For those who might still be interested, there is a chance that Samsung will push for an earlier Galaxy S8 release date, purportedly for the South Korean tech giant to mitigate the negative impact of the ongoing Galaxy Note 7 recall. But to be clear, the GS8 debut is not happening this 2016.
It's more likely to be scheduled in February 2017 or a month ahead of the expected Galaxy S8 launch as the Galaxy S7 came out in March 2016. The Korea Herald reported that it would be a wise move on Samsung's part to advance the commercial availability of its first flagship offering next year to stave off the ill-effects of the Note 7 Batterygate.
Sticking to the usual release cycle, the Asian tech titan may find itself dealing with considerable profit woes following reports that the Note 7 battery controversy will cost the company some $1 billion. "If Samsung's flagship smartphone launch is delayed to the end of the first quarter of next year, the profitability of the mobile business division could be worsened next year," the Korean publication quoted a KB Investment & Securities analyst as saying.
Even as Samsung has already indicated that replacement units will become available by September 21 and selling of the Galaxy Note 7 will resume soon, the report said that releasing the Galaxy S8 ahead of schedule will serve as the cushion that the giant phone maker badly needs. And the S8 better be a compelling device that is free of the problems plaguing the Note 7.
"Regardless of the sales resumption, an earlier launch of a new quality flagship model seems to be the most realistic solution to dealing with the current recall crisis," said the KB Investment & Securities report.
And it appears that Samsung is headed to that direction as the Korea Herald claimed on its report that the company has commenced ordering curved display panels for the next Galaxy flagship, which also suggested that the S8 will arrive in two models all bearing double-edge screens. The same publication has earlier stated that for the next-generation Samsung flagship, the flat screen will be no more.
According to BGR, the handsets will unbox in 5.1-inch and 5.5-inch flavors, possibly boasting of 4K UHD screen resolution with the same Super AMOLED display technology. The power under the hood is Exynos 8895 processing chip that likely will be supported by up to 6GB of RAM. Recent leaks claimed that model number of the devices will be SM-G950 and SMG-G55 with Dream and Dream 2 as codenames.
If indeed Samsung will opt for an earlier Galaxy S8 release date, the introduction will likely coincide with the Las Vegas CES 2017 in January that will position the flagships for a possible February 2017 rollout.