Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ Price Leaked; New Violet Colour Variant Tipped

Samsung has set the launch date for the Galaxy S8 on March 29, and we are just weeks away from all the official details. However, running up to it, leaks have started flowing in rapid pace and the latest bout brings pricing information. If these leaks are true, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ will be much more expensive than their predecessors, something that has been reported earlier as well.

UK retail site MobileFun has already started taking pre-orders for the smartphone even before launch. The Galaxy S8 with a 5.8-inch display and a 64GB storage offering has been put up for pre-orders for as high as EUR 799. This is a significant leap, as last year's Samsung Galaxy S7 was priced at EUR 549 comparatively. Even the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge was priced much lower at EUR 639 on launch. However, MobileFun's pre-order price may just be a placeholder and not indicative of the original price. Presumably, the Galaxy S8+ will be even more expensive than the Galaxy S8 given that it offers more display real estate and a larger battery.

Cementing this presumption is tipster Roland Quandt who claims that the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus will be priced at EUR 799 and EUR 899 respectively. Quandt also tweeted to say that the smartphones will be made available in Black, Silver, and a new Violet colour option.

While the price is really steep, Samsung plans to offer a lot with the flagship. The Galaxy S8 is expected to sport dual-edge curved displays, dual camera setup, a technology similar to iPhone's 3D Touch, and a dedicated button for the new AI assistant Bixby. The assistant is expected to be a lot smarter, and will even be capable of working with native applications.

The near-complete specifications for both the smartphones has been leaked in the past as well. Both phones sport nearly identical specifications, apart from display size. While Galaxy S8 is said come with a 5.8-inch Quad HD+ Super AMOLED display (5.6-inch if counting the rounded corners), the Galaxy S8+ is said to sport a 6.2-inch Quad HD+ Super AMOLED display (6.1-inch with rounded corners).

As for the common specifications, the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are said to be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC - though variants in some regions are expected to be powered by the in-house Exynos 8895 SoC. Memory options are said to include 4GB or 6GB of RAM, and come with 64GB of inbuilt storage that's likely to be expandable via microSD (up to 128GB). Both smartphones are said to have the same camera setup, with 12-megapixel dual rear cameras and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera.