Now we all know that when it comes to the smartphone market both Apple and Samsung had some mistakes. Apple’s latest release is very much failing to impress anybody, and Samsung had that exploding battery mishap, so it is very natural to expect that both will put extra effort in their upcoming flagship devices. But that is not all, they will also have to raise the ante up because there is God knows how many competition devices across the price ranges that are jamming the market up. Both Samsung and Apple will have to seriously step it up if they want to keep their respective thrones. Samsung will be the first one to reveal their device, and it will be at the end of March, while Apple will hold on until their annual September launch date.
The iPhone 8
Since the iPhone 8 is going to be the Apple’s 10th-anniversary phone, it is rumored that it will come in three different models – meaning three different price groups where a top range model will be priced at just under $1,600. Apparently, the steep price will be justified by the device’s organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display which will allow the gadget to have a curved screen (such as the one on the Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge), at least according to Market researcher Daniel Matte. He stated for Fox News that “The OLED display will definitely be very expensive” and added “The limited quantities available will definitely require some models to stick with LCDs” – meaning that thanks to the hefty price, lower range models will most likely stick to the LCD screens.
The size of the iPhone 8 will vary, implying that the premium one will be the largest hosting a 5.8-inch display which is slightly bigger than the 5.5-inch screen of iPhone 7 Plus and the 4.7-inch one of iPhone 7. DisplayMate Technologies president Raymond Soneira thinks that the iPhone 8’s display will take up the entire screen while the virtual buttons will take only a portion of that space. He said “With a curved screen OLED, the iPhone display will almost certainly be bezel and border free to the outside edges, and fill all or almost all of the entire front view edge-to-edge, with rumors predicting that the home button, fingerprint sensor, ambient light and proximity sensors will be incorporated within the display”.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggested that some of his sources hinted that the iPhone 8 will have a better battery life thanks to the advanced stacked circuit board. As it was reported previously wireless charging is also a strong possibility because Apple is, allegedly, working with Energous (a company with wireless charging tech capable of up working for distances up to 4.5 meters).
One more novelty is brought to us by Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski who suggested that there is a possibility that all versions of the iPhone 8 will incorporate augmented reality features. She stated, “The inclusion of 3D sensing functionality is increasingly likely, which could enable a robust augmented reality (AR) feature set that we believe will be a key differentiation for the 10 year anniversary iPhone.”
Samsung Galaxy S8
Due to the exploding battery issue, Samsung is now promoting their 8 point battery check, and they are putting emphasis on safer devices as well. But this is just one of the many big changes the company is employing as a way to bounce back to their previous position. Some of those changes reflect in screen size, where we now have 5.8-inch and 6.2-inch displays instead of the 5.1-inch and 5.5-inch S7 units. According to some reports, the South Korean company has employed the curved screen to all of their devices not just on the pricier and largest model.
The S8 will be powered by the Android Nougat and will host new energy efficient processors that are capable of boosting the performance up as much as 11%. This will be very much needed and welcomed because Samsung will offer 3000 mAh and 3500 mAh batteries for the 5.8 inch and 6.2-inch designs, respectively. The baseline for the internal storage has been boosted as well with reports that it will now be 64 GB, while you can expand that as well to 256 GB via a microSD.
The design of the phone has changed somewhat, and according to a report from Korea’s ETNews it seems that the Samsung has scratched the home button to “fill all of the front of the Galaxy S8 with just screen.” In addition to this, the fingerprint sensor will be thrown out back near the rear camera which unfortunately isn’t changing and will remain a similar “duo pixel” camera of the last year’s S7. The upgrade list continues to a USB-C charging port and one oldie but goody is remaining present, and that is the 3.5 mm headphone jack.
Two completely new things will adorn the new Galaxy S8, and those will be company’s own virtual assistant known as Bixby (planned to rival the Google Assistant and Siri) which will be available to handle more complex commands. The second one is the accessory for the Galaxy S8 which will allow it to act as an Android desktop computer by connecting to a monitor, keyboard and other peripherals.
