the Search or Maps app. Alternatively, you can search for something like "yoga" and the apps will show you places around you that match your preferred activity and then you can sign up for it. This works on the mobile as well as on the web. Google is...

Aside from the (badly placed) fingerprint sensor and the iris recognition system, Samsung's new Galaxy S8 and S8+ also come with a third biometric authentication option: facial recognition. So far so good. But if you expected this to be any better than similar efforts from many, many years back... well, get ready to be disappointed. Like the Face Unlock feature Google added to the Ice Cream Sandwich release of Android way back in 2011, Samsung's new facial recognition system can be easily fooled by showing it a photo of the person that has set up his or her face as trusted. The proof is in...

A new rumor regarding Apple's iPhone lineup for 2017 is here with details about the devices' ambient light sensors. Specifically, investment bank Barclays thinks that the top of the line (and very expensive) iPhone 8 (the one with the OLED screen) will share a new feature with the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus (which are expected to be very similar to last year's models). Namely, we're talking about them all having True Tone displays. The first (and so far only) Apple device with a True Tone display is the iPad Pro 9.7, though when the refreshed 12.9-inch iPad Pro arrives that should feature it...

Sure, the Galaxy S8 became official this week and it's impressive and exciting and already up for pre-order. Yet it's only going to be shipping in mid-to-late April, so maybe you don't want to wait that long to have a new high-end smartphone in your hands. Or perhaps you don't necessarily care for the latest and greatest (and Infinity Display-est). What then? One option would be to go for last year's flagship. You'd expect this to become cheaper as the new model replaces it. And you'd be right. In fact, at the moment you can snag a brand new, unlocked Samsung Galaxy S7 for just $399.99....

Apple has decided that today's a good day to unleash a new ad for its latest wearable on the world. It's called "Live bright", and it's all about the Apple Watch Series 2 which launched last fall. The ad emphasizes the device's display, which is two times brighter than that of the original Apple Watch. It's also showing it underwater, which is fine since it comes with water resistance up to 50m. And of course showcasing the fitness tracking features couldn't be missed. In fact, Apple says the new watch is "the perfect partner for a healthy life" in the video's description.

The cat is out of the bag: The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are official, and they’re creating a lot of discussion on the internet. With those Infinity displays and the beautiful design, Samsung’s new flagships are a striking evolution of what the company started with the Galaxy S6 edge. But before we digress, let’s come to the reason why you clicked on this article: the official wallpapers from the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+.

There are 12 wallpapers in total, and unlike recent Galaxy flagships, Samsung has gone for minimalism with most of the wallpaper options. The interesting ones show a dune against a backdrop of a group of stars, no doubt a nod to Samsung’s “galaxy” of smartphones. Each wallpaper is a high-resolution image (of 2960×2960 resolution), and you can grab the entire collection from our wallpaper archive here.

Like Samsung’s Galaxy S8′s wallpapers? Don’t like them? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to check out our extensive coverage of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ (with much more to come).

Hat tip to Henk for providing us with the wallpapers. 

If there's one YouTube channel to turn to when you'd like to see some phones tortured on video, that has to be JerryRig Everything. We've already seen countless handsets endure its standard scratch, burn, and bend tests, and today it was the turn of the Moto G5, the lesser of the new G5 duo from Lenovo's brand. So what do you think? Did the G5, budget offering as it is, manage to withstand the torture better than its rivals? Well, take a look for yourself. Keep in mind though that the video is graphic, so viewer discretion is advised. Hopefully you're not the easily triggered type when...

When TCL finally announced the BlackBerry Keyone at MWC last month, the official release time frame for the handset was said to be April. However, it now looks like the QWERTY-endowed Android smartphone might get delayed by at least one month. BlackBerry CEO John Chen said the following regarding the Keyone at the company's earnings call earlier: The second one, that TCL announced at Mobile World Congress which is the physical keyboard on an Android, that one is not going to be slated to ship until probably the May timeframe. I think the first manufacturing production run is at the end...

It’s Friday, so it’s time for another edition of Watchface Friday! For those unaware, every Friday, we highlight a selection of our favorite watchfaces for the Gear S3 classic and Gear S3 frontier. All of the offerings are available to download through the Galaxy Apps Store, so you can rest assured that you won’t have to search all over the Internet to find something we’ve listed.

