Update [November 14, 2016]: Moreover, we’ve heard tidbits about Samsung also looking to include the Force Touch capable display on the Galaxy S8, which, even if not adding much as convenience, is a nice marketing gimmick, one that will allow Samsung to go toe-to-toe with Apple’s own 3D touch enabled display in iPhone.
Update [November 06, 2016]: Sansung’s Vice President, Rhee In-jong, today revealed that Samsung’s own AI voice recognition software will come pre-installed on Galaxy S8, which will be pretty different than the ones like Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana, etc. So, that acquisition of Viv labs, and then subsequent trademark filing of an AI software by name of Bixby, look set to materialise in the form of Bixby AI, although the name isn’t confirmed yet. Shouldn’t Samsung stick to Google Assistant, though? Thoughts?
Update [November 03, 2016]: We have mentioned many a times below in our rumor-roundup of all things Galaxy S8, that Samsung will be chipping in its own Assistant software with the Galaxy S*, and from the looks of it, it doesn’t look like it will be the S Voice or its modified advanced version or the like. Rather, with the acquisition of Viv Labs, who have their own AI software, and are the developers of Siri too, Samsung was poised to use the Viv’s software, which we now think they will definitely do, as we just discovered Samsung filing a trademark for a product called Bixby, an AI software.
Bixby’s product description consists of a product that would be of your Virtual Assistant (AI) like the Google Assistant, Siri, Cortana, etc. You can find the filing doc here.
Update [November 01, 2016]: Uh, we think Samsung would be able to bring a full-screen display for the Galaxy S8. Which means, Galaxy S8 could sport a bezel-less display, that goes almost border-to-border at all four edges of the device. Why? Well, because Samsung display chief says that his company will be able to create such a display for next year, that will have the screen-to-body ratio of more than 90%.
If you reckon Mi Mix, the 6.4″ behemoth released only few days back, Xiaomi was able to do just that, claiming it had 93% screen-to-body ratio, even though real-world reports speak of 85%. If you haven’t, then check out the Galaxy S8 concept, which is based on the rumors we’ve heard so far about the S8.
Moreover, this is in alignment with other rumors pointing to use of optical fingerprint scanner by Samsung for the Galaxy S8 and S8 Edge, removing the need for a physical button up front. The display itself will serve as fingerprint sensor in this case, which also aligns with the Samsung’s wish of deploying on-screen buttons on the Galaxy S8.
The Galaxy S8 is shaping up to be pretty slick and modern device already, right?
Update [October 27, 2016]: Samsung would bring in a new quality control system beginning with the Galaxy S8, to make sure none of its future device suffer the same fate as the Galaxy Note 7. The company is yet to find the reason behind the Note 7 fisaco, but with the Galaxy S8, where the Korean giant will be beconomic betting very high, it would make the device go through the new and improved quality control system. At the earnings call today, Samsung reported that its operating profit from mobile division fell as much as 96% compared to last year’s quarter. That’s a tell-tale sign Samsung Galaxy S8 would be given every effort Samsung could to make it its bestseller device.
Also, Wall Street Journal reported that Lee Jae-yong, company’s new member on Board of directors and Vice chairman, has revealed to them that the next year’s flagship, the Galaxy S8, will feature a ‘slick design and improved camera.’ And that it will have it own Artificial intelligence, something which we come to expect ever since Samsung acquired Viv labs, whose earlier product was Siri (Apple’s AI now). Read more below about Viv labs AI and why Samsung needs it more than ever, given that Google is touting its Assistant as a selling feature for its Pixel and Pixel XL sets.
Update [October 25, 2016]: Another leak from China pits some more light on the Galaxy S8 specs. Actually, it’s S8 Edge specifications list. Even though we know that shedding some light on Galaxy S8 specs is a trend that will keep going on — chiefly from Chinese and Korean sources — we have made our mind up to enjoy this S8 Specs ride, have you? So, what we here is that Galaxy S8 Edge is all set to feature a 5.5-inch display harboring the 4K display, which is good news for VR lovers as higher resolution does matter for the VR tech.
Then we have something for nerd-lovers too. There is a talk of 6GB RAM, and a choice of 8GB too, coupled with what is expected to be the best in industry by the time Galaxy S8 releases, the Snapdragon 830 processor. Now, the SD830 chip is expected to power S8 units in US, while the burden for Asian and European markets could come on Exynos 8890, Samsung’s in-house processor against the SD830 itself, and based on same 10nm tech as the later is famed for.
