Samsung’s mobile division has been through the ringer following the Note 7 debacle, fortunately for us South Africans, the handset was never officially released or sold locally.
All eyes are now on the company’s upcoming flagship handset, the Galaxy S8, which will be unveiled in New York and London at an Unpacked event on 29 March 2017.
While there’s just one week to go, it seems like we know pretty much everything there is to know about the next Galaxy thanks to noted tech leaker, Evan Blass.
Here’s what we know so far:
Twice the Galaxy goodness: Samsung is prepping a Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ for the March 29th unveiling. The S8 is expected to have a 5.7-inch display while the S8+ is rumoured to be packing a whopping 6.2-inch display. Samsung is also expected to have a dual-curved display on both handsets, bringing an end to the flat or edge display options available in previous years. The handset is also expected to have a nearly bezel-less display, meaning that you’re going to get more screen on the front of your phone than ever before.
No more home button: Thanks to the new (almost) bezel-less design, both the S8 and S8+ will most likely have the fingerprint scanner, which is currently located in the home button, to be moved to the back of the handset…right next to the camera lens. While a rear-facing fingerprint scanner is a fairly normal thing on an Android handset, placing it next to the main camera seems like it could lead to your fingers accidentally appearing in a ton of photos, and a very smudged lens.
Hey Bixby: Samsung has confirmed that their new AI assistant, Bixby, will be launched on the S8. The new assistant is expected to be more intuitive than existing AI and will perform a greater number of tasks. In a press release, Samsung says “When an application becomes Bixby-enabled, Bixby will be able to support almost every task that the application is capable of performing using the conventional interface (ie. touch commands). Most existing agents currently support only a few selected tasks for an application and therefore confuse users about what works or what doesn’t work by voice command.”
Both the S8 and S8+ will also have a dedicated button to launch Bixby located on the side of the handset.
Specs: A spec sheet for the S8+ has leaked online and if it’s to be believed, the larger of the two new Galaxy handsets will have an iris scanner, 4GB RAM, 64GB built-in storage (which is expandable via SD cards), a 12MP rear-facing camera and an 8MP front-facing selfie camera. These will also be the first handsets with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 835 SoC, although not all regions will be getting this chipset – certain regions will get the new Samsung made Exynos 8895 SoC.
New colours: According to Evan Blass, the S8 and S8+ will be available in three colours – black sky, orchid grey and arctic silver.
Accessories: The S8 and S8+ are not the only things that Samsung is expected to unveil on March 29th, rumour has it that the company will also be unveiling three new accessories:
New Gear VR : Samsung’s new Gear VR will be expected to accommodate the larger screen sizes of the S8 and S8+ but it’s also expected to come with a separate motion controller similar to the one included with Google’s Daydream VR headset. The new Gear VR is also rumoured to have improved lenses and have backwards compatibility with Samsung’s previous gen Galaxy S devices (up to the S6).
DeX: Rumour has it that Samsung is also working on a dock called DeX that will let you turn your Galaxy S8 into a full desktop computer, similar to what Microsoft is doing with its Windows 10 Continuum feature. The device is rumored to have HDMI output (up to 4K and 30fps) as well as two USB 2.0 ports and an ethernet port. According To Evan Blass, the DeX will cost €150 (in Europe).
Gear 360: Samsung’s original Gear 360 was released a year ago, so while it’s not known whether or not the company will be releasing a new 360 camera, it certainly is time for a refresh.
Local pricing and release date for the S8 and S8+ have not yet been released.
