Rumours about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 have already started flowing in great numbers.
It seems a distinct possibility that the device will become the first 4K smartphone from the stables of Samsung. In order to facilitate such a large amount of pixels to run smoothly on the device, the Galaxy S8 is expected to come with the first processor to be built using the 10 nm process. It is reported to use either a snapdragon 830 processor or the equivalent from Exynos. The importance of the Samsung Galaxy S8 can be underlined by the 30% fall Samsung has experienced with its latest figures for operating profit.
Samsung profits have taken a major hit as a result of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 going out of production. Samsung are almost certain to cram the Galaxy S8 with a load of features, most of which were seen on the Galaxy Note 7. Amongst the new crop of aspects seem to be the new optical fingerprint scanner, according to new reports. Samsung was one of the early adopters of the fingerprint scanner on a smartphone after having witnessed huge popularity of the same on the iPhone.
The fingerprint scanner has certainly come a long way in the last two years; it has become much more stable while also being significantly faster than the first generation. Now, the Galaxy S8 will offer optical fingerprint scanner which will go back to the older days. Samsung may have taken the surprise decision in order to allow the phone to have a class leading design with minimum bezels on the front. The optical scanner is larger than the capacitive scanner and the gap widens when it is pitted against the ultrasonic scanner found in the latest smartphones.
However, the use of this optical scanner will enable Samsung to offer very little bezels. In many ways, it could replicate the Xiaomi Mi Mix which came out recently. TheXiaomi Mi Mix offers an incredible 91% screen to body ratio. After having increased this figure substantially due to the use of the curved display on models like the Galaxy S7 Edge, the Galaxy S8 is set to take the phone in the league of theXiaomi Mi Mix. It is reported that Samsung has been facing a few issues with regard to incorporating the components into the design, but they should be ironed out given that the phone is still a couple of months away.
Grant Hamersma knows the world of tech inside and out, covering smartphones, gadgets and applications. One of our in-house writers and top contributors on the site, you can read all 3,700+ of his posts here.