The Galaxy S7 has been one of the best Android smartphones of 2016. The Galaxy Note 7….not so much. Samsung is looking to bounce back after the Note 7 debacle and knows it needs to win back the trust of consumers. Fortunately, there are already rumors of what the new Galaxy S8 will have.
Screen
According to reliable tech insider Evan Blass from VentureBeat, the S8 will again feature an edge to edge display, but this time, both versions will have the display. Previously, the S6 and S7 both featured edge variants and regular flat panel variants. Instead, the bezel-less S8 will come in two screen sizes: 5.7” and 6.2”. There are conflicting reports on the screen resolution. Some reports say it will be upped to a 4K display while others say it will keep the quad-HD or “2K” display. Another screen rumor is that the front display will be button-less and have an integrated fingerprint sensor right into the display or an optical sensor just below the display that will enable Samsung to make the display bigger without actually making the physical size of the device bigger.
Samsung Assistant
This one’s not actually a rumor, but confirmed by Samsung itself. The Galaxy S8 will unveil a new digital assistant called Viv which will compete with Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and the Google Assistant. Samsung announced that they would be purchasing Viv Labs Inc., which was actually ran by a co-creator of Siri. Samsung looks to expand the voice assistant into many of its existing wearables and home appliances.
Like Apple, Like Samsung
There was a lot of buzz surrounding Apple’s omission of the 3.5mm headphone jack in the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. It looks like Samsung is following in Apple footsteps as Samsung enthusiast website SamMobile confirmed that Samsung will remove the headphone jack on the Galaxy S8. Whatever your opinion on removing the ubiquitous jack is, this move is here to stay. With major smartphone OEMs like Apple and Samsung removing the headphone jack on their flagship smartphones, look for other OEMs to follow suit as well.
Other Rumors
Reportedly, Samsung is working with recently acquired Harman to improve the S8’s audio chops and develop integrated speakers. Samsung will also join the USB Type-C bandwagon by ditching mini-USB. Many other Android OEMs have already switched to USB Type-C charging ports such as HTC and OnePlus. Finally, Samsung will officially unveil the Galaxy S8 at Mobile World Congress in February.
