A Hungarian tech site has published an image that seemingly shows what the Galaxy S8’s rumored desktop-like functionality might actually look like. It’s important to remember here that this is not a new leak from a different source that would otherwise lend further credibility to the aforementioned earlier rumor, but is mostly the work of an artist who has tried to produce a high-resolution image based on the blurry, low-res screengrab in the earlier report that seemed to raise more questions than answers. The image seems to show that the much-rumored Samsung flagship will come with some important features that make desktop PCs unmatched in terms of productivity.
From what was suggested in the earlier report, Samsung is implementing a new feature in the Galaxy S8 that will allow the device to function more like a PC once connected to an external monitor via USB or HDMI. The leaked slide that forms the basis of this particular image showed a terminal with multiple windows and a taskbar at the bottom with pinned app icons. On the top was a header that read “Samsung Desktop Experience: Next Mobile Workspace” in a bold typeface, as can be seen in the original image down below. It’s important to recognize here that, features like multiple windows and a fixed taskbar with pinned app shortcuts may be taken for granted on desktop PCs with large screens, but that sort of an interface is almost impossible to navigate on much smaller smartphone displays for the most part.
Of course, smartphones providing a full-fledged desktop experience is not exactly a new idea circa 2017. A feature called ‘Continuum’, which allows supported devices to connect to external displays for a proper desktop experience, was first debuted by Microsoft on Windows 10 Technical Preview builds last year. The setup provides support for keyboards and mice that can be connected via USB or Bluetooth, meaning, proper implementation of this concept could very well give a massive boost to productivity on smartphones and other mobile gadgets. Either way, it’s not just smartphone vendors that are trying to bridge the gap between mobile devices and desktop PCs. With its new Snapdragon 835, American semiconductor giant Qualcomm is also said to be eying the PC market, something that should make the likes of Intel and AMD sit up and take notice, if they weren’t already.