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TECHNOLOGY Thursday 20 april 2017
Galaxy S8: More screen and elegance, but a hefty price tag

ANICK JESDANUN ture on Amazon’s derided
AP Technology Writer Fire phone , and it makes
NEW YORK (AP) — Sam- the same types of dumb
sung’s new Galaxy S8 mistakes — it identified a
phone is stunning. But its can of Diet Coke as four
$100 price hike is hard to other sodas instead. And
swallow. the translation tools were
That’s how much extra incomplete at grabbing
you’ll shell out for the S8, passages and failed to au-
which starts shipping Fri- tomatically detect the lan-
day for about $750 — $100 guage you’re translating
more than the iPhone 7 from.
and last year’s Galaxy S7 CALCULATING THE VALUE
when it launched. A larger Samsung throws in a pair
sibling, the S8 Plus, goes for of AKG premium head-
about $850. phones, valued at about
True, the S8 phones come $100. My ears weren’t
with several refinements good enough to discern
that, totaled up, are in- a difference, but it’s nice
deed worth more than to get headphones when
$100. But it’s hard to rec- many phone makers have
ommend an all-frills phone stopped including them.
when many cheaper The phone also comes with
phones do just fine. The S8 64 gigabytes of storage,
is for those who want ele- which frequently jacks up
gance — and are willing to the price of other phones
pay for it. by $100. Those curved
SCREENS TO THE EDGES edges? Those also previ-
After spontaneous fires that ously cost an extra $100.
forced the recall of the The S8 seems like a bargain
Galaxy Note 7 , Samsung is for only $100 over the S7
playing it safe on the bat- at launch. But do you re-
tery and subjecting the S8 The Samsung Galaxy S8, top, and S8 Plus are displayed, Monday, April 17, 2017, in New York. The ally need these goodies?
to tighter inspections. 5.8-inch S8 and the 6.2-inch S8 Plus both have nearly 15 percent more display space than last The main camera on the
Instead, it’s pushing the year’s comparable models. S8 is about the same as
boundaries — so to speak Associated Press last year’s, so you can still
— on the phone’s display. get amazing photos with
Samsung minimized the The S8 and S8 Plus have structed me, an Asian- Bixby, but voice features the S7 . (You can pick one
phone frame and got rid of more physical space inside, American, to “open eyes intended to rival Ama- up these days for as little
a physical home button to but Samsung used it to give fully.” Oh, and the scan- zon’s Alexa and Apple’s as $576.) There’s specula-
free up space for an “infin- the battery more breath- ner doesn’t work if you’re Siri aren’t ready yet. (Voice tion that Apple will come
ity display,” a screen that ing room while keeping its wearing glasses. dictation does work with a out with a pricier, feature-
seems to flow right into the capacity roughly the same The fingerprint scanner reminder feature, though.) rich iPhone for its 10th an-
phone’s curved left and as last year. was faster and more con- Bixby will also highlight ap- niversary this year — but
right sides. Though a larger display venient for unlocking the pointments, trending sto- it’s expected to update
The 5.8-inch S8 and the drains the battery faster, phone. But you have to be ries and app suggestions, the existing iPhone 7 line as
6.2-inch S8 Plus both have my tests of streaming video careful not to smudge the much as existing features well. Those who can’t live
nearly 15 percent more dis- found that the new phones adjacent camera lens by on iPhones and other An- with yesterday’s technolo-
play space than last year’s consumed power more mistake now that the scan- droid phones already offer. gy won’t be disappointed
comparable models. But slowly than last year’s mod- ner has been moved to the One promising feature with the S8. But for every-
the phones themselves els. And even with con- back. aims to provide translations one else, Samsung could
aren’t wider. In fact, the stant use — taking photos, FIRE THE ASSISTANT and product information have also offered a low-
phones feel more comfort- watching video and play- Samsung is introducing using the phone’s cam- er-priced alternative with
able thanks to sides that ing music and podcasts — a digital assistant called era. It’s like the Firefly fea- fewer goodies.q
curve around to the back; the new phones still made
last year’s curved S7 Edge it to bedtime with power
model feels boxy by com- to spare. Samsung cred- Russia, Google reach $7.8 million
parison. its software and chip im-
The bigger screen fits more provements. settlement on Android case
lines of text, but doesn’t UNLOCKING THE PHONES
necessarily make video Like the doomed Note 7, MOSCOW (AP) — Russian Alexei Dostenko, deputy case was brought to the
more immersive. While vid- the S8 has an iris scanner to officials and Google have head of Russia’s Federal FAS in 2015 by Yandex,
eo on YouTube and Face- let you unlock the phone reached an agreement Anti-Monopoly Service, which is Russia’s dominant
book gets automatically by looking at it — at least to settle a two-year-old according to Russian search engine and offers
adjusted to fill the space, in theory. But you have to case against Google for news reports. various apps including
Netflix and Hulu movies just swipe the screen first and requiring the pre-installa- Under the settlement, a popular one for order-
leave wasted black space position it from your face at tion of some of its apps on Google is to pay 439 million ing taxis. Yandex’s shares
on all four sides. You can just the right distance. mobile devices using the rubles ($7.8 million) in fines surged 6 percent on the
tinker with that manually — I’m sure Samsung, a South Android system. and will not limit the pre- Moscow stock exchange
but for $100, you shouldn’t Korean company, meant The agreement was an- installation of third-party after the settlement was
have to. no offense, yet I was ticked nounced Monday by apps, the reports said. The announced.q
ALL ABOUT THE BATTERY off when the phone in-