Samsung Electronics has finally unveiled its flagship Galaxy S8 smartphone, the tech giant’s first premium phone since the embarrassing recall of its fire-prone Note 7 last year.



The new features of the much-awaited smartphone -- artificial intelligence assistant Bixby, a bigger display and facial recognition -- did nothing to dispel the notion that the tech giant excels on hardware but is relatively weaker with software compared to its Western counterparts.



Smart voice assistant Bixby, which had garnered attention even before the launch, turned out to be not yet complete, despite much fanfare.



Earlier, Rhee In-jong, Samsung’s mobile chief, said Bixby will significantly exceed Apple’s Siri or Google Assistant, but it can’t yet answer questions like how old a celebrity is or give the capital of South Korea. Bixby will also only work within a limited number of Samsung apps for the time being.



Samsung said since the technology is based on deep learning, the level of the service will get better as time goes by.



“We are having a somewhat hard time connecting natural language and applications, but we will quickly stabilize it through deep learning technology.” Koh Dong-jin, Samsung Electronics’ mobile business chief, told local reporters at a press briefing on Monday, two days before the unpacking event in New York.





Koh Dong-jin, Samsung Electronics’ mobile business chief, presents the Galaxy S8 at the company’s unpacking event in New York on Wednesday. (Samsung Electronics)