Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's flagship has said that the pre-orders for Galaxy S8 smartphone have exceeded those of its predecessor S7, suggesting many consumers were unfazed by last year's Galaxy Note 7 fires.

The S8, which begin sales in South Korea, the United States and Canada on April 21, will be central to the South Korean firm's recovery from the swift withdrawal of the Note 7 phablet.
The new device has been well-received, and some investors and analysts said it could set a first-year sales record for the smart-phone giant.
"It's still a bit early, but initial response to the pre-orders that have begun at various places across the world have been better than expected," mobile business chief Koh Dong-jin said at a media briefing.
The S8 will be the safest Galaxy smart phone to date due to safety measures implemented to avoid the battery failures that caused some Note 7s to spontaneously combust, he said.
Analysts expect Samsung to record its best-ever quarterly profit in April-June, buoyed by strong S8 sales and a memory chip market boom that is widely expected to deliver record revenue for the industry this year.
The new device, equipped with either 5.8-inch or 6.2-inch (14.73 cm or 15.75 cm) curved screens, sports the largest screens to date among all of Samsung's flagship phones due to a redesign.