Look below and you will know that this isn’t the first time 5.5″ 4K display and SD830 processor have been tipped for the S8 Edge. As you can see in the image below, which is the source of this rumor, there is no column for the Galaxy S8, so, we have to find till this source makes one such comparison with Galaxy S8 specs.
Look below for more rumors out of the above leak, the price and release date.
Update [October 20, 2016]: With all the release and winding up of Note 7 taking place in last few months, it made Samsung look for an alternate source for batteries that will be housed inside the back of Galaxy S8 and S8 Edge. For the uninitiated, here’s a quick brief. Samsung blamed its SDI sister concern for faulty batteries when reports of Note 7 exploding came up, but then when even the replaced Note 7 units powered by other Samsung battery partner, ATL (China), exploded, Samsung took the Note 7 off the streets.
So, this time around, for its next big launch, the Galaxy S8, Samsung is holding talks with LG to supply batteries for the S8. It’s not final yet, as they will have to sort out few things first because it takes some six months for the whole process of identifying battery requirements to supplying them — after testing, of course! Both LG and Samsung are world-wide Korean competitors in many, many products, and it can be said they refrain from using each other’s parts for the most part, except that LG Innotek currently supplies Samsung its camera modules. Well, even if Samsung SDI and ATL could make safe batteries for the Galaxy S8, the fact Samsung is using LG batteries would be more pleasing to people looking to buy Galaxy S8.
Update [October 19, 2016]: Because everything is in rumors right now, it gains some additional importance that usual when a report comes out that suppliers of camera modules and other camera related items are pretty happy these days, as they believe their sales would receive a good deal of a boost upon Samsung opting for the dual-camera setup on the Galaxy S8 Edge (the regular S8 may not have that privilege, read below to know more). It’s simple math: dual-camera option means Samsung would need two camera modules per Galaxy S8 Edge, and thus double the demand for the camera supplier’s product, and higher their sales numbers.
And it would have a rippling effect, too, as other OEMs would also opt for the dual-camera setup once Samsung makes theirs official. Yeah, you could say these suppliers should thank Apple for fitting the dual-cameras with their iPhone 7 Plus — something many would believe is why Samsung is finally opting for two camera setup on S8 Edge’s back. Anyway, it’s definitely good news for components suppliers, who we think would have suffered some losses too, due to Note 7’s discontinuation. Check out the rumored specs below, and the Galaxy S8 release date, which is expected to be February 26, 2017.
Update [October 17, 2016]: Samsung’s newest chip that is based on 10nm process, one which we expect the keep the lights on on the Galaxy S8, has entered production, Samsung just announced. With the Galaxy S8 launch set for Feb 26, around 4 months or so, it’s about time Samsung started producing the next gen 10nm process dedicated chip. There are rumors that Qualcomm will ask Samsung to produce the Snapdragon 830 processor for them, based on this very tech, as Samsung seems to have mastered it.
Update [October 14, 2016]: No matter how strange it sounds, it’s being reported that Samsung is already working on the Galaxy S8 firmware. Yes, you’d expect them to be spending some quality time readying the Nougat software update for the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, but no, software news leak is all about Galaxy S8 right now.
Though, we can think of one reason as to why this may be happening. For one, as we reported earlier that Samsung is planning to add Viv AI to the S8 — it acquired Viv labs earlier, you know — and that integration is what that might be requiring Samsung engineering to burn the midnight oil already. After, Samsung is looking to take on massive software AIs like Google Assistant and Apple’s Siri — they’re definitely gonna need a whole lot of testing and such for this, then. But let’s hope some new breaks out as regards Galaxy S7 Nougat too, or at least an hint of Nougat update like on Sprint S7 and HTC 10. BTW, while we’re talking updates, do check out our Samsung AIO list of devices that would and wouldn’t be in line for Nougat update.
Update [October 11, 2016]: We already knew about the Galaxy S8’s two variants, both of which would be curved one as Samsung was rumored to drop the flat screen panels for the S8. Now, we’re hearing that one of those two variants will be a 5.1″ device, housing the Quad HD 2K display, while the other one, Galaxy S8 Edge possibly, would come with 5.5″ 4K display. Yes, 4K. 4K! One more time, 4K!
