Thursday, December 29, 2016

Samsung Galaxy S8 rumored to come with ditch Physical Keys, Note 7-like S Pen as external accessory

There's a lot riding on Samsung's next flagship given how the past year has witnessed the fall of the Galaxy Note 7. The upcoming Galaxy S8 flagship smartphone has been subject to a ton of rumours, the latest of which being that Samsung may offer an external S-Pen stylus and an Exynos 8895 chipset variant. Another rumour suggests the Galaxy S8 will lack physical buttons.

Until now, the S Pen had been exclusive to the Samsung Galaxy Note series of large-screen smartphones. However, in light of the official execution of the Note 7 from the market, the stylus could help consumers deal with the inflammation better and also seamlessly upgrade to the Galaxy S8. Now, given the requirement for the use of a stylus is a large screen display, the latest rumor falls in line with earlier speculations about the upcoming Galaxy S8 featuring display sizes from 5.1-inch and going up to a massive 6.1-inch.

Additionally, it could also mean that the South Korea-based company is yet again trying to take on arch rival Apple. The California-based company has filed a patent which reveals that a future iPhone could come with a stylus that will allow text entry, doodling, annotations, and more. Although Apple’s upcoming iPhone 8 is unlikely to come with the stylus, but given the company’s recent shift towards large-display smartphones after the iPhone 6 Plus and later, a stylus-based iPhone isn’t too far from reality.

Android Police's David Ruddock says the Galaxy S8 will ditch physical keys, completely, and switch to "all soft keys with 3D Touch-like functionality." He adds that soft keys may be customisable, while the fingerprint scanner may go to the back of the phone - though the in-display fingerprint scanner remains a possibility.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S8 – Samsung’s only hope at having a better start to 2017 and turn around its fate – is expected to come in multiple variants with one boasting a massive 6-inch display. It is expected to be powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 835 SoC or Exynos 8895 chipset, depending upon the region. It is further rumored to feature up to 8GB of RAM along with onboard storage options of 128GB and 256GB.

READ : Samsung Galaxy S8 Leak Hints At 6-Inch Display, 8GB Of RAM, UFS 2.1 Flash Storage

The purported Samsung Galaxy S8 is likely to offer a dual rear camera module and come with a pair of 16-megapixel camera with RGB sensor and an 8-megapixel camera with monochrome sensor. For selfies, it is expected to come with a camera with auto focus capabilities. Other features include optical fingerprint sensor, water and dust resistance capabilities, and a 4,200mAh battery with wireless charging capabilities. On the software front, the Galaxy S8 is expected to run on Android Nougat 7.1.1 out-of-the-box.