Gear S3 classic

A-Class Pro Blue (24H)

Facer: Gunmetal Classic Weather

Gear S3 frontier

Chronometer – Rebel Alliance

DSS Armonia

April Fools is for playing funny, harmless pranks on others. OnePlus is stepping up the game - it will hand out Dash Energy for humans as well as offering a 15% discount on a bundle of Dash Power Adapters and Dash Type-C Cables at its website. On April 1st OnePlus will launch a campaign at various places across the globe. The company will hand out energy drinks named Dash Energy that give "a day's power for half an hour," hinting that its Dash Charge technology already does the same for your phone. According to OnePlus: Dash Energy is a limited-edition energy drink that unlocks a...

We publish a lot of stories on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the majority of news breaks during our European hours of operation, which makes it difficult for our readers in the US (and other regions) to keep up. However, we think we’ve come up with a fantastic solution — a daily recap.

In the list below, you’ll find the stories that went live today. We understand that you’re not going to be interested in all of them, so to help you find what’s important to you, we’ve split them into their respective categories. If you want to see the latest Galaxy S8 news, for example, locate the Phones subheading.

Business

Samsung Q1 2017 earnings guidance may be announced next week

Samsung reportedly starts $9 billion expansion of OLED production lines

Deals

Daily Deal: Save 57% on a pair of Active InEar headphones

Opinion

The Galaxy S8 is so tall I might start using Multi Window mode again

Phones

Folk in Germany can now pre-order the Galaxy S8 from Amazon

Galaxy S8′s facial recognition feature can apparently be fooled by a photo

Samsung’s struggling to get a hold of camera modules for the Galaxy S8

Watches

Samsung teams up with Bear Grylls to showcase the power of the Gear S3 frontier in new ad

Amazon has kicked off pre-orders for the Galaxy S8 for folk in Germany. As expected, the device is listed with a price tag of €799 ($854), with inventory shipping in time for the April 20 release date. What’s more, we’ve updated our promotion to include the online marketplace — so you can be in with a chance of winning the cash value of your handset.

To place your order, head over to Amazon now.

It turns out that Samsung is using two different sensors for the back and front camera in the Galaxy S8 and S8+. Units have been spotted using a Sony IMX333 sensor and a S5K2L2 ISOCELL sensor made by System LSI, a subsidiary of Samsung. The same goes for the new 8MP autofocus front-facing camera - underneath the optics is either a Sony IMX320 unit or an ISOCELL S5K3H1. The different cameras share the same specs across the board though. No matter if you get a Sony or a Samsung-made main camera you still have a 1/2.55" 12.2MP sensor with Dual Pixel autofocus and naturally the optics...

Apple announced that it is starting a new app development center in Bengaluru, India called App Accelerator Bengaluru. The aim of this is to enable budding developers to create more apps for Apple's platforms. In this program, Apple experts will lead briefings and provide one-to-one app reviews for developers building apps for iOS, watchOS and tvOS platforms. The facility will also provide support and guidance on Swift, Apple's new programming language for these platforms. Apple Technology Evangelists will be providing specialized briefings for over 500 developers every week and also offer...

Yesterday, after what felt like ages, I decided to run two apps at the same time through Samsung’s Multi Window feature on my Galaxy S7 edge. Multi Window is something I would regularly fire up when it first made its way to Samsung devices, but once the novelty wore off, it became one of those Samsung features that you know is available on your phone but is not used all that often. But with the Galaxy S8, it looks like I might just get back to using Multi Window more often, thanks to the taller display.

My biggest gripe with multi window multitasking on phones is that on smartphone displays, there simply isn’t enough real estate for it to be a seamless affair. It’s even more of a problem when you want to look at something in one app and type it in the other app, because once the keyboard comes up, it takes over the screen. This will probably be a problem on the Galaxy S8 as well, but the taller display should make for an improved experience when you have two apps running at once, especially on the S8+.

I haven’t used either of the two Galaxy S8 handsets yet, so there’s no telling if the taller screens will make a difference in the way I use my phones. But it’s possible, and I can’t wait to get my hands on Samsung’s beautiful new flagships to see what the taller (and narrower) displays offer. Too bad they will take almost a month to hit retail shelves.

What do you think about the taller displays on the Galaxy S8 and S8+? Is there any other use case you can see getting better (you know, apart from watching videos)?

