Yesterday, Samsung announced its latest mobile flagships, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. As you would expect, the new handsets are packed with all sorts of high-end specs, including Qualcomm"s Snapdragon 835 chipset, iris and facial recognition, a PC-style desktop experience, and a new digital assistant called Bixby.
The two devices will run Android 7.0 Nougat, with Samsung"s own software customizations - but another company will be offering its own version of the new flagships. In an unexpected twist, Microsoft announced today that it will sell both Galaxy S8 handsets at its retail stores.
However, the company will put its own spin on the new Samsung devices, as it explained:
A Microsoft customization is applied to the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ Microsoft Edition when the devices are unboxed and connected to Wi-Fi. This customization ensures customers a best-in-class productivity experience with Microsoft applications such as Office, OneDrive, Cortana, Outlook and more.
According to The Verge, Microsoft is already accepting pre-orders at its retail stores for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ Microsoft Edition, but it seems the company isn"t offering the devices via its online store.
Microsoft"s own range of Lumia smartphones, which run Windows 10 Mobile, are now at the end of their retail lives, and have been removed from its web stores in some parts of the world.