Speculations are rife that with the continuing debacle that the Galaxy Note 7 is proving to be, Samsung will advance the release date of its first flagship for 2017 - the Galaxy S8. And not only that the device will come out early next year it will also boast of an edge-to-edge display, essentially preempting the redesign that the Apple iPhone 8 is rumored to be.
The latest report from South Korea suggested of a totally redesigned Galaxy S8 with all four edges tapering off that will render an all-screen GS8 front display. SamMobile said that Samsung intends "to expand the curved display to the top and bottom edges of the Galaxy S8. If this is true it would mean that the next flagship will truly be full-screen."
And with the radical redesign, the physical Home button, front ear speaker and camera sensor will need to disappear, likely to be integrated with the display panel and implemented as virtual control keys. How exactly the implementation will be was not discussed in the report.
SamMobile, which pointed to Korean news site ETNews as source of the fresh information, added on its report that the S8 will also have a dual-camera setting that Apple has introduced with the iPhone 7/7 Plus. The shooting feature upgrade is said to have been finalized and Samsung is merely deciding on the manner of application.
"[Samsung is] just in the process of deciding whether to use an all-in-one dual-camera or separated dual-camera," the report said.
Recent reports have indicated too that Samsung will power the GS8 with Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 830 that will support up to 8GB of RAM provision. But it's likely that the handset will only get 6GB of RAM. And with the SD 830 SoC on board, the GS8 will have full and enhanced support for both augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) functionalities.
But the most interesting update included with the news is the likelihood that Samsung will push out the Galaxy S8 earlier than expected. Such a move is likely to extinguish the ongoing Galaxy Note 7 battery explosion controversy and for Samsung to better compete with Apple's iPhone 7/7 Plus and Google's Pixel and Pixel XL.
If true that Samsung will set an advanced release date for the Galaxy S8, it's highly likely that the flagship will be introduced via the Las Vegas 2016 CES and the commercial rollout will happen around February 2017 or a month ahead of the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge.