Samsung launched its new Galaxy S8 smartphone with an event in New York that promised a “new beginning” for mobile handset design as well as for the Korean company amid a series of corporate crises.
The Galaxy S8’s signature feature is a new “infinity display” which wraps around the edges of the device to give a larger screen in a smaller body. Claiming the biggest design breakthrough since Apple’s iPhone set the template for touchscreen smartphones a decade ago, Samsung said the S8 and larger S8+ would mean less scrolling down a Facebook news feed and allow new kinds of multitasking, such as chatting with friends while watching a video.
Even as it touted its latest innovations, Samsung acknowledged the multibillion-dollar recall of the Note 7 last year, when its big smartphone launch was stopped in its tracks by a spate of exploding batteries. The company said the S8 goes through Samsung’s “toughest safety checking ever”, with an eight-point battery test.