You can currently snag yourself a pair of Samsung’s Active InEar headphones for $12.91 (57% off). These are the same earphones that ship in the box of the firm’s latest smartphones (the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are an exception) and come with interchangeable wingtips.

If you want to take advantage of this deal, click the Buy Now button below. We advise you to hurry, though, as Amazon only has a limited amount of inventory available and as this is an international promotion, we have a feeling it’s going to disappear pretty quickly.

Motorola RAZR V3 was released in 2004 but over a decade later people still remember it fondly. Moto Malaysia decided to toy with the emotions of many and teased that "an icon returns" as a Moto Mod. The Malaysian Department of Motorola published an image on its Facebook page, stating it is bringing back "the iconic Moto that changed the 2000's." But this time it won't be another rebirth of the RAZR name like Motorola did with the DROID RAZR series in 2011 and 2012. The company says that "this time it's new and improved as a Moto Mod." We already know Motorola has chosen the...

A new update has started hitting the Samsung Gear Manager application. The update brings new Auto Switch feature as well as an improved Gear lock function. Using Auto Switch, the Gear S3, S2, and Fit2 can automatically connect to the paired smartphone. On the other hand, Gear lock has been improved so it shows information on the wearable's lock screen. Among other changes, the app now shows cards containing tips related to things like new features and data backup, as well as available watchfaces when you delete one or more. Via

Samsung Display is one of the leading suppliers of OLED displays in the market but it can’t rest on its laurels. The company has to work hard to ensure that it maintains and even grows its lead. According to a new report out of South Korea, the company has started its planned expansion of OLED production lines and it will invest $8.90 billion in this endeavor in 2017 alone.

The company has reportedly signed deals with several equipment manufacturers to replace its existing production lines for LCD displays with those for OLED production. One of the new lines is said to start production of 30,000 units of the sixth-generation OLED panels per month from the fourth quarter of this year.

Samsung is also expected to spend a significant sum of money to expand its A3 flexible OLED production plant to increase the current capacity of 30,000-45,000 units to 120,000 units by the end of this year.

With its OLED displays accounting for 95 percent of the market and smartphone demand rising, it makes sense why Samsung Display would embark on an ambitious expansion for its OLED production lines.

The company is also expected to be the sole supplier of panels for Apple’s first OLED iPhone which means that a demand-supply gap is not something that Samsung Display can afford right now.

A new update is currently hitting AT&T branded Samsung Galaxy S7 edge and S7 active as well as Motorola Moto Z Play Droid on Verizon. Arriving as build number G935AUCS4BQC2 and G891AUCS2BQC2 for the Samsung duo, and version NDNS25.137-24-1-4 for the Motorola phone, the update brings March security patch. The Moto Z Play Droid update is also said to bring along some system enhancements as well as usual bug fixes. Given that the updates are being rolled out OTA, it may take time for them to hit your device. You can manually check for the update by heading to your handset's Settings...

We’ve already told you that the Galaxy S8 offers the most security options of any smartphone on the market right now. You can use a pattern or a pin to secure access to the device or use the fingerprint sensor that’s placed at the back. The handset also has an iris scanner if you’d like to use that and it even supports facial recognition.

Samsung highlighted the facial recognition feature during its Galaxy S8 presentation a couple of weeks ago. It’s meant to take the pain out of the unlocking process. You just have to pick up the phone and it instantly does its thing and unlocks the device when it detects the owner. However, it appears that the feature can be fooled by just a photo of the owner.

A video is making the rounds online which shows a Galaxy S8′s facial recognition feature being bypassed with a photo of the person it’s supposed to detect. It takes a few tries as the photo is hovered on top of the device but eventually it recognizes the user and unlocks the device.

It remains to be seen if Samsung will improve the facial recognition feature’s ability to distinguish between a photo and a real face by the time the handset comes to market.

It’s pertinent to mention here that the photo used was taken at the same angle and distance that the face would normally be at when the handset was being unlocked by the user directly. Whether or not this loophole will be of any use if the photo is taken at quite a bit of distance or at an extreme angle is unclear.

Do you think that Samsung should have used a 3D camera on the front to make the facial recognition feature more secure or is this something that you’re not too worried about? Let us know in the comments below.

