Samsung's forthcoming flagship, the Galaxy S8, may arrive with a feature that'll surpass Apple's also-forthcoming iPhone 8. The feature, however, is not new. Microsoft has already done it with a feature called Continuum for the HP Elite x3, blurring the lines between the smartphone and the desktop experience.
Galaxy S8 Could Have A Continuum-Like Feature
Samsung may have taken a page from Microsoft's playbook and saw Continuum as a feature fit for its imminent flagship. If reports are correct, the phone could offer a PC-like, full desktop experience.
For those uninitiated with Microsoft's phone-as-a-PC feature, Continuum lets users plug their handsets onto a docking station, whereby an external display, a keyboard, and a mouse may also be plugged alongside to output a complete desktop experience, essentially making the phone an ultra-portable PC, similar to how the HP Elite x3 works. The rumor comes from All About Windows Phone, which obtained a leaked slide from a source.
Multitasking On Desktop Mode
The slide, which purportedly hails from a Galaxy S8 presentation, features a workspace concept that's eerily similar to Continuum. The handset is tagged as the "main" component of the whole setup, with the display, keyboard, and mouse tagged as "extended workspace." The phone is directly plugged to a monitor with an Android logo beside it, and multitasking is depicted on the screen via multiple windows.
For comparison, the current iteration of Continuum doesn't support multiple windows at a given time. The taskbar can show running apps, which allows users to switch between them, but only one window at a time can be run on a single workspace. If Samsung indeed comes up with its own Continuum-like feature that supports multi-window workspaces, then it could even surpass Continuum itself.
Other Galaxy S8 Rumors
A wellspring of rumors has been ascribed to the Galaxy S8 in recent months, now that it's officially headed for a Mobile World Congress unveiling late February in Barcelona, Spain.
The latest Bluetooth technology, which stands at 5.0, is purportedly integrated into the handset. If true, the Galaxy S8 could allow for far-field communication with Bluetooth 5.0-enabled accessories — far-field, as in, users can walk around their house donning Bluetooth headsets with the phone at a considerable distance.
The phone, according to rumors, could also sport a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner and an iris scanner. Additionally, the Galaxy S8's screen could be manufactured under the Y-OCTA display technology, as was the case with the Note 7.
In terms of internals, the phone could rock a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip, be loaded with a staggering 6 GB of RAM, and feature a self-explanatory "beast mode," deftly suggestive that the phone could be a real powerhouse.
We'll know more about the Galaxy S8 when the Mobile World Congress finally rolls around. Until then, it pays to take caution as these rumors fly about the radar.
