Samsung's 2017 flagship - the Galaxy S8 - will come in two screen sizes on release date, new reports said. There will be a 5.7-inch version that will be the regular model and a 6.2-inch Plus Edition, which reportedly is designed as the unofficial sequel to the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7. Both devices will boast of an all-screen and curved front panel.
The upsizing move, according to BGR, is a big departure from the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge that measured 5.1-inch and 5.5-inch respectively. And Samsung is unlikely to release a flat screen version of the S8, the report added, pointing to an article by The Investor as source.
Unsurprisingly, Samsung is said label the super-phablet GS8 as the Galaxy S8 Plus. "In order to attract potential Note consumers who prefer a large screen, Samsung has decided to adopt bigger screens for both new models of the S8," BGR reported The Investor story as saying.
But to be clear, both the GS8 wields will not come out of the box as unwieldy small tablets. Samsung engineers intends to keep the device as handy as possible by opting for an all-screen flagship profile, meaning the front bezels will be pushed as far as possible to the edge of the screen.
Rumors say that the same curved screen technology used with the S7 Edge will be used and enhanced to create the effect of an all-screen front display. And for the Galaxy S8, Samsung will do away with the top and bottom bezels.
This will be achieved by ditching the physical home button and key controllers and sensors and embedding their functions with the AMOLED display panel. The aim is for the GS8 to achieve a screen to body ratio of 90 percent or more, WCCFTech said in a report.
"The high screen-to-body ratio could be obtained by incorporating the optical fingerprint sensor inside the display," the report added.
Powering the Galaxy S8 flagships will be Qualcomm's Snapdragon 830 and an upgraded version of the Exynos processor that is firing the S7 and S7 Edge. On the GPU side, it's going to be Mali-G71 that should make the devices ready for AR and VR functionalities right out of the box.
And in order to ensure that a repeat of the Galaxy Note 7 battery debacle will not happen, the Galaxy S8 release date will not be too early as reported earlier. But Samsung is expected to introduce the flagships via the Barcelona MWC 2017 in February with the actual rollout to follow in late March or April.