While Samsung is still investigating the cause of the Galaxy Note 7's exploding battery, it's making progress on next year's Galaxy S8 series. A new report claims the smartphones could use a new optical fingerprint scanner embedded directly into the display.
It's no secret that Samsung is going to pay a huge price both monetarily and in gaining consumer's trust after what will likely go down as one of the biggest tech news stories of 2017. The Galaxy Note 7 debacle will reportedly cost the company billions of dollars, and its biggest rival, Apple, is expected to benefit to the tune of 8 million additional iPhone sales before the end of 2016.
In an effort to write its wrongs, we recently reported that Samsung was considering offering Galaxy Note 7 customers discounts on next year's flagship Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8 Plus and Galaxy Note 8 upon release. Soon, another report emerged that the company was going to compensate Galaxy Note 7 owners with a free Galaxy S8 via a new exchange program designed to get Note 7 owners to return the defective phablet.
A few days later, Samsung confirmed that it would indeed offer an upgrade program that would allow Galaxy Note 7 owners to trade in their devices for a Galaxy S8 or Galaxy Note 8 at a discounted price.
Galaxy S8 Specs And Release Date
A few months before the Galaxy Note 7 was officially announced, we reported some of the specs expected to be included in Samsung's next-generation Galaxy S8 series. In mid-October some of these details were backed up in another report, which claimed Samsung was planning to introduce the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus with 4K curved Super AMOLED displays. Another source also claimed the company was already beginning to test firmware for next year's smartphones.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 series is expected to make its debut at Mobile World Congress in February 2017 and a new report claims that the company might beat Apple's iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus to the punch by shipping the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus with an optical fingerprint scanner that will be directly embedded into the display of its new smartphones.
No More Physical Home Button
The optical fingerprint scanner would allow Samsung to remove the physical home button used on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus, just like Apple did with its latest flagship iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Samsung would go one step further by embedding the fingerprint scanner directly into the display, which would allow it to remove the bezel area where the home button and capacitive keys are currently located, thus providing even more screen real estate without increasing the overall size of the smartphones. Apple is also widely believed to use similar technology into next year's completely redesigned iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
As always, we'll keep you posted on any new Samsung Galaxy S8 news as it becomes available.
