Considering that the Galaxy Note 7 did not go to plan for Samsung at all, it’s no surprise that the industry, as well as Samsung themselves are looking ahead to the Galaxy S8. The upcoming Galaxy S8 is said to be a pretty big upgrade compared to the iterative Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge that were launched in the Spring of this year. Rumors have surfaced surrounding a 4K display in one of the two rumored variants, a bezel-free design is also rumored. As far as software is concerned, it’s thought that Samsung has been working on their own Artificial Intelligence assistant, just like Cortana, Siri and the new Google Assistant. All of this sounds pretty exciting, but according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the Galaxy S8 might be delayed after all.
The report claims that sources “familiar with the matter” have heard that Samsung is to delay the retail launch of the Galaxy S8 until April of 2017. This might not seem like much of delay, but given that the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge launched this year in March, it could put back the launch of the device a whole month. The Galaxy S8 has long been set for a reveal on February 27th, just before the doors open to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. While it is unlikely that this date will be moved, it is likely that testing, to avoid another Galaxy Note 7, will be stepped up considerably, and that this is the cause for the delay in question. As for rumors surrounding the lack of a home button on the Galaxy S8, the Wall Street Journal report goes on to paint a picture of a device that uses a physical button to hail the assistant, which may or may not be called Bixby.
Shipping with a home button that also doubles as a way to communicate with the new AI inside of the Galaxy S8 would make a lot of sense, especially as Samsung users have become accustomed to using such a button by now, and that it will also remind iPhone users of the way Siri is activated. The Galaxy S8 is no doubt going to be a big launch for the South Korean giant, and could either make or break the company’s mobile efforts in 2017.