Leaving the whole Note 7 explosion saga in hindsight, the interwebs now have started buzzing with chatter about Samsung’s Galaxy S8 release early next year. We already know that the Korean giant is planning to get rid of the headphone jack and the prominent home button to make room for — more screen space, suggests today’s report. Samsung is expected to move ahead of the current screen size segment for the Galaxy S series and venture into the beyond 5.5-inch space.
Korean publication The Bell, citing industry analysts, states that Samsung is looking to introduce the Galaxy S8 in two new variants with phablet-sized, dual-edge screens. This time around, the smaller of the two variants will house a 5.7-inch display with curved edges, which is 0.6 inches larger than the previous Galaxy S7 which sported a 5.1-inch handy display. This variant will be closer in look, feel, and size to the Edge variants of the Galaxy S series.
On the other hand, the larger 6.2-inch smartphone is expected to sport an edge-to-edge bezel-less display, similar to the one in Xiaomi Mi Mix. This instead of being synonymous to any previous Galaxy S series model will favor more towards the size and features of the Galaxy Note 7, which has now been discontinued due to the risk of more explosions. Samsung is said to be making a larger display smartphone caters to the audience who’ve been dishearted due to the loss of the Galaxy Note 7.
Commenting on the same, an electronics industry analyst says,
We know that Samsung has decided to expand the Galaxy S8 model to two screens because it has to attract customers who prefer the big screen that can not be absorbed in Note 7 to the Galaxy S8 model. The size does not change so much, so there will be no big complaints for users who prefer a smart phone with a reasonable size such as a basic model.
As it states above, Samsung could pack in the internals and the larger screen into a smartphone of the same dimension by getting rid of the top bezel and reduce the bottom bezel. The rumored replacement for the physical home button with a virtual one could easily help Galaxy S8 achieve a screen-to-body ratio of beyond 90 percent. The report further goes on to suggest that Samsung is currently thinking about a new naming scheme
The report further goes on to suggest that Samsung is also mulling over the decision of picking a new naming scheme for the bigger variant, and the ‘Plus’ moniker is currently under consideration. Why Samsung? Why? Apple is already using the Plus moniker to differentiate its larger smartphones with better features and now Samsung wants to follow pursuit to the same.
While the Korean giant hasn’t offered a word on the rumors of the existence of two larger variants, it has surely confirmed that it is looking to bake a virtual assistant into their own hardware ecosystem. To catch up with its competitors in the ubiquitous AI ecosystem, Samsung is now looking to put its acquisition of Viv to use and integrate a Siri-like, but more robust, voice assistant in the Galaxy S8.
In addition to ordering food, booking cabs and replying to texts, this AI platform is expected to feature a plethora of new features that would even leave Google Assistant in the dust. Viv’s next generation AI system is capable of understanding the user and writing its own code to develop comprehensive new functions.