That’s not all today’s rumor brings to us. We’re hearing that Samsung’s latest acquisition, Viv, an Artificial Intelligence dedicated company, will come to fruition too. As, rumors paint a picture when your call to AI will be answered by Viv, and not the Samsung’s earlier in-house solution, S Voice (goodbye!). Sadly, it won’t be Google Assistant. Now you get it, this is why Google made the Pixel phones. Because OEMs don’t like to love Google Assistant (earlier Google Now) a lot. We see it, Google, and we appreciate your move.
And about that dual-camera setup, you know, it’s being said that this would be exclusive to Galaxy S8 Edge — if you see a trend here that was started by Apple, we don’t blame you. As Apple did exactly that by making its dual-camera a iPhone 7 Plus only deal. At the time when Google announced the Pixel and Pixel XL, without any discrimination in spec-sheet, this sounds rather too Samsung-ish of even Samsung. Let’s not forget that the Galaxy S8 release is nearly set in stone. See the link below to know more about that.
Also read: Galaxy S8 release
Moreover, it will be powered by 10nm tech processor, Snapdragon 830 (US) and Exynos 8890 (other markets, global). Performance boost is said to be huge for CPU, and even more for the GPU chip, compared to the chips powering the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. Numbers not available.
Even the RAM will be based on certain new tech, LPDDR4X, while the internal storage is said to be using next-gen UFS2.1 tech.
Last but not the least, some pics, man!
Would you desperately want a Galaxy S8 with S Pen in lieu of Note 7?
Update [October 08, 2016]: A swing of new rumors has come our way, and we gotta say it’s more surprising than the surprising rumors we’re expecting. First up, the physical Home button could be gone on Samsung Galaxy S8. (Yes, this could lead to that button disappearing on the whole Galaxy line of Samsung devices in future, but we’ll stick to Galaxy S8 for now.)
Do tell us for how long you wanted this on the Galaxy S set. We’ve been hoping for this ever since Google released the Galaxy Nexus carrying the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade with on-screen buttons.
Anyway, the Home button would be part of the screen (finally!) and could still even serve you as fingerprint scanner, because Samsung can. Yes, they mean that the display will know how to deal when you place your finger where the on-screen Home button resides, even with screen off, to allow you to unlock the device easily. Sounds great, sure, but we are more eager to see it in action.
Secondly, Samsung already have no bezels on the its one device (the explosive one, got it?), so it may move on to remove the bezels from top and bottom too, giving you a complete true-to-letter full-screen mobile phone. Well, these are only rumors so we won’t delve too much into this, but what you just read is what is being said. Where will go the earpiece if Samsung uses the whole of Galaxy S8 front for display? And the sensors? Okay, maybe a little bit of space up top the front which will house them all, so this design is indeed practically implementable.
Third and last, as was reported earlier too (see below), the dual camera setup looks like a done deal now for the Galaxy S8. Not fully done, actually, as Samsung is said to be undecided on whether to keep it 2-in-1 camera setup, or have them in 1+1 style. This means huge difference.
That’s about the rumors, but let’s delve a bit more into this.
Galaxy S8 camera: Difference between dual-camera and separate dual cameras
A 2-in-1 dual-camera setup is what you’ve seen on HTC One M8, where one camera takes the pic while other measures the depth of field to blur the background and get you awesome pics. Under this, one camera can be called primary camera, while the other one that measures depth, could be a slightly low-profile secondary camera.
However, under the 1+1 setup, both cameras are equally powerful, though may be for different purpose (and thus different specs), most obvious of which is: one with wide aperture for clicking closer pics, while the other one with a bit narrow aperture for far-away pics, when you need to zoom in. This is what Apple has brought in iPhone 7 Plus.
Galaxy S8: Why the radical change?
Well, the changes were due. As we said above, we’ve been looking forward to Samsung ditching the physical Home button in favor of on-screen for long. So, kudos to Samsung for acknowledging this, but it’s just ironical that it came at the same time when rumors are also floating around about Apple planning to do the same in the next iPhone. Too bad? Think that’s what Samsung needed to finally accept Google’s vision of on-screen buttons?
About the bezel-less Galaxy S8, well, bezel-less devices have been rumored for long, and with the Galaxy Note 7, and its refreshing awesome looks thanks to no bezels and narrowly curved edges, the possibility of bezel-less Samsung device only grew.
As for the dual-camera, once again, with Apple opting for it, it’s sad to feel like this that it had to come to Galaxy S too now. Though, Android OEMs have been doing this for years, most popularly with HTC One M8. Many Huawei phones also sport the dual-camera setup, while HTC’s Evo 3D was the first to adopt it.
So, what are you thoughts?
