Samsung Galaxy S8: Release Date Of Samsung’s New Flagship Moved To April 2017 [Rumor]

Ever since the untimely demise of Samsung’s last year’s flagship phablet the Galaxy Note7, most of us connected to the tech world were awaiting Samsung’s product strategy going forward. More importantly, there were concerns about how the Galaxy Note7 fiasco would affect the development, production and eventually the release date of the Samsung Galaxy S8 – the still mythical, yet to be announced flagship handset from the Korean manufacturer. Samsung is usually known to announce or at least showcase its next generation Galaxy S devices on or on the eve of the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain – every year. Will the trend continue this year as well?

Let us find out!

If we are to believe fresh rumors circling amidst international tech circles, Samsung could push back the official announcement of the handset to April, followed by an official global launch a few weeks later. According to the Express UK, the company is reportedly planning to hold a standalone event at New York in April where it will showcase the new handset officially for the first time. We still do not know if the event would also be used as a platform to announce other products – but the focus would certainly be on the Galaxy S8. The event could also be used to announce the company’s plans with the Galaxy Note lineup. Will the company continue to make its Note series in the light of the negative publicity attached to the sub-brand? We can merely speculate at this point.

New high-res Samsung Galaxy S8 Edge case renders crop up, missing home button https://t.co/3AxMoSUtdy

— Pocketnow (@Pocketnow) January 13, 2017

While it would be foolish to expect Samsung to show us what the Galaxy S8 looks like now, there have been a few videos doing the rounds of the interweb which could probably give us a hint. Now, note that these are mere speculations at this point of time. Recent videos posted by Samsung promoting their new AMOLED displays showcase an unnamed handset which many people believe could be the Samsung Galaxy 8. What makes the videos interesting is the fact the design of the handset is close to what we have been hearing about the Galaxy S8 in rumors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAmo0C1kpoE

The unnamed handset shown in the video has a high screen-to-body ratio, lacks a home button, and there is no sign of a fingerprint scanner. We have had rumors about the possibility of the Galaxy S8 incorporating its fingerprint scanner on the display. Anyway, as of now, we have no way of confirming if this was Samsung’s sly introduction of the Galaxy S8 or if it is supposed to be an entirely new lineup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GetTzSSaTf0

Coming to the features the new Samsung Galaxy S8 could sport, current reports talk about the handset getting Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 835 System-on-chip. There is also a high possibility of a variant that would sport Samsung’s upcoming Exynos chips. There is no word on the display size – but it would be more or less the same size as that of the current Galaxy S7 lineup. Another major speculation currently doing the rounds is if Samsung would go ahead and remove the 3.5mm audio jack on the Galaxy S8 and opt for a completely digital solution like in the case of the Apple iPhone 7. That said, if the video above was indeed of the Galaxy S8, the company is likely to keep using the good old audio jack.

Samsung has in the past, too, reverted to “older” technologies after it faced consumer backlash over the removal of some features. For example, the Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 series skipped a microSD card slot for memory expansion. This move came under severe criticism from customers owing to which the company decided to equip the S7 series and the Note 7 with a memory card slot.

[Featured Image by Pixabay]