Samsung Samantha assistant sparks viral cosplay trend where fans dress up as ‘sexy’ character

THE internet is going bananas for a “sexy” new assistant designed for South Korean tech titan Samsung.

Cooked up by a marketing company, images of the slender female mascot called Sam recently leaked on social media – and quickly went viral.

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Commenters went coo-coo for the “hot” digital companion, with some joking that they’d fallen in love with her rosy-cheeked smile.

Now, fans have begun posting pictures of themselves dressed up as the character, who was designed as an assistant for users of Samsung phones.

Sporting Sam’s grey polo shirt, shoulder-length hair and lightning blue eyes, the snaps pay tribute to the virtual helper that never was.

The trend was popularised by Twitch streamer Vylerrian, who has garnered a sizeable online following by cosplaying as various fictional characters.

In a tweet on June 2, she wrote: “I tried @Samsung”. The post has racked up more than 28,000 likes.

Other fans appear to be following her lead, peppering Reddit and Twitter with their own takes on the company’s binned project.

Images of Sam took the web by storm last weekend after illustration firm Lighthouse shared them on its social media accounts.

The pictures were quickly taken down, but not before eagle-eyed web users had taken screen shots, which were shared across the internet.

Twitter

Samantha was created by illustration studio Lightfarm[/caption]

Details about the concept for “Samsung Galaxy’s virtual assistant” posted to the Singapore outfit’s website were also hastily removed.

Sam, who one online commenter compared to a Pixar character, is a young woman with freckle-specked cheeks and an hour-glass figure.

In the leaked images, she’s pictured holding what appears to be a Samsung smartphone, and has “Samsung Galaxy” emblazoned on her grey polo shirt.

So far, there’s been no official announcement from Samsung about a new virtual assistant.

Twitter

Sam bares resemblances to a Pixar character[/caption]

However, the firm has reportedly been working on a follow-up to its flop Siri rival, Bixby, for months.

In a now-deleted post, Lightfarm discussed working with the Cheil Agency – a marketing company owned by Samsung – on the project.

Lightfarm wrote: “Throughout the process, the team devoted itself to developing realistic materials, mainly for the character’s hair and clothing, so that Sam appeared aesthetically pleasing.

“Sam was an incredible partnership between the Cheil Agency and Lightfarm, and we are thrilled to be part of this project!”

AFP

Sam is pictured holding Samsung’s latest flagship phone, the Galaxy S21[/caption]

It’s not immediately clear whether the images were part of a concept project or represented a final design settled on by Samsung.

It’s also unclear when – if ever – the South Korean firm plans to roll the assistant out to users of its Galaxy devices.

Lighthouse did not discuss what the virtual assistant will help users with.

Other AI helpers, such as Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, can answer questions, set alarms and timers, look up the weather, and more.

Samsung did not respond to a request for comment.

On social media, users reacted in delight to the leaked images.

“All bow to my goddess Sam the Samsung’s virtual assistant,” one user tweeted.

“Is Samsung’s virtual assistant Sam just a replacement of Bixby?” asked another.

One tweeter added: “People go crazy over Sam, Samsung’s new assistant too much. Come on, Samsung doesn’t even confirm it yet.”

In other news, The Sun’s favourite alternative to a games console is the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset.

Check out the wildly impressive Panasonic 65HZ1000 TV, which makes most tellies look rubbish.

And Dell’s Alienware R10 Ryzen Edition is a gaming PC powerhouse that crushes both the new consoles.

What do you make of Sam? Let us know in the comments!

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