Samsung Galaxy S8 preorders go live in Zimbabwe

Samsung Zimbabwe has just announced that the Samsung 2017 flagships, the S8 and S8+ are now available for preorder.

Globally, Samsung has been able to go live with preorders of the phone within a month. The phone went live for preorders in the US and other key markets on 30 March. In Africa, preorders went live starting 19 April.

Samsung has said the phone’s preorders are going faster than the company’s S7 and S7 Edge last year.

To pre-order the S8 and S8+ in Zimbabwe you can go to unboxgalaxy.com/zimbabwe where you will be able to choose where you want to buy it: either at Econet or a Samsung Brand Shop.

Unfortunately, there’s no local pricing information yet available, but it would be safe to expect to part with at least US $1,300. In the US, the S8 is starting at $720.

Pre Orders are closing on 3 May shortly after which you can expect to be able to buy the phone.

So what’s great or not so great with the Galaxy S8

We’re looking forward to reviewing the phone ourselves in the coming weeks. But before that, we contend with the opinions of some top reviewers that have taken the phone through the paces.

The S8 and S8+ have been praised for “a beautiful design, a wonderful feel in the hand, a fine camera, good battery life, and a great display”. The company has however not been praised for apparently playing it safe with the 2017 flagship, apparently in a bid to stay away from the disaster that was the Note 7, a phone that was eventually discontinued.

Feature wise, here’s what to expect:

• An “Infinity Display” which is a curved 5.8 inch QHD display (here’s a quick explainer on displays so you have an idea what QHD is)
• An Artificial Intelligence assistant called Bixby. Samsung is positioning this as the centerpiece of the Galaxy S8 to compete with Google Assistant. You’ll be able to set reminders and it has some Augmented reality features. Read about on the Samsung site here.
• The phone can identify objects with your camera. The camera is becoming what the smartphone is about and Samsung is clear it understands this.
• The phones don’t have a home button anymore, it’s now part of the screen. I’m guessing owners of previous edition are happy about this!
• Fingerprint scanner on the back – a standard in all flagships today.
• You can unlock the phone’s screen using facial and iris recognition
• Battery is basically same as the S7 and that is not a bad thing. This phone has one of the longest lasting batteries.
• Camera is 12MP, again, same as S7. Which, again, means an amazing camera!