Industry sources in South Korea believe that Samsung is going to announce its earnings guidance for the first quarter of the year next week. They expect that the guidance will beat forecasts as earnings are likely to be buoyed by the continued stellar performance of Samsung’s chip business.

Samsung’s operating profit for the first quarter of 2017 is expected to come in at 10.1 trillion won $9 billion which remains a record that has not been breached since the third quarter of 2013.

Over the past few quarters, the chip business has continued to account for a significant chunk of the company’s earnings. Of the 9.2 trillion won in operating profit that Samsung posted in Q4 2016, 4.9 trillion won was generated by the chip business.

While the company’s chip business is expected to drive growth in this quarter, the mobile division may not show significant improvement in its performance, considering the fact that sales of the Galaxy S7 would have slowed down in anticipation of the Galaxy S8 and there was no Galaxy Note 7 to hold down the fort in the high-end segment.

The Sapphire Blue color variant of the Moto G5, which leaked in press renders last week, is now official. In fact, the variant is already available for purchase in the UK, where carrier O2 currently has exclusivity on it. So far, Lunar Grey and Fine Gold were the only official colors for the Moto G5, but now you can add Sapphire Blue to the list. The Moto G5 Plus is also said to have a similar blue version, although there's currently no information on exactly when it will be announced/launched. Source | Via

GoPro has announced that its Karma drone is now available in Europe. Specifically, it's available in select European markets, including Spain, Italy, Germany, France, and the UK, where it can be purchased from the company's website as well as "selected online retailers." Karma bundled with HERO5 Black is priced at €1,399.99, while the drone sans any GoPro camera will set you back €999.99. The drone was made official back in September last year, but a couple of months later, it was recalled due to reports of units losing power in-flight. The device finally went back on sale beginning...

The Sony Xperia Z5, Z4 Tablet, and Z3+ have started getting a new update. Arriving as build number 32.3.A.2.33, the update brings along Android security fixes for the month of March - the security patch level says March 1, 2017. Although there isn't yet an official confirmation on it, the update is also said to fix the audio issues that were introduced with the Nougat update. The Nougat update for these devices was first released back in January this year, but was pulled shortly thereafter due to issues reported by early adopters. The roll out restarted last month. Via

Samsung’s reportedly struggling to get ahold of front-facing camera modules for the recently-announced Galaxy S8 as its supplier Patron is struggling to boost the yield rate, reveals The Bell. It’s thought that the production yield remains at less than 70 percent and should be elevated to 80 percent for stable supply.

Power Logics, the supplier the firm is using for the Galaxy S8+, doesn’t appear to be having the same problem (in fact, it recently increased its yield rate to more than 90 percent). Why? Because the front-facing camera and iris scanner are combined into one module on the smaller Galaxy S8, but not on the larger variant.

Samsung has teamed up with British explorer Bear Grylls to demonstrate the power of its latest smartwatch, the Gear S3 frontier, in a new commercial. The one-and-a-half-minute ad showcases a whole host of the device’s features, including its barometer and health tracking functionality.

Check it out for yourself below:

The limited edition OnePlus 3T Midnight Black will go on sale in India today. The model, which carries a price tag of INR 34,999 (around $540), will be available for purchase from Amazon as well as the Chinese company's India online store starting 2PM (IST) today. OnePlus Experience Store in Indian city of Bengaluru will also be offering the phone. Initially, it was announced that a total of only 250 units of the phone will be made available, but that changed last week when it was revealed that more units will be made available. The model, in case you aren't aware, was announced to...

Samsung has released a whopping 243 third-party themes in the Theme Store over the course of past seven days. We know that it’s quite a task to find a theme that suits your taste, and that is why we’ve shortlisted four new themes for our readers. Welcome back to Themes Thursday!

Of the 243 new themes released this week, we quite liked the [Kendi] Oxy OS theme, thanks to its beautiful wallpaper, attractive icons, and a brighter UI design. The PixelizeD theme pack makes the user interface of your compatible Galaxy smartphone resemble that of the Pixel smartphone’s. The Paper and [WHL] Lights theme packs are good looking too.

Which new theme did you like this week? Let us know in the comments section below.

