The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will launch in mid-August after all, industry sources from Korea said on Thursday, as reported by The Bell earlier today. Recent rumors on the release schedule of Samsung’s upcoming phablet have been conflicting so far, with insiders being unable to agree whether the Galaxy Note 8 will be introduced almost exactly one year after the Galaxy Note 7, or if the South Korean original equipment manufacturer (OEM) opts to push back its launch until early September and IFA Berlin 2017. The Friday report from the Far Eastern country suggests the former, adding that Samsung primarily decided to speed up the release of the Galaxy Note 8 due to Apple.
According to unnamed sources, there’s a realistic possibility that the iPhone 8 series will be late to the market due to supply issues related to an in-screen fingerprint sensor that Apple is said to have developed but is struggling to commercialize, with Samsung being adamant to capitalize on that fact by launching the Galaxy Note 8 as soon as mid-August, presumably a few weeks before the handset becomes available for purchase. While optical fingerprint recognition technology is allegedly troubling Apple at the moment, a similar solution was previously rumored to be included in the Galaxy Note 8, though industry insiders later said that Samsung dropped that idea due to a number of reasons, most of which were related to the difficulty of implementation. The Seoul-based consumer electronics manufacturer now isn’t expected to embed a fingerprint reader into a mobile screen until spring 2018, with that setup being rumored to debut inside the Galaxy S9 series.
The Galaxy Note 8 is said to feature a 6.3-inch or 6.4-inch display panel curving around the longer edges of its case and the device itself is thought to boast a nearly bezel-less design with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio, meaning it’ll be visually similar to the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus. According to previous rumors, the phone will boast a dual camera setup comprised of two vertically arranged sensors of the 13-megapixel variety and a dual LED, dual tone flash unit. Samsung is expected to start teasing its next Android flagship this summer, so more details on the handset will likely be available shortly.