From the edge-to-edge display, the ditching of the physical home button and other interesting features, Samsung’s two models Galaxy S8 and S8+, portray the Company’s cravings and devotion to new proprietary assistant, Bixby.

Really nice pieces of hardware, showing the company might have stumbled, but not lost its stride as it continues pushing the boundaries of size with 5.8- and 6.2-inch screens on the S8 and S8+. The resolution is 2,960 x 1,440 — an odd bump up from the S7’s 2,560 x 1,440, owing to the company’s shift in aspect ratio.

Samsung has followed LG’s lead and shifted to a much taller phone, which, along with the built-in HDR support is part of the company’s attempt to let content providers offer video truer to their initial intentions.

The taller phone also allows for users to have more content open at once, though unlike LG, Samsung isn’t putting too fine a point on that aspect of the handset. That’s due in no small part to the sheer amount that the company has jammed into the phone here.

The screen monopolizes around 80 percent of the phone’s front, by Samsung’s count. That means, among other things, that it’s managed to make a really large-screen phone that doesn’t feel big or bulky.

Like the Note before it, it’s pretty impressive how much phone the company has managed to cram into a relatively thin piece of real estate that’s 1.5 millimeters slimmer than its predecessor. In fact, Samsung did away with the signature oval home button on the front of the device.

The S8 sports a virtual touch sensitive button on the bottom. And in the place of the biometric fingerprint reader, you can unlock the phone with either your retinas or by scanning the whole of your face. Interestingly, while the company dropped the big physical home button up front, it’s added a whole new button on the left side, just below the volume rocker, pointing to just how important of a feature it believes its new smart assistant Bixby will be both for the S8 and Samsung’s whole ecosystem of connected devices moving forward.

Bixby, Samsung is making it abundantly clear, is about more than just home assistance and the company is hoping its new proprietary home assistant will be the start of something much larger. As such, there’s no limit to the number of ways users can access the assistant formally known as Viv on the phone, including the aforementioned button and a right-swipe from the phone’s screen.

Among other reasons, it’s clearly invested in building its own connected-home solution, and, unlike a majority of its competitors, Samsung’s got plenty of its own brand-named appliances to help build the smart-home automation process.

Similar to Scenes created with Home Kit, users can tie together multiple automated moments to their comings and goings or the time of day — so, say, when you leave the house, the Samsung robot vacuum will fire up and the Samsung smart TV will turn off.

Olumide Ojo, head, Business Development, Information Technology and Mobile, Samsung West Africa, speaking during global launch of the devices, bragged “If there is anything you think Smartphone can’t do, Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ will perform the functions with ease”.

According to Ojo, the devices which will available to Nigerian users from May this year, hence pre-order has commenced.

Meanwhile, as Samsung pushes past the Galaxy Note 7 disaster, the newly unpacked Galaxy S8 and S8+ are leveraging on artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) to better the worth of users.

“Now you don’t need to go to market carrying list of things to buy, because Samsung IoT integrated intelligence would have notified you the things missing, probably from your refrigerator,” Ojo boosted. 

But, one of the few places the Samsung hasn’t pushed things is in battery capacity. At 3,000 mAh (3,500 on the 8+), it’s the same as the S7.

Interestingly, Samsung seems to have given up the ghost on the rear-facing camera fight this time around. That one feature has been a primary battleground for most handset makers over the last few years. This time out, the company has mostly just tweaked the software, allowing for smarter autofocus and reduced blurring. The front-facing camera, on the other hand, has gotten a bit of a bump. Accordingly, one of the Bixby demos we got involved taking a selfie with the smart assistant.

Nevertheless, the S8 could be described as ‘ambitious moves by Samsung’ to retain its leadership position in the smartphone market.