[Kendi] Oxy OS

PixelizeD

[WHL] Lights

Paper

Exactly as announced by an HTC exec yesterday, the rollout of the Android 7.0 Nougat update for the HTC 10 units sold by Verizon is now underway. This has been a long time coming, to say the least. Unlocked HTC 10 units sold in the US have been on the new OS version since last year, while other carriers such as T-Mobile and Sprint have already pushed it to their respective models. And now it's Verizon's turn. Once you get that coveted update notification, make sure you're on Wi-Fi or have enough signal on Big Red's network before you start the download. After you've applied the update,...

Earlier today we told you that Samsung executives are confident that the Galaxy S8 will manage to outsell the highly successful Galaxy S7 from last year. Now courtesy of a new report from the company's home of South Korea we get additional details about how it's handling the launch. Samsung will make around 20 million units of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ in the initial production run, thus there should be no impediment for them to break sales records for the Korean company. Samsung's head of mobile, DJ Koh, has even promised that the duo will not see any supply issues whatsoever. The...

Marshall has announced a wireless version of its flagship Monitor pair of headphones, the Monitor Bluetooth. The Monitor Bluetooth are essentially the Monitor but without the cable. The headphones support the standard Bluetooth audio codec as well as aptX for even higher quality audio. The Monitor Bluetooth also have a natural audio signature for a more accurate audio reproduction. Other features include a knob on the side to control playback, dual stereo microphones, 30+ hours of playback, and collapsible design with a carrying case. There is also a 3.5mm jack on the headphones...

After having already released Android 7.1.1 Nougat for the bigger Axon 7, ZTE is now shifting its focus to the smaller (and lower-end) Axon 7 Mini. The company has announced a preview program for the Mini's Android 7.1.1 update. If you own such a device you can participate in the preview by registering at the official ZTE community forum. You will need to sign and strictly follow a Non-Disclosure Agreement, complete some time-sensitive tasks and surveys, as well as provide detailed bug reports when you encounter problems. If none of those things sound too complicated to you, then head...

To say that the state of the Android Wear 2.0 release is a mess would be an understatement. The new version of the wearable operating system was unveiled last year and its first release timeline was fall 2016. It didn't make that, being delayed until early 2017. Then everything finally seemed fine and it was supposed to make it to a smartwatch near you starting in February, which is when Google outed the official list of devices getting it. Yet here we are at the end of March and only a few hours ago did we hear anything about any smartwatches actually being updated to Android Wear 2.0....

The DeX Station is one of the accessories that Samsung announced at yesterday's event for its upcoming Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones. However, unlike the new Gear VR or Gear 360 camera, the company didn't share any pricing details for the DeX. Today though it's started taking pre-orders for the device, which means we finally know how much it costs: $149.99. It will be shipping at some point in late April, with no less vague time frame available at the moment. For that $149.99 you're getting a dock that you place your S8 or S8+ in. You connect the DeX to a monitor, mouse, and...

Samsung has released a new version of the Gear Manager app today and it brings a couple of improvements for the app. Users will now see cards in the app which will provide them with tips about the new features, account sign-in, data backup, notification management and more.

The updated Gear Manager app also comes with the Auto Switch function that Samsung released recently. We saw this feature in the recent Gear S3 classic and frontier update as well. Auto Switch enables the Gear S3, Gear S2 and Gear Fit2 to automatically connect to the paired smartphone.

The app will now show available watchfaces when watchfaces are deleted. An improved Gear lock function is onboard as well, it will show information on the connected wearable’s lock screen.

Samsung’s updated Gear Manager app is now available for download, you can get it from our APK page.

Samsung famously had to scramble to deal with supply issues for the Galaxy S6 edge because it apparently didn’t anticipate just how well the handset would perform in the market. The demand supply gap was limited with the Galaxy S7 as Samsung was more prepared for demand and it now wants the public to know that this issue will not be stealing sales from the Galaxy S8.

Samsung has already said that it expects the Galaxy S8 to sell more units than the Galaxy S7 did last year. That’s a tall claim given that the Galaxy S7 set a new internal record at Samsung for first-year sales. So if it expects the new handset to perform so well, surely it has made the appropriate arrangements.

The chief of Samsung’s mobile business Dong-jin Koh said during a press briefing that Samsung has set the initial supply of the Galaxy S8 double that of the Galaxy S7. “Since we are preparing the supply without difficulty, there will be no issue of supply delay,” he added. His calculations suggest that Samsung is preparing 20 million units of the Galaxy S8 initially.

