Are you sick of it yet? The Samsung Galaxy S8 rumour-mill. I think I am. Is there anything we don’t know just yet? Well, it’s time for what is seemingly your daily dose of Galaxy S8 rumours — this time courtesy of KGI Securities.
Yesterday we saw the Galaxy S8 show up in the wild again as well as some shots from case and skin manufacturers. Today, KGI Securities, usually known for their iPhone rumours, have released their investor note regarding the Galaxy S8 release. Some of the information they have provided is already known but there are a few new interesting tidbits.
Ming-Chi Kuo from KGI Securities “confirms” that there will be two size variants, which we have already seen in the wild, 5.8in and 6.2in display versions. The smaller will have a battery size of just 3000mAh and the larger a 3500mAh. Not surprisingly, both are AMOLED displays with resolutions of 2960×2400 pixels. All displays will have the curved display and will all lack a physical home button. Kuo also says that the six cutouts at the top of the display that we have seen in the leaked images are for “a proximity sensor, ambient light sensor (ALS), IR-LED transmitter and receiver for iris recognition, front/ sub camera, and receiver.”
The much anticipated Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 will appear in the US, Japanese and Chinese models of the Galaxy S8 but the models for the European market and the rest of Asia will be powered by the Exynos 8895 processor. The South Korean and Chinese models will both receive 6GB of RAM while the rest of the world will receive 4GB (this is sounding like a lot of different SKUs will be required). The charging port, not surprisingly, will be USB Type-C.
The back of the phones will be covered in glass that will come in seven different colours — gold, silver, bright black, matte black, blue, orchid, and pink (it is unlikely we will see them all in Australia though based on previous experience). The back of the device will house the camera and to its right, the fingerprint sensor, as expected. The left of the camera will be the flash and the heart rate monitor.
The cameras will be 12MP for the rear camera and 8MP for the front camera — apparently Samsung believe that the dual rear camera option is too expensive and technology too immature to include.
Samsung is expecting to ship just 40-45 million units in 2017, down on the 52 million Galaxy S7 units that were shipped in 2016. How the Note 7 fiasco affects this number is unknown but it is not expected to amount to much if any negative affect.
The Galaxy S8 models will go on sale on April 21st and although this is US dates, we expect it to be as close to a worldwide release as is possible. If anyone in the Android world has the capapcity for a worldwide release it is Samsung. With the announcement of the Galaxy S8 not until the 29th of March we expect to see many more “leaks” and rumours before then, although I am not sure what is left to find out about it. One thing for sure, Samsung are certainly building up the hype for this device and will likely continue to do so until Thursday next week (Australian time).
Anything left you want to know about the Galaxy S8 models? Are you considering buying one? Should Samsung have included a dual camera like Huawei and LG have?
