It is no secret that Samsung has spent the last few months fine tuning its upcoming flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8. Since the device’s unveiling will the be the most high profile launch event since that of the Galaxy Note 7 whose story didn’t end well, the company is reportedly taking some extra measures to make sure all is well with its next money-making machine.
According to sources, Samsung is skipping the traditional Galaxy S reveal during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in late February in favour of an event on March 29th so as to have more time to properly take the Galaxy S8 through its paces before handing the baton over to the awaiting public.
A new report off the UK’s Guardian newspaper brought to light some fresh details: like before, the Galaxy S8 will come in two models and the device won’t have any physical buttons on its front-facing side with even the fingerprint sensor being moved to the back. The removal of the physical home button and its accompanying capacitive buttons has given Samsung more room to stretch the gorgeous “Infinity” display. According to that report, the Galaxy S8 will be available in two sizes, 6.2-inch and 5.8-inch and they are currently codenamed Dream and Dream 2 internally at Samsung.
However, all we had to work with then were mockups of the device and purported renders. What about the real thing? Serial leaker Evan Blass seems to have gracefully handled that bit for us and now we have what is likely the first live image of the 6.2-inch Samsung Galaxy S8.
Besides the change in physical appearance, internally, the Galaxy S8 will pack Qualcomm’s latest high-performance chip, the Snapdragon 835, Android 7.1 Nougat and a star feature from the Galaxy Note 7, iris scan.
The Galaxy S7 already has one of the best smartphone cameras in the market so is there need for an upgrade? Samsung thinks there is and to that end, it will be including a duo pixel camera (what is that even?). The Galaxy S8 camera will reportedly have the ability to detect objects.
Of course, central to the device will be Samsung’s new AI-powered smart virtual assistant, codenamed Bix at the moment and an optional accessory that makes it possible to use the device like a desktop computer (Samsung Dex), something along the lines of Windows 10’s Continuum feature.
Force touch, the technology that makes it possible for a display to distinguish user actions by just measuring the amount of pressure applied on certain parts of a display, is also said to be on the cards. That and a brand new Gear VR from Oculus.
All that tech has to have a hefty price tag, right? According to Blass, Samsung thinks €799 and €899 for the 5.8-inch and 6.2-inch models respectively, is fair game.
