Samsung started 2016 by gaining an early competitive edge in the premium smartphone segment with the launch of Samsung Galaxy S7. The Galaxy S7 with its powerful specs and premium design features managed to garner a lot of customer attention and appreciation from the tech community.
However, the Note 7 debacle had put Samsung on the back seat as it was a major hit to the company’s business as well as the brand image.
The rumors for the company’s next flagship Samsung Galaxy S8 have already started gaining ground.
Let us see what the rumors have to say about the next Galaxy S8 flagship regarding design, specs, new inclusions, release date, etc.
Design Expectations
A lot of talks are going on regarding the design considerations of the Galaxy S8. The latest reports coming from Korea’s ETNews show that the Samsung Galaxy S8 will ditch the Home button and integrate it into the display.
Also, the possibility of having an edge display sibling for the Galaxy S8 cannot be ruled out.
At the launch of the Note 7 handset, Samsung’s head of mobile, Koh Dong-jin said: “Samsung has considered that it would make the edge display as the identity of the Galaxy S smartphone lineup if the company can provide consumers differentiated user experience through software and user-friendly functions.”
Another rumor that surfaced last month on Bloomberg’s website says the Galaxy S8 may have a bezel-less front and “provide more viewing real estate”. Even ETNews has alleged the Samsung’s Galaxy S8 will “fill all of the front of the Galaxy S8 with just screen”.
Another general design consideration is that of foldable display in one of the S8 siblings. As Samsung already holds the patent for the technology, it’s possible there could be a foldable display smartphone in 2017.
Display Enhancements
We can expect the Galaxy S8 to have around 5 inches of screen real estate.
However, SamMobile sources say the company is also projected to release the Galaxy S8 with two variants of 5.7inch and a massive 6.2inch display size.
The screen will host a standard RGB subpixel arrangement thereby packing more pixels within the screen and “provide a noticeable improvement in virtual reality environments.”
While according to The Korea Herald, the Samsung Galaxy S8 could come with a 4K display with a 2160 x 3840-pixel resolution.
The Camera
There are also talks about the Samsung Galaxy S8 having between an 18MP to 24MP primary camera with a wider f/1.4 aperture.
Chinese sources in a conversation with WCCF Tech have claimed a possibility of a dual-lens camera with its second lens being supported with Samsung Motors(Semco).
Reports from Chinese smartphone website Weibo, claim the handset to be hosting a 30MP primary and 9MP front-facing camera.
Moreover, just like the Samsung Galaxy J2, we could see a possibility of ‘Smart Glow’ feature that hosts a multicolored LED ring around the primary lens. The LED flashes in different colors to indicate different notifications.
Hardware and Software Prowess
More news shows that the Samsung Galaxy S8 could come up with 6GB of RAM and host a powerful Snapdragon 830 chipset clocked at 3.2GHz (for US customers) or an Exynos 8895 chipset clocked at 3GHz. These chipsets are expected to be made with the 10nm manufacturing process resulting in 27% higher performance, 40% lower power consumption and 30% higher area efficiency onboard.
The Snapdragon 830 chipset easily supports the expected 4K resolution display and would lead to better viewing environment with more immersive virtual reality experience.
Moreover, the another major hardware change which we expect with the device is Samsung ditching the 3.5mm audio jack.
We can expect a USB-C solution for headphone attachment. The trade-off could likely be considered to make the device slimmer and increase the battery capacity as well. Also with Samsung’s recent buyout of Harmen, we can expect some significant audio enhancements.
On the software end, we expect the Galaxy S8 to be running the Android 7.0 Nougat out-of-the-box.
Samsung’s own Virtual Assistant
This is one of the major speculations as Samsung is expected to be working on its self-designed virtual assistant.
With AI (Artificial Intelligence) gaining a lot of traction recently, Samsung is expected to bring better competition against Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft Cortana, Apple Siri and Google’s “Google Now”.
Release Date and Pricing
There is a lot of confusion pertaining the launch of the handset. While many analysts predict the device to be released somewhere around the MWC 2017 event in February, the latest reports from WSJ suggest that there could be a further delay. The WSJ report shows that the company is still working on the battery issue that plagued the Note 7 and is yet to arrive at a full-fledged solution for the S8. The estimated delay for this could push the launch date by two-three weeks.
The pricing for the flagship Galaxy S8 is roughly estimated to be somewhere around $800.
