The premium variant of the Galaxy S8 Plus with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage is already sold out in South Korea, Samsung revealed on Wednesday, as first reported by ZDNet. The Seoul-based consumer electronics manufacturer said it made 150,000 units available for pre-orders, all of which have now been sold out, together with hundreds of thousands of other cheaper variants of the device. In total, Samsung already recorded more than 620,000 pre-orders for the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus in South Korea, the company revealed, shortly after it boasted about the upcoming handsets breaking its pre-order domestic record over the weekend when more than 550,000 consumers placed early orders on the phones.
Samsung is still planning to manufacture more premium models of the Galaxy S8 Plus with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage space, but the company likely won’t be able to do so before May. While Samsung is still accepting pre-orders for the most expensive variant of its latest flagship that’s priced at more than $1,000, customers who place their orders now likely won’t receive the device until late May, the firm said. Despite its high price tag, the premium Galaxy S8 Plus model is seemingly an attractive proposition for Chinese and Korean consumers. Samsung reportedly opted to launch this particular variant of the handset due to the fact that Chinese OEMs have been shipping devices with 6GB of RAM for months now, which is why the Seoul-based tech giant was pressured into launching a phone with similar specs in order to stay competitive in the Far Eastern country.
While Samsung initially didn’t plan to release the aforementioned model in the West, the company’s recent comments on the matter suggested that nothing is set in stone and its plans regarding that particular variant of the Galaxy S8 Plus might change in the future if its data suggests there’s enough demand for such a device in other markets. In the meantime, all other members of the Galaxy S8 family will be hitting key markets next Friday, April 21, so more information regarding their availability and commercial performance is expected to follow soon.