OUR DIFFERENCES
Samsung has seen its stock and reputation suffer in the market this year, especially with the issue of explosions that rocked the units of the Galaxy Note 7 and one cannot blame them for wanting to overdo themselves. This has made them want to create what is to be a very large ripple in the water next year when they launch the flagship, or flagships as the case may be, that they have prepared for this time frame. The year 2016 looked like the year when Samsung got everything right with the launch of the Galaxy S7 and its curved screen variant, the Galaxy S7 Edge, which were not only widely received and praised by even those that have been the major critics of the OEM in the past, but it also spoke high of the kind of great technology that was still to come in the form of the Note handheld that the South Korean OEM still had up its sleeves. They had finally broken the jinx that saw them always mess up when it came to their flagships for the year and things were looking up. Then came the Galaxy Note 7 which packed enough sensors to power a small airplane and its arrival into the market was met with such stunning reviews that even Samsung might have started to jitter at the kind of pressure that they have mounted upon themselves to do better in the coming years. The happiness they might have had was short lived though as the first case of explosion rocked a unit of the device, and after that, some others followed suit. Even the replacement program couldn’t save them from this fiasco and have been using the current Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge to stay relevant in the market, and it would soon be time before these took the bow and handed over the key of the central stage to their sibling coming next year – the Galaxy S8.
According to rumours coming out of everywhere in Asia and beyond, we have gleaned so far that Samsung is looking at a very advanced kind of technology on this one, and one of the most striking features of the coming device would be its front panel which would be purely based on screens with very little bezels left to the sight. There were also the talks that Samsung would ditch the home button on the Galaxy S8, which sounds logical if they are really going for cutting the bezels in all the way that they can, but that move would see them embed the fingerprint scanner into the screen of the handset, taking a leaf from the book of Apple that had already introduced the 3D Touch technology. Making things further interesting now is the rumor that the S8 would also follow in the steps of the flagships before it and offer itself invariants to the market, helping users to choose which one bests suit them.
If the news flying around these days is anything to put our money on, then, there is the chance that we get a Galaxy S8 device that would sport 5.7 inches of screen and another one that would border on the line of phablets with a bigger 6.2 inches of screen. Unlike the other Galaxy flagship variants which have only been different in the orientation and technology of screen – one being flat (regular) and the other carrying curves on both sides (Edge) – the design for next year is expected to be based on curved screen technology only, making them be in roughly the same size category as the S7 and S7 Edge in the end.
Likewise, following the recent splash of billions of dollars by the Galaxy handset manufacturer on the acquisition of Harman technologies, it is believed that the Galaxy S8 and all of its variants would be treated to a special stereo speaker arrangement that would see the Galaxy handset become the first from this manufacturer to carry dual speakers on the front. Being a first, it is not considered a surprise that this change is coming at this point given that Apple also employed the same kind of technology this year in their recent flagships – the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
Even though Samsung had unwillingly gifted Apple a considerable amount of its market share when the ill fate of the Note 7 reached a climax, they still have some loyalists left in the market and these are the people that Samsung wishes to impress with their all great design on the S8. There is no indication to suggest that Samsung is still going to continue with the Note series or otherwise but before we get to that bridge, they would surely love to get back some of their customers from their iOS rival and doing it big, like the Galaxy S8, is just the perfect way to go.
Samsung has already promised that they would be officially unveiling the new flagship ahead of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) this coming February of next year in Barcelona of Spain so it is possible that we get even more definitive leaks and some official statements to prepare us for what they would be launching on that day. For now, it is advised that you take anything you hear with a considerable pinch of salt till we hear from the horse’s mouth.