Samsung is going to release the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ on April 21 in a handful of markets including the United States. It will subsequently be released in additional markets across the globe.

In the days leading up to the Galaxy S8′s official announcement, it was rumored multiple times that Samsung expects the Galaxy S8 to perform much better in the market than the Galaxy S7. The Galaxy S7 was no slouch either, in fact, it single-handedly carried the flagship baton for Samsung throughout the entire year after the Galaxy Note 7 was discontinued.

Samsung has now made its expectation public. The head of Samsung’s mobile business Dong-jin Koh – who was very confident about the Galaxy S8 during yesterday’s presentation – has said that the company expects the Galaxy S8 sales to beat those of its predecessor.

A sales target was not revealed by the mobile division boss so there are no hard numbers to go on, at least not officially. Samsung did say last week that the Galaxy S7 set a new internal record for first-year sales so the Galaxy S8 has quite a job ahead of it if it’s to overtake the Galaxy S7 in sales.

Samsung announced the Galaxy S8 DeX accessory yesterday alongside the new flagship smartphone. The dock can be used to get a PC-like experience from the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ on an external monitor. It even allows users to hook up a conventional keyboard and mouse for added practicality. Samsung has now confirmed what the Galaxy S8 DeX dock price is going to be and when it’s going to arrive.

The company has revealed on its website that the Galaxy S8 DeX dock price in the United States is going to be $149.99 and that it’s going to start shipping in “late April.” It’s likely going to start shipping once the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are released on April 21.

In case you’re curious about how the DeX dock work and what sort of functionality it provides, do check out our hands-on review of the Galaxy S8 DeX accessory. It’s going to give you a firm understanding of all of its capabilities.

Twitter's 140 character rule still exists, but the company has been taking some steps to mitigate it somewhat recently. The newest such move comes today, when it's announced that usernames aren't counted towards that 140 character tweet limit anymore. What this means in practice is that you will get slightly more space to express your thoughts when you're addressing other individual users of the service, and a lot more space in group conversations. From now on who you're replying to will appear above the tweet and not within the tweet text, so you have more characters for the actual...

ZTE's nubia sub-brand is going to unveil a new smartphone at an event on April 6. Invites have already gone out, and the TENAA listing for said handset has appeared already, giving us a pretty complete idea about its specs. The rumors say it's going to be called nubia Z17 mini, and today football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has decided to tease it a bit. The image you can see above has been posted to his Instagram account, with the following statement attached: Just finished shooting with @nubiasmartphone very impressed by the dual camera! Looking forward to the product launch on...

Admit it: you like the Galaxy S8 and S8+, which Samsung unveiled yesterday. But if there's one thing that you feel is lacking, it's the number of virtual assistants that come pre-installed. After all, it's just two of them - the Google Assistant and Samsung's Bixby. But what if we told you that there's a special edition Galaxy S8 out there that has no less than three assistants built-in, all eagerly anticipating your commands? This isn't a dream, it's reality. It's called Galaxy S8 Microsoft Edition, and you can pre-order one from Microsoft's brick-and-mortar stores in the US. The S8 is...

It was being rumored that Samsung might use a new sensor from Sony for the Galaxy S8 and S8+’s camera. Yesterday, we reported that the newly announced smartphones use a camera sensor manufactured by Samsung’s System LSI arm (at least in our unit). Now, we can confirm that Samsung is sourcing camera sensors for the Galaxy S8 and S8+ from two different vendors, just like it did with the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge as well as with the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge.

Some units of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ use the S5K2L2 ISOCELL sensor from System LSI for the rear-facing camera, while other units use the new IMX333 camera sensor from Sony. Both models are 1/2.55-inch sensors with a resolution of 12.2 megapixels, Dual Pixel phase-detection autofocus, OIS, F1.7 aperture, and 4K video recording. So, the final image and video quality should be similar from both the sensors.

Also Read: Here’s how the Galaxy S8 will take better photos despite the same 12 MP camera as the S7′s

Similar is the case with the front-facing cameras in the smartphones. Some units use the IMX320 sensor from Sony, while others use the S5K3H1 sensor from System LSI. Both sensors have a resolution of 8 megapixels, feature autofocus mechanism, and QHD video recording abilities (HDR and EIS would be disabled in this mode, though). No matter which sensor is used in your Galaxy S8 or S8+ unit, it should offer impressive end results.