Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus: Release date, rumours and everything you need to know

Samsung is rumoured to announce the successors to its Galaxy S7 and S7 edge smartphones in the next couple of months in the form of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus. At least that’s what the rumours suggest they will be called.

This feature rounds up all the leaks relating to the larger of the two flagship devices, the Galaxy S8 Plus. You can read our separate feature on the Galaxy S8 if you want to know what is expected for the smaller smartphone, but for everything we know so far about the S8 Plus, keep reading.

• Samsung Galaxy S8 vs Galaxy S7: What’s the rumoured difference?

Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus: Release date and price

• 29 March launch expected
• Reportedly on sale from mid-April
• S8 Plus rumoured to cost around €900

The next Galaxy S flagship smartphones should launch at Mobile World Congress 2017 if previous launch patterns were to be followed. The show was suggested by Ricciolo on Twitter and Phone Arena but its now confirmed this won’t be the case, with Barcelona expected to offer the platform for the Tab S3 tablet instead.

Instead, Samsung is claimed to be heading for New York City for the launch of its next Galaxy S devices. Several dates have been thrown around, including two reports claiming 29 March, with a couple of others suggesting 15 April and 18 April. It has been claimed the official launch date will be revealed at MWC.

VentureBeat has said the S8 Plus will cost €899 in Europe and go on sale on 21 April.

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Veniamin Geskin

Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus: Design

• Curved design rumoured
• No home button and minimal bezels rumoured
• Similar dimensions to S7 edge rumoured, despite screen increase

Rumours claim that instead of releasing two devices, one with a flat bezel, the other curved, Samsung will break from tradition and stick with just the latter this time around, hence the name S8 Plus rather than S8 edge. After all, with two curved devices, there would be no need to differentiate one as “edge”. A leak of front panels suggested two curved handsets and SamMobile, the Guardian, The Bell and VentureBeat have all supported the idea too.

Like the Galaxy S8, it has also been reported that a dedicated side-mounted button which will launch Viv, the personal assistant developed by Siri founder Dag Kittlaus, will make its way onto the S8 devices. VentureBeat has also suggested this button will appear and official cases have leaked with what looks like a cutout for this button.

Weibo

The physical home button is also reported to be saying goodbye for the new S8 devices, suggesting an “all-screen front”. A number of renders have been created by Veniamin Geskin and shared on Twitter, showing what the S8 might look like based on recent rumours and the device pictured in the renders has no physical home button. It is thought the Plus will share the same design, but in a larger format.

These renders were then followed by a leak on Weibo showing a physical device claimed to be a gold S8 and almost an exact match to the renders, as well as a number of case leaks which have been followed by further renders from SamMobile. The Guardian report claims the new S8 devices won’t even have a logo on the front however, with all the space used for a nearly bezel-less infinity display, which is something the VentureBeat report and image leak supports, as well as another Weibo leak.

Based on the Guardian and VentureBeat reports, the fingerprint sensor has been moved to the rear of the new S8 devices and the iris scanner from the Note 7 will also be on board. A report from CNET Korea also claims the fingerprint sensor will be situated on the rear, to the right of the camera lens, which is something the official case leak also appears to confirm. The CNET report also claimed a Samsung official said the screen will have “soft keys” within it for navigating.

VentureBeat

Two videos posted on Samsung Display’s Korean YouTube channel further supported the idea of an all-screen device with slim bezels, as do the front panels leaked more recently.

Despite the increase in screen size reported, the S8 Plus is rumoured to have similar dimensions to the S7 edge, suggesting a good screen-to-body ratio. This has also been supported by the Guardian report and a tweet from David Ruddock, who said the aspect ratio of the new flagships mean the S8 and S8 Plus will be “no wider at all than the S7 and S7 edge. Exact match”.

The CNET Korea report suggests the screen dimensions of the S8 Plus will be 143.05mm diagonally, 131.58mm tall and 64.94mm wide but it doesn’t provide the dimensions of the device itself.

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Sammobile

Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus: Display

• Size increase rumoured
• Screen-to-body ratio expected to improve
• Resolution could to remain the same but technology improve

The Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus has been rumoured to increase its display size compared to their predecessor. Most reports have claimed the S8 Plus will have a 6.2-inch screen, which is quite a bit larger than the 5.5-inch screen of the S7 edge it is set to replace.

Due to the size increase but not footprint increase, the screen-to-body ratio is also expected to improve. A Samsung Display spokesperson was quoted saying the company would roll out a full screen display with a ratio of more than 90 per cent this year, though it is not clear if this will be on the S8 devices. The Guardian has said both devices will offer an infinity edge-to-edge display though so a high screen-to-body ratio is definitely on the cards.

A Bloomberg report also supports this idea, with its claim of an all-screen front, as we briefly mentioned earlier. The report claims the display will be wraparound and there will be a virtual home button buried into the lower section of the glass, which is something the VentureBeat report also suggests.

It doesn’t look like resolution will increase though, despite 5.5-inch 4K AMOLED and 5.2-inch 4096 x 2160 pixel resolution both rumoured originally for the smaller S8. The S8 Plus has not had any specific rumours detailed for its resolution but it is thought Samsung will stick with a Quad HD Super AMOLED display like the S7 edge. The S8 is reported to be coming with improvements for VR so no doubt the S8 Plus will also offer this.

• Samsung Galaxy S8 vs S8 Plus: What’s the rumoured difference?

Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus: Camera

• New 1/2.3-inch sensor with f/1.4 aperture rumoured
• 8MP front camera rumoured with iris scanner
• 12MP rear sensor with visual search feature suggested

There has been a rumour to suggest the company is working on a new 1/2.3-inch sensor that will be combined with a f/1.4 aperture. This would deliver even better low-light capabilities than the current flagships but whether it will appear on the S8 or S8 Plus is unclear yet. The rumours also claim Samsung’s goal is to deliver a 1/1.7-inch sensor eventually, suggesting it has no intention of stopping improvements in the camera department.

There have been several other rumours surrounding the Galaxy S8’s camera and although none have been confirmed, it is likely the S8 Plus will have the same like the S7 and S7 edge did. A dual rear camera has been reported with two different sensors – one at 12-megapixels, one at 13-megapixels, while the same tipster also claimed