Microsoft Will Sell Samsung Galaxy S8 And S8+ ‘Microsoft Edition’ Android Nougat Flagships
With that in mind, Microsoft has announced a rather peculiar partnership with Samsung and its newly announced Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ flagship smartphones: it will sell the Galaxy S8 and S8+ Microsoft Edition in its retail stores. According to The Verge, the smartphones will come preloaded with a gaggle of Microsoft services and apps, and goes beyond the usual staple of Microsoft apps that are bundled with all Galaxy devices sold through U.S. wireless carriers.
Microsoft provided the following guidance in a statement:
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.
This is definitely an interesting turn of events for Microsoft, and surprisingly enough, the most powerful and feature-packed smartphones that will be available in Microsoft Stores will be running Android 7.0 Nougat. Samsung’s new Galaxy S8 family is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor (for the U.S. market), come equipped with gorgeous, near bezel-less QHD+ displays, feature an iris scanner and facial recognition, and highlight the new Bixby digital personal assistant.
Preorders for the Galaxy S8 and S8+ open today (pre-orders for the Microsoft Edition are only available at brick and mortar Microsoft Stores) and the smartphones will begin shipping on April 21st.
(Top Image Sourced From Robert Stinnett/flickr)
