Samsung is set to reveal its Galaxy S8 flagship smartphone next week. The upcoming device is widely being touted as Samsung’s comeback from a series of unfortunate events including Note 7’s explosive exit. The company will be looking to leave all that behind and re-establish itself as a brand everyone knows and trusts with its launch of a brand new, state-of-the art flagship device. The launch is slated for later this week and we will be bringing you all the details you need for the same. Before that though, let’s take a look at what we already know about the device.
The device was expected to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. However, a couple of Samsung tablets stole the show with Samsung Galaxy S8 being mentioned in an announcement that said that the device will actually be unveiled near the end of the month. So, it was actually an announcement of an announcement. In the interim though, a pretty clear picture of the S8 device has come to the fore, both from official announcements, and through leaks and inside information.
Samsung is not exactly known for its subtlety. And the upcoming devices (yes, in keeping with the trend Samsung is launching a plus version as well) are said to sport large screens. While the Galaxy S8 is expected to pack a 5.7-inch screen, the Plus variant is likely to squeeze in another 5-inches and stand at a gigantic 6.2-inches. The S8 is also bumping up the resolution and will pack 2960 x 1440 pixels into the display. By way of contrast, the S7 had a display resolution of around 2560 x 1440 pixels.
Predictably, the device removes some more bezels and Samsung is likely to arrive at its goal of a truly bezel-less device in a couple more iterations. The home button has bid an adieu as well and fingerprint tracking has been shifted to the back of the device. This is keeping with what a lot of other manufacturers have also been doing. To be fair, I have always found the sensors on the back to be more comfy. It could be just me though.
The devices are expected to pack s Snapdragon 835 processor. On the battery front– a touchy point for the company — Samsung is likely to have decided to err on the safer side and the batteries we have been hearing about, stood at 3,000 and 3,500 mAh for the S8 and S8+ respectively. That is pretty modest for a device that is likely to have gone overboard almost everywhere else however, Samsung is not about to take any risks where its battery is involved.
Finally, the company is reportedly going ahead with its own AI. Called Bixby, the AI is expected to be one step ahead of competitors with things like intra-device availability in the future and a significantly deeper integration with third party applications.
While announcing the AI, Samsung had said:
Starting with our smartphones, Bixby will be gradually applied to all our appliances. In the future you would be able to control your air conditioner or TV through Bixby. Since Bixby will be implemented in the cloud, as long as a device has an internet connection and simple circuitry to receive voice inputs, it will be able to connect with Bixby. As the Bixby ecosystem grows, we believe Bixby will evolve from a smartphone interface to an interface for your life.
We will be enhancing this post with any other updates that come to mind, before the launch of the device. Keep watching this space and stay tuned.
