Best daily deals

Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 can handle near-gigabit speeds on T-Mobile's network

T-Mobile says that the Samsung Galaxy S8 is the first smartphone capable of handling near-gigabit speeds on the carrier's network.
By
March 29, 2017

The newly announced Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus smartphones pack in a ton of high-end hardware inside. However, T-Mobile claims that the phone will also be the first device that can handle near-gigabit download speeds on its network.

Samsung Galaxy S8 vs the competition
Features

T-Mobile claims that the Galaxy S8 and the S8 Plus are the first smartphones that can support three cellular network technologies that are used by the carrier: 4×4 MIMO, carrier aggregation and 256 QAM. The company claims this will allow those phones to have download speed up to twice as fast as other phones on its network.

In addition, T-Mobile said Samsung’s new phones will also be the first to support LTE-U, which offers phones a way to access underutilized unlicensed spectrum on the 5 GHz band. They will also support T-Mobile’s new AWS-3 spectrum. This will allow the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus to achieve near-gigabit download speeds, at least in theory, when the carrier starts rolling out its Gigabit LTE network in the near future. As you can see in the video above, the Galaxy S8 is shown downloading content at near-gigabit speeds at T-Mobile’s labs.

The carrier also posted another Galaxy S8 related clip. This time, the company posted an unboxing video of the phone, but underwater in a cage in a location filled with sharks in the waters off of West Palm Beach, Florida. The video shows how well the phone operates even while submerged. The Galaxy S8 is suppose to work in up to 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes.

T-Mobile will begin taking pre-orders for the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time tonight. The Galaxy S8 will be priced at $750, or $30 down and $30 a month for 24 months. The Galaxy S8 Plus will be priced at $850, or $130 down and $30 a month for 24 months. Buyers will also get a free Gear VR headset and motion controller with their purchase. The phones will officially go on sale on April 21, but it’s more than possible T-Mobile will begin shipments of the phones to pre-orders before that date arrives.