Update (08 September 2016): New reports emerging from South Korean news channel indicate that following the massive success of curved-screen-only Note 7, added to the fact that S7 Edge’s sales outclassed that if its own non-curved sibling, the Galaxy S7, by good margin, while also considering the last year’s heart-breaking event (for Samsung!) when the company was unable to meet S6 Edge’s demand because of shortage of curvy displays (it didn’t anticipate the Edge variant to be that much of a success really!), it seems that the Korean Giant has decided — with good strength and clarity of mind, we guess — that the age of flat screen flagships is gone. Or at least as far as their own flagships are concerned.
If this comes true, you would see two variants of Galaxy S8, both curved, but display sizes at 5.1″ (S8) and 5.5″. Which doesn’t looks bad to us, but we would like to know your thoughts as well. So, that’s your rumored Galaxy S8 specs as far as display is concerned.
Ah, what those Galaxy S8 sets will be identified by, well perhaps Galaxy S8 Edge, and Galaxy S8 Edge Plus. Hmm? Maybe with the Galaxy S9, we will see Samsung drop the Edge from its moniker altogether.
If you ask us, well, not only does it look like Samsung has good enough production of curved displays in its hand, but we won’t be surprised if this time around next year — after astounding success of S8 that will wow users with best display, best camera, etc. stuff along with mediocre UI (yes, same store!) — that Samsung plans to release devices in the moniker of A5 Edge, A7 Edge, J5 Edge, J7 Edge, A9 Edge, E5 Edge, S7 Edge, etc. Would you be surprised?
Original article:
Following the astounding success of Galaxy Note 7, the anticipation of Galaxy S8 will be easily all time high for the next iteration of the Samsung’s S Series member, the Galaxy S8. Today, new specs have emerged, where it’s being reported the rear camera of the S8 will feature dual-camera setup, with 12MP and 13MP sensors inside, while the front camera will see an upgrade to 8MP.
That sounds outright delicious, right? We’re sure the new Grace UX from Note 7, and everything else software-wise from Note 7 — except S-Pen specifics code tidbits — will make it to S8 too, with Android 7.0 Nougat at base, or maybe Android 7.1.
The 12 MP sensor is rumored to be developed by Samsung itself, dubbed as S5K2L2, while the other sensor that combines with first one to complete the camera setup on Galaxy S8 is said to be Sony’s 13MP gizmo unit, whose specific model is not known yet.
Read: Galaxy S6 Nougat update
Talking about Galaxy S8 rumors, it’s also expected that S8 will give Virtual Reality (VR) platform a serious thought, and grand advertisement. S8 could sport an awesome 4K display for that only reason. More the pixels available, the better is your experience in VR.
Till date, Samsung has been open about its affection to VR — the Gear VR with Note 7 is the proof — but with S8, VR could become the device’s main highlight feature that would be part of the TV Ads too, and Samsung could up its efforts to make more VR content available.
The Galaxy S8 is rumored to be dubbed as ‘Project Dream’ at Samsung HQs, and its next processor is said to be incorporating 10nm process.
Galaxy S8 and S8 Edge Price
Oh, it also mentioned the Galaxy S8 Edge price, which is 6000 yuan, around $885. Not very surprising, right?
What do you say?
Galaxy S8 On screen keys confirmed
As you can see in the leaked image above, that brings us S8 Edge specs, the resolution of the device is set to 3840 x 2160 pixels. Now, we know that 4K display’s resolution is set to 4096 x 2160. So what about the difference between 4096 and 3840 pixels? Well, that’s the area occupied by on screen keys.
Until we have a benchmark listing, it’s hard to confirm this, but we shall have that too around January end at the last. Thoughts?
Galaxy S8 Specs so far
Here’s what Galaxy S8 specsheet looks like right now.
- 5.1 2K display for S8, while 5.5″ 4K display for S8 Edge (both using slim sAMOLED tech)
- 4GB RAM for S8, while 6GB/8GB RAM for S8 Edge (both based on LPDDR4X)
- UFS2.1 storage (should be 32 GB and 128 GB variants like Pixels)
- Snapdragon 830/Exynos 8890 processor, based on 10nm tech
- Viv AI (replaces S Voice)
- No physical home button, goodbye ! (confirmed again, see above)
- Dual-camera for the S8 Edge, perhaps black color edition too
- Feb 27 release looks likely
- No Galaxy S8 Plus, no S Pen
Via MyDrivers | ETnews | KoreaHerald
