After the complete and utter catastrophe of the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung will attempt to rebound with their other flagship handset. The Galaxy S8 isn’t due to be released for a few months, but there have been rumors circling about the successor to the S7 Edge (Seen above), a handset that won Mobile Choice Consumer Awards’ “Phone of the Year.” The first alleged photo of the upcoming Galaxy S8 Edge was leaked and there is something missing – no home button.
#Samsung – #GalaxyS8 – Alleged first Galaxy S8 edge live picture leaks out https://t.co/9cpKKQ5uwD pic.twitter.com/reKHCVjJz3
— /LEAKS (@Slashleaks) January 5, 2017
With no home button, the handset beasts an increased screen-to-bezel ratio. The capacitive buttons that flank the home button are also gone, instead a Samsung logo sits on the bottom of the phone. The lack of home button and capacitive buttons looks much like the LG V20, an android phone which benefitted from the Mariah Carey-like disaster that was the Note 7.
From BGR:
What’s strange about the image, SamMobile notes, is that the on-screen navigation buttons aren’t there to replace the capacitive ones. They should be visible when you head into Settings or any other app, rather than hiding automatically. This may indicate the picture is either a Photoshop job or we’re looking at Samsung’s way of increasing the screen at the expense of the navigation buttons, which may go into hiding when not needed. Of course, there’s also a rumor or two floating around that Samsung plans to copy Apple’s 3D Touch functionality in some way, so that’s another possibility.
The phone features the curved display that Samsung has embraced in their latest flagship models. With the CES 2017 officially kicking off on Thursday, the timing of this leak is suspect.
The Galaxy S8 is expected to be released in April. There are rumors that there will be two Galaxy S8 handsets, the regular Galaxy S8 model, and the Galaxy S8 Plus. There are reports that the Galaxy S8 will have a display of around 5 inches in size, but the S8 Plus will go BIG. The Galaxy S8 Plus is rumored to boast a 6-inch AMOLED panel, which is even larger than the Note 7 that had a 5.7-inch screen. There are also rumors that the Galaxy S8 Plus will be equipped with Samsung’s S Pen stylus which usually ships with the Galaxy Note. This could be an attempt to win back the phablet users who loved the functionality of the S Pen stylus.
Another new feature expected in the S8 will be the “Bixby” AI assistant. The new smart assistant will be used in almost all of the Galaxy S8’s native applications and will be “significantly more advanced, and more contextually aware than S Voice (Samsung’s current digital assistant).” Bixby will be so advanced that users will be able to ask it to show specific photos or videos – based on custom criteria – while inside the Samsung Gallery app. Bixby is said to utilize technology from Viv, a personal assistant that Samsung bought earlier this year.
One feature that might be going away much to the chagrin of many is the headphone jack. Yes, following Apple’s lead, Samsung may also do away with the standard 3.5mm headphone jack.
From SamMobile:
We can exclusively confirm that Samsung is going to remove the standard 3.5mm headphone jack from the Galaxy S8. This means that all of your existing headphones will not be compatible with the upcoming flagship unless you use a USB Type-C adapter as the Galaxy S8 will feature a USB Type-C port. This also means that you won’t be able to plug in the Galaxy S8 and use wired headphones at the same time.
Another feature Samsung hopes to discontinue is exploding batteries.