Samsung unveils new Galaxy S8 smartphones, showcases Bixby personal assistant, new accessories and IoT expansion

 Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla                       

New York- Today was a comeback day of sorts for Samsung. The company, who had a rough year in 2016 on the heels of the exploding Galaxy Note 7 debacle, was back in form with its latest flagship smartphone launch.

The Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ offer a refined improvement of Galaxy S devices of the past. Much more integrated design, a new Infinity Display which minimizes the bezel to a fraction of what we are used to. In terms of design, the Galaxy S8 5.8-inch) and Galaxy S8 + (6.2-inch) are easily the most impressive and desireable new smartphones we've seen in a long time.

The Galaxy S8, which sports a 5.8-inch display, fits comfortably in the hand and is delightful to hold. The Midnight Black unit Samsung lent me for a day had a very similar colour and finish to my iPhone 7 Plus (Jet Black) so I wonder if Samsung had a similar painting process to get this colour option.

The Galaxy S8 and S8+ will be available for purchase in Canada beginning April 21st, 2017. Consumers who pre-order either device beginning March 29th through April 20th, 2017 will also receive the new Samsung Gear VR with Controller as a gift upon completion of their purchase.

Also announced was the Samsung DeX dock, a device that turns the Galaxy S8 devices into desktop computers which can run Android apps in full-screen mode.

Also showcased here was Samsung's Bixby smart assistant. More expandable than Siri or Google Now, Bixby interacts directly with apps, uses the camera to gather contextual data and also accesses the Internet on the fly.

Samsung is betting that we will Talk, See, Reccomend,and Remind as the tentpoles of Bixby's operation. It will be an assistant that will learn your habits, use the camera to find products and pricing as well as pull instant information contextually. More than just smartphones, Bixby will eventually be rolled to Samsung's appliances including it refrigerators, smart TVs and others.

Samsung made major moves in their connected home and IoT platforms, launching Connect Home, a Wi-Fi router that's also a hub for IoT devices. This is the first Wi-Fi router that Samsung has announced in North America, so we can expect better integration with SmarThings as well as other connected devices.

Samsung unveiled an all new Gear 360 video camera that shoots 4K 360' videos. The Gear 360 also streams video live in 2K and can be used to shoot stills and 180' video as well.