After their premium uncovering by Samsung in its spectacular launch event held in New York on March 29, both Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus saw their release in the United States on April 21, 2017. But at the beginning timeline, bothe the smartphones are only available with major carriers of the country.
The South Korean tech giant made it clear earlier that those who are looking forward to grabbing their unlocked copies of Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus may have to wait for some time. But, as a big surprise, some of the major retail houses have already announced the beginning of sales for unlocked versions of both the handsets.
According to GSMArena, B&H Photo has launched its pre-order window for both the unlocked versions of Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus. Galaxy S8 has been price tagged at $829.99 and the higher variant: Galaxy S8 Plus has been listed with a $929.99 deal. The company has also stated that all the pre-orders will be shipped in the later part of May 2017.
Specifically, the advantage of buying an unlocked smartphone is that the user won't need to rely on a singular network carrier, he/she would be able to use any network of his choice for the handset. Currently, Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are selling with carriers which are locked with their own networks only.
As per a report by Android Authority, besides B&H Photo, Best Buy has also declared the date for its pre-order opening. The retail giant stated that it would start selling unlocked Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus from May 9 onwards. Moreover, the company has set the price of both the handsets with a discount of about $100. Best Buy will offer pre-order for Samsung Galaxy S8 at $724.99 and Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus at $824.99.
Therefore, buyers who are willing to have a serious price slash on both Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus may wait for the activation of Best Buy's Pre-order window. Unlocked versions generally don't come with any carrier app preloaded. So, a person using any of the carrier's network on the unlocked editions of Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus may have to install the network app manually.
