Samsung launches Galaxy S8 Bixby voice command in Korea

Samsung has reportedly started rolling out the voice command feature of its Bixby virtual assistant for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones in South Korea. The feature was missing when the smartphones launched last month.

According to a report in Zdnet, “Samsung began the voice command service at 1pm KST on Monday, after sending a notice in the morning to users of the smartphones.”
The Bixby voice assistant is the South Korean smartphone brand’s answer to Microsoft Cortana and Apple Siri. There’s a dedicated button in both the smartphones to power the artificial intelligence-powered feature.

According to the company, “With the new Bixby button, you will be able to conveniently access Bixby and navigate through services and apps with simple voice, touch, vision and text commands.” The Bixby voice assistant is integrated with Samsung’s native applications including Camera, Contacts, Gallery, Messages and Settings. The assistant also has contextual awareness capabilities to offer personalized users help.

Galaxy S8 and S8+ run on Google’s latest OS Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. Coming to specs, Samsung Galaxy S8 sports a 5.8-inch QuadHD+ (2960×1440) ‘Infinity Display’ with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection and 570ppi pixel density. It is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor along with 4GB RAM and 64GB inbuilt storage.

On the optics front, the Galaxy S8 sports a 12MP dual-pixel camera with f/1.7 aperture and OIS. There is also a front-facing 8MP autofocus camera with f/1.7 aperture. Some of the connectivity features included are Wi-Fi, NFC, USB Type-C, GPS and Bluetooth 5.0.

The bigger-screen variant, Galaxy S8+ sports a 6.2-inch QuadHD+ (2960×1440) ‘Infinity Display’ with 529ppi pixel density. Powered by the same processor, the Galaxy S8 Plus comes with the same RAM and inbuilt storage. It is backed by a larger 3500mAh battery supporting the same wireless fast-charging technology. The camera specifics also stay similar to that of the Galaxy S8. Furthermore, both Galaxy S8 and S8+ have pressure-sensitive home buttons built right into the phones’ screens.
Both come in five colour variants – Midnight Black, Arctic Silver, Maple Gold, Coral Blue and Orchid Gray. The duo are also claimed to be the first ones that come with Mobile HDR Premium certification.