What we know about the Samsung Galaxy S8 so far

Samsung’s next highly anticipated flagship phone, the Galaxy S8, is expected to arrive soon. The pressure to deliver a device that improves the specs of last year’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge is high, but there’s also the drive to unveil a phone that is more sought after than the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

While adding more features has consistently been Samsung’s approach, the company is aware that after the Galaxy Note 7 literally burned out, everyone will be closely watching to see what safety features are included in the S8.

So what exactly can we expect from the S8? 

While Samsung has gone with Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440) displays for quite some time, rumors suggest that the Galaxy S8 will finally make the switch to a larger 5.7-inch and 4K Super AMOLED display (3,840 x 2,160). There may also be a “regular” model and an “Edge” one with Quad HD and 4K resolutions.

Another report notes that Samsung may eliminate flat displays altogether and only launch the S8 with curved edges. The S8’s screen is also expected to be HDR-ready, just as the Note 7 was.

Additionally, Samsung reported that it will embed the fingerprint sensor underneath the display as opposed to putting it inside the home button. This will either increase the screen’s size and keep the dimensions the same as the S7 or shrink the device’s dimensions (especially the height for better one-handed use).

If we’re considering the history of Samsung, the company may release the S8 with two different processors: one powered by its own Exynos chip and one by a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip. Samsung is expected to go with an Exynos 8895 chip and a Mali-G71 graphics chip that can provide up to 1.8x more graphics performance than the S7.

The model expected to make use of Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 835 processor will be created by Samsung using its 10-nanonmeter process for greater power efficiency. With the chip, the S8 gets a 27% boost in performance compared to the S7.

As far as RAM is concerned, the S8 is expected to have either 6GB or 8GB, a figure higher than the S7’s 4GB.

There have been conflicting reports about whether or not Samsung will have or will ditch the headphone jack. Apple caused a huge fuss when it removed the headphone jack on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. If the S8 has a headphone jack, Samsung can prove why Apple’s move was for the worse. But if it does not, then it will be time to go fully wireless.

Another feature expected to hit the S8 is Samsung’s own AI digital assistant. Rumors suggest that the assistant will be called Bixby and be powered by Viv, the artificial intelligence assistant that Samsung acquired in October 2016. The creators of Viv are the same as those who created Siri before selling it to Apple.

The S8 is also expected to have the same Ingress Protection rating of IP68 as the S7 and S7 Edge, meaning that the phones can be submerged in 4.9 feet of water for up to 30 minutes. IP68 also means that the devices are dust-, dirt-, and sand-resistant and do not need any caps or covers.

There has not been much talk about the improvements that will be made to the S8’s cameras. Of course, it would make sense for the company to unveil a dual-camera setup similar to Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus. Any phone that uses Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 835 chip can support dual cameras without much complexity.

Regarding the front-facing camera, Pocketnow stated that Samsung will give the S8 an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus, making it up 5 megapixels from the S7 and S7 Edge.

Typically, Samsung uses the annual Mobile World Congress as the event to announce its new flagship phones. But this year may differ, with the word being that Samsung plans to hold its own “Unpacked” event in April 2017. While that date will be later than usual, given the catastrophic Note 7 launch, it’s best that Samsung doesn’t take any chances.

Source: Mashable