Samsung may have to advance the launch of its next flagship smartphone – believed to be dubbed Galaxy S8 – after the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, claims an analyst. Additionally, new details have started to emerge regarding the new Samsung flagship including the model names, and some new features.
An analyst speculates that alongside the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall, a delay in the launch of the next Samsung flagship to the end of the first quarter may worsen the “profitability of the mobile business division”. He suggests the South Korean company could offset this crisis by advancing the launch of the Galaxy S8. The launch of the Samsung Galaxy S7 successor would also reduce sales impact from the recall, according to analysts at Mirae Asset Securities.
Kim Sang-pyo, an analyst at the KB Investment & Securities, told Korea Herald, “Regardless of the sales resumption, an earlier launch of a new quality flagship model seems to be the most realistic solution to dealing with the current recall crisis.”
In a separate report, Samsung is rumoured to work on two versions of the next flagship smartphone which are being referred to as Dream and Dream2, and said to bear model numbers SM-G950 and SM-G955 respectively. To recall, the Samsung Galaxy S7 came with model number SM-G930.
Sammobile reports that Samsung is giving the number 4 a miss because of “Tetraphobia.” The company is said to believe the digit 4 has associations as bad luck and this is one of the reasons it chose to go for model numbers SM-G950 and SM-G955 for alleged Samsung Galaxy S8 Dream and Dream2 models respectively. The report adds that Samsung has done this in past as well when the company launched the Galaxy S4 as GT-I9500 while the Galaxy S3 came with model number GT-I9300.
Another report suggests that Samsung may follow the lead of Apple, and drop the 3.5mm headphone jack in its next flagship smartphone. Digital Music News reports that the South Korean giant is now ‘actively and aggressively’ exploring ways to use its own proprietary headphone jack. The details were shared by sources operating out of South Korea and who are involved in the supply chain of Samsung’s smartphones.
Unfortunately, details on how Samsung will implement its own headphone jack are scarce but we can expect to hear more soon.
Another rumour suggests that Samsung’s next flagship will be powered by in-house Exynos 8895 SoC which could reach clock speeds of up to 3GHz. The new chipset is also said to have an improved image processing prowess. The alleged details were shared on Weibo and were first picked up by Phonearena.