New images posted by a Twitter user detail the design and appearance of the new Maple Leaf Red variant of the Samsung Galaxy S8. The rear panel of the device is colored red although the bottom portion of the smartphone seems to shift to a purple tone, at least based on the images posted. On the other hand, the front of the handset, like other variants of the Galaxy S8, is colored black. Despite the differences in color, the physical appearance of the smartphone remains unchanged in the new variant. The back portion of the device still houses a single rear camera, LED flash, and the fingerprint scanner while the front of the handset sports the selfie shooter, iris scanner, and display.
The Maple Leaf Red variant of the Galaxy S8 is currently available only in South Korea and consumers in the said country may now purchase a unit of the smartphone. The handset might still be sold globally in the future but the South Korean smartphone manufacturer has yet to release a timeline of its distribution. This variant of the Galaxy S8 is powered by the Exynos 8895 chipset, which is comprised of an octa-core 64-bit CPU with a maximum frequency of 2.3GHz and the Mali-G71 MP20 GPU. The device ships with 64GB of internal storage although Samsung did not clarify in its announcement whether the variant contains either 4GB or 6GB of RAM. In addition, the internal flash storage can be expanded by a microSD card with capacities of up to 256GB. The smartphone sports a 5.8-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2960 by 1440 and an aspect ratio of 18.5:9. Both the display and the rear panel are protected against scratches by a sheet of Corning Gorilla Glass 5, and it is also IP68 water and dust resistant, which means that the handset can withstand being submerged underwater for a short period of time without being damaged.
The rear camera of the handset is equipped with a 12-megapixel sensor that supports both phase detection autofocus and optical image stabilization. It is also capable of recording 4K video and auto HDR. Meanwhile, the front-facing selfie shooter has an 8-megapixel snapper with an aperture size of f/1.7 and it is can videos with a resolution of 1440p and a frame rate of 30fps. The handset shipped with Android 7.0 Nougat pre-installed although the manufacturer has started distributing a beta version of Android 8.0 Oreo in select regions.
Galaxy S8 Maple Leaf red today to open, South Korea exclusive. pic.twitter.com/v3QkgmBUT6
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) November 28, 2017