Samsung recently brought in a trendy lifestyle option for its last year flagship, the Galaxy S8, in India. It might seem strange for the leading smartphone player to introduce a limited color edition of a year old device, but a simple explanation is that the Galaxy S8 continues to sell well in India.
It is one of the rare few compact Android flagships available around and the Galaxy S9 arguably isn’t a significant upgrade. Also, being a year old, it’s also available for a significantly lower price than S9. All in all, it is still a viable option.
The Burgundy Red used on the Galaxy S8 is a lot more subtle than the Red on Apple iPhone or the Lava Red of OnePlus 5T. It’s a dark shade of red inspired by French wine, one that leans towards purple. A less intense shade of maroon should be a befitting description as well. Sadly, the color is very hard to accurately photograph, and the images here don’t do it complete justice.
We’d have to admit that this is the best color we have seen on any Samsung phone yet. And it should work for both men and women.
The construction remains same. The handset has a glass on front and rear and a color matched metallic side frame. Matching the color on the metal and glass (or plastic underneath) takes some work. The fingerprint sensor has the odd position, something Samsung has fixed in the new S9. However, this isn’t as big an issue on the S8 as it is on the S8 Plus and Note8. The compact form factor ensures that the scanner is still accessible, its odd position notwithstanding.
Also, the body is IP68 dust and water resistant certified and you don’t have to fret sudden drizzle or splashes.
As mentioned above, the Galaxy S8 feels exceptionally compact for a phone with a 5.8-inch screen. The high-quality HDR 10 compatible infinity display compliments it well.
Samsung has already rolled out Oreo for the phone. As soon as we finished setting up the phone, we got two consequent updates and at when by the time we were done installing them, the Galaxy S8 was running Android 8.0 Oreo-based Experience 9.0 UI.
The new Samsung UI also has an option to adjust Always-On screen mode and you can also change color of the widgets to suit the Burgundy Red body. Also on the Always On screen is the 3D touch Home button. By now, it has become a second nature to wake the phone using this 3D touch key to check notifications on lock-screen.
Other minor software enhancements in Experience UI 9.0 include a new keyboard, revamped search in the app drawer, color lens to change screen, rotatable app draw, and more.
The Exynos 8895 octa-core chip within handles all the heavy lifting. It’s assisted by 4GB RAM and 64GB of onboard storage. A lot has been said and written about the performance of the phone over the last year so we won’t delve deep into that. It should suffice to say that the chipset is quite powerful and the phone is quite snappy.
The only peeve point is the battery backup. This is a phone that almost always requires mid-day charging, but somehow we are willing to accept the inconvenience for the slim and compact figure.
There are no two ways about it, the Burgundy Red Samsung Galaxy S8 looks stylish and unique and if you are planning to buy a Galaxy S8, this is a color option that you must consider.
Samsung Galaxy S8 Burgundy Red Price In India
The Samsung Galaxy S8 Burgundy Red color was officially priced at 49,990 INR in India. If you are buying online, you can buy it on Paytm and also avail extra 10,000 INR cashback.
