Samsung's forthcoming flagship, the Galaxy S8, has a crucial vacancy to fill, tasked to succeed where the Galaxy Note 7 failed, after the phone's upsetting explosive stint that dented Samsung's profits and festered consumer loyalty for the brand.
Rumors about the flagship have been ambling in different forms for quite some time now, with reports suggesting that its display would mimic Apple's Force Touch technology, that it would house an AI-powered virtual assistant or it would feature a touch-based power button and wireless charging.
Yet another set of Galaxy S8 rumors has sprung up, this time from a Chinese source.
Two Galaxy S8 Variants
According to the rumor, Samsung will release two variants of the Galaxy S8 for different regions — one that's powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and another that's powered with an Exynos 9-based processor, which is an ARM-based system-on-chip developed by the company itself. The Snapdragon variant will possibly be sold in the U.S. market while the Exynos variant will be available internationally, which is a similar configuration seen in the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge.
Bumped Up Storage And RAM
Samsung is also allegedly planning to add a 256 GB internal storage option for the Galaxy S8 alongside 64 and 128 GB options. The bumped-up storage hints that the company might rid the phone of its microSD card slot, but it remains to be seen whether it will maintain it, like it did with the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge.
Additionally, the RAM will also be allegedly bumped to 6 GB compared with the Galaxy S7's 4 GB of RAM.
Ultrasonic Fingerprint Scanner
The Galaxy S8 might also adapt to a different method for scanning fingerprints, as the rumor suggests that the smartphone will employ a fingerprint scanner based on Ultrasonic technology, eliminating the need for a dedicated fingerprint panel.
Galaxy S8 Materials
Interestingly, materials needed to construct the Galaxy S8 are also rumored to cost 28 percent more than the cost of creating the Galaxy S7, owing to the upcoming flagship's upgrades and new features.
Galaxy S8 Price
According to the same source, the Galaxy S8's base model could start at $850, shooting upward for variants with more storage.
As usual, anything from the rumor mill should be taken with a grain of salt as these might possibly hover far from truth once Samsung hands out an official unveiling. If the price point proves true, however, it certainly raises the question if it's wise for Samsung to slap on a steep price tag on this phone after losing some of its user base because of the Note 7 fiasco.
What do you think of the Galaxy S8's latest rumors? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
