Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+ launched in India starting at ₹57,900: All you need to know

Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, which was showcased by the company in New York last month alongside Samsung DeX, Gear VR and a Gear 360 camera, was launched in India on Wednesday.

While the smaller Samsung Galaxy S8 will come at a price of ₹57,900, the 6.2-inch Galaxy S8+ has been priced at ₹64,900. With that pricing, Samsung has placed the S8 and S8+ in the league of Apple iPhone 7, Apple iPhone 7 Plus and Google Pixel.

Pre-orders begin on Flipkart on Wednesday and pre-ordering customers will also get a Samsung wireless charger free. The company will start shipping the new phones from May 5.

Watch Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+ first impressions

In terms of specifications, the smaller 5.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S8 comes with a QuadHD Infinity display with 570 pixels per inch (ppi) along with 4GB RAM. The S8 will have an internal memory of 64GB with microSD support upto 256GB. The phone, which will draw power from a 3,000 mAh battery, will run on Android Nougat. In terms of optics, the S8 will sport a 12-megapixel rear camera and a 8-megapixel front shooter.

The larger 6.2-inch S8+ will come with an OLED display with 529 ppi support. The S8+ will come with a higher battery capacity of 3,500 mAh due to the bigger display. Other features of the S8+ are same as the S8.

Both the phones, which are IP68 (dust and water resistant) will come with USB-C, 3.5mm headphone jack, NFC and MST for Samsung Pay, wireless charging, fingerprint sensor, LTE Cat.16, Bluetooth 5.0 that supports streaming to two devices and Wi-Fi.

Additionally, both the phones will come with digital assistant Bixby that will help the user in interacting with the device. According to Samsung, Bixby also shows contextual info. This means it learns about app usages and throws back info in the form of cards. It simply adapts to the user based on usage, time and date. It also has a basic reminders tool that lets you set geo-location alerts. Bixby is also compatible with Google Play Music.

Samsung is also expected to launch the DeX dock station that allows the S8 and the S8+ to be turned into a PC using a mouse, keyboard and screen.

DeX, expanded as Samsung Desktop Experience, is an accessory that Samsung's Galaxy S8 will pair with to morph into a desktop PC-like environment. The dock, that mostly looks like a candle holder, supports a monitor connection via HDMI, keyboard, mouse, and two USB ports to help expand the Galaxy S8's connectivity. Samsung's dock also has a cooling feature -- a special embedded fan to help keep the Galaxy S8 cool when it is being used to display Android apps on a monitor, and a USB-C connection to power it.

It will also launch the new Gear VR with a motion sensing remote and the 360 camera.