SamMobile is reporting today that Samsung's next-generation Galaxy S8 smartphone will replace the physical Home button with a non-moving variant embedded right behind its AMOLED screen. The firm is also said to adopt USB-C for charging and data transfer and ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack to make the phone thinner and lighter.
The Galaxy S8 should be unveiled in February 2017 and could beat Apple's rumored iPhone 8 to the virtual Home button.
As we reported, Samsung last month bought Viv Labs, a San Jose startup co-founded by former Siri creators who have developed a brand new Viv artificial intelligence assistant. The Galaxy maker has now confirmed to Reuters that it will be integrating Viv technology into an advanced personal digital assistant of its own.
Samsung's Viv-based AI assistant will debut on next year's Galaxy S8. According to The Wall Street Journal, the handset should have a dedicated button to summon the new service though the Galaxy S8 may be delayed until April following the costly Note 7 debacle rather than at the Mobile World Congress trade show in February.
Unperturbed by its ill-fated Note 7 flagship, which Samsung has now permanently stopped building due to ongoing battery woes, development of a next-generation Galaxy smartphone is in full swing. Reportedly, the troubled South Korean company is “paying extra careful attention” towards the development of the Galaxy S8.
That's not just because of quality control issues with the Note 7, but also due to the fact that the Galaxy S8 packs in some “huge” hardware and design changes, according to a new report Tuesday from Korean news site ET News.
Although Samsung's latest Galaxy S7 flagship smartphone series proudly boasts the 3.5mm headphone jack, the South Korean conglomerate may also remove the industry-standard jack from its next-gen Galaxy S8, reports Digital Music News. Internally code-named “Dream” (Galaxy S8) and “Dream2” (Galaxy S8 Edge), these devices may replace the 3.5mm jack with a proprietary port.
The company is said to be “actively” and “aggressively” exploring the possibility of releasing a proprietary headphone jack to see how viable it would be.
Samsung's Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, along with the recently launched Note 7, may not be enough to steal Apple's thunder as the Cupertino firm preps to unveil its next iPhone on September 7.
According to the rumors, a sophisticated dual-lens camera system is expected to give the iPhone 7 DSLR-like features with RAW camera capture, optical zoom, better lowlight photography and more.
With that in mind, little wonder that Samsung is now reportedly looking to update its flagship smartphone line with dual cameras of its own.