SINGAPORE - Customers who pre-ordered Samsung's latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S8 and S8+, started collecting their phones on Saturday (April 22) morning, a week ahead of the phones' official launch here on April 29.

Reception to the Korean electronics manufacturer's latest flagships was the strongest in years, despite fears that customer response would be lukewarm following the global recall of the Samsung Note7 in 2016 after reports of phones catching fire.

Medical technician Ng Yi Xian, 33, was among the first to collect the phones when collection slots first opened at 9.30 am on Saturday morning. He collected two new S8+ phones - one for himself and the other for his father.

"After the Note7 incident, Samsung should have taken more precautions so the S8 will most likely be safer and even better," he said.

The 5.8-inch S8 will retail at $1,148 while the bigger 6.2-inch S8+ goes for $1,298.

According to Korean news agency Yonhap, the S8's pre-orders set a new record among all of Samsung's smartphones, crossing the 1 million mark.

More than 260,000 phones were collected in South Korea on launch day.

There were tens of thousands of pre-orders for the S8 and S8+ in Singapore, more than twice the number of S7 and S7 Edge pre-orders last year.

A Samsung spokesman here said thousands of customers signed up for collection on Saturday, with all collection slots fully booked.