Galaxy S8 reaches peak leak: release date, specs, and features
The Samsung Galaxy S8 seems to have reached the point in its pre-release timeline where we're privy to most of its release details. This is before Samsung has shared much of anything officially, of course, but with a phone this highly anticipated, there's little chance (it seems) that data leaks would occur. As such, we're running down all the details that we've gathered over the past several weeks, lining them up into the best picture of what Samsung will show off this Spring in the Galaxy S line of smartphones.
Features and Specifications
The Samsung Galaxy S8 will be released in two sizes. As it is with everything else we're writing about in this article, this is not an official statement from Samsung, but a very, very likely possibility given the information we've gathered over the past several weeks. It may seem that a 2-tier smartphone release from Samsung for the Galaxy S series is a new system at first – but it's not entirely unprecedented.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 was released with a big brother, as well – the Galaxy S7 Edge. This time around, it's slightly more likely than before that the Galaxy S series will go all-edgy, and will therefore remove the "Edge" from their name. As such, we'll have two Galaxy S8 devices, one standard size, one larger.
The set of specifications you're about to witness are gleaned from our past several weeks of gathering data from a wide variety of sources. All unofficial or otherwise anonymous to protect their own identity, these sources together have created a fairly precise picture of what we're to expect out of the Galaxy S8 and its larger sibling.
Samsung Galaxy S8• Display: 5.8-inch Super AMOLED with 1440 x 2650 pixel resolution (that's Quad HD, or 2K) with curved edges on left and right sides• Operating System: Android 7.1 Nougat• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 / Samsung Exynos 10-nm SoC dependent on region• RAM: 4GB RAM• Camera: Dual-lens 16MP/8MP(wide) back-facing camera with f/1.7 optics, 4K video recording abilities, dual-LED flash• Front-facing camera: 8-megapixel wide-angle lens with f/1.7 optics.• Internal Storage: 64GB with 256GB-capable microSD card slot for storage expansion• Other Features: Fingerprint scanner on back, Metal frame, Gorilla Glass front and back, Wireless charging, USB-C, no front-facing physical home buttonSamsung Galaxy S8• Display: 6.2-inch Super AMOLED with 1440 x 2650 pixel resolution (that's Quad HD, or 2K) with curved edges on left and right sides• Operating System: Android 7.1 Nougat• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 / Samsung Exynos 10-nm SoC dependent on region• RAM: 4GB RAM• Camera: Dual-lens 16MP/8MP(wide) back-facing camera with f/1.7 optics, 4K video recording abilities, dual-LED flash• Front-facing camera: 8-megapixel wide-angle lens with f/1.7 optics.• Internal Storage: 64GB with 256GB-capable microSD card slot for storage expansion• Other Features: Fingerprint scanner on back, Metal frame, Gorilla Glass front and back, Wireless charging, USB-C, no front-facing physical home button
Both devices will also have a lovely headphone jack at their bottom, allowing users to plug their headphones in with a standard 3.5mm jack. This makes Apple's task of moving the entire industry away from the headphone jack – if that is indeed their goal. Other Android-toting handsets in the future will likely follow Samsung's lead as the Galaxy S series is the sales leader in the Android universe.
See more about the image directly above at our most recent Samsung Galaxy S8 run-down before the one you're in right this minute. That article goes by the name Samsung Galaxy S8 Leaks: Tiny Bezels, Moved Fingerprint Sensor, More. What a simple change – what a big difference!
Bixby and DeX
Both Galaxy S8 models will feature a dedicated hardware button on their side that summons Bixby. This is Samsung's newest attempt at a virtual assistant, made to take on the likes of Apple's Siri and – perhaps – making it possible to replace Google's own Google Assistant. A virtual assistant like Bixby with its own dedicated button could create some interesting conflict in the device – but we're hoping Samsung will allow this button to be used for other functions as well.
DeX is Samsung's branding for a desktop PC sort of experience with their smartphone as the hardware. The Samsung Galaxy S8 will undoubtedly be able to run a basic desktop experience to a point – perhaps closer to a Chrome OS sort of situation than a full-on bit of competition for Windows or Apple's OS X. Processor power here in 2017 is certainly better than it's ever been before, but for power users, not quite ready to take on the big guns.
For more information on the possibilities with DeX, have a peek at our recent feature Galaxy S8 "Dex" device release coming to replace your PC. It's not incredibly difficult to imagine a world where Samsung makes the smartphone into a PC – they've done it before, after all.
Pricing
Pricing has been tipped to be going up by a relatively significant amount – at least in Europe. While United States-based pricing has yet to appear, Euro countries have about a 100-Euro increase in price when comparing the smallest Galaxy S7 to the smallest Galaxy S8. Of course, the device is larger than in the past, so it could seem like no change at all... so to speak.
The larger Galaxy S8 – akin to the Galaxy S7 Edge – will be a cool 899-Euro. For a 6.2-inch display smartphone that has the same processor, camera array, and abilities of all sorts as the smaller Galaxy S8. The Galaxy S8 will be just 100-Euro less expensive than the Galaxy S8's largest edition.
Reveal and Release Date
The reveal of the Samsung Galaxy S8 family of devices is expected to occur in April. The most recent believable rumor suggests that April 21st will be the day we first see all the official Galaxy S8 devices we can handle. This means that Samsung – while present at Mobile World Congress 2017 in some capacity – will not reveal their Galaxy S line as they have in the past.
The most recent and trustworthy answer to the release date question lines up well with an April 21st reveal date. On March 29th, it's suggested that Samsung will release the Galaxy S8 to the USA and several other regions around the world. Stick around as we continue to investigate.