The most leaked phone of 2017 will make an official entrance tonight at 11PM MST. It’s no secret that Samsung will unbox its sexiest flagship yet – the Galaxy S8 in New York. Are you excited? Are you ready?
Short of being official, here’s what we know, based on what’s ‘out there’ now.
There will be two variants of the S8 flagship – a standard Galaxy S8 and a bigger Galaxy S8 Plus. The Galaxy S8 will sport a 5.8-inch display, while the Plus will feature a whopping 6.2-incher. With the new phones, Samsung is changing up the screen ratio, from 16:9 to 18.5:9. It seems like a new trend, first teased with the LG G6.
There is a perfectly good reason for the new ratio. It packs more screen real estate, while not making the overall chassis bigger.
The S8 will be a curvy phone. Dual-curved on the front and back, to be exact. It’s reminiscent of the Galaxy Note7. Both variants are identical in design and finish, only differing in screen size.
The overall design will look familiar, if you’re moving from the S6 or S7. The glaring difference though, is the edge-to-edge, bezel-less display. It’s gorgeous.
Missing also is the physical Home button. Samsung has moved the fingerprint scanner to the rear, now to the right of the camera module. You’ll now have to depend on onscreen input for Android’s Home, Back and Recent buttons.
With the fingerprint scanner now at the rear, the S8 will support facial recognition and iris scanning for front-facing unlock.
Renowned bearer of leaked news Evan Blass has revealed that the S8 will come with several colours including Black Sky, Orchid Grey, and Arctic Silver. Also expected are Gold and Blue.
As far as hardware specifications go, the S8 and S8 Plus will share the latest Qualcomm SoC – the Snapdragon 835. For selected markets like Malaysia, it may feature Samsung’s own Exynos 8895. The dynamic duo is expected to pack a minimum of 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
Unlike the current trend of dual-camera setups, Samsung is sticking to its guns with a 12MP dual-pixel main shooter. No details yet if they’re using a faster lens, or otherwise. The front could be bumped to 8MP.
With the new flagship series, Samsung is integrating an AI-powered personal assistant called Bixby. How will Bixby stack up to Apple’s Siri and the Google Assistant? We’ll see.
Battery-wise, we’re likely to see a 3,000mAh on the S8, with fast-charging via USB-C.
Lastly, the S8 will have a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Now that you’ve got a whiff, don’t miss the Unpacked event live from New York at 11PM tonight, 29 March 2017.
Head over to www.samsung.com/my
#UnboxYourPhone #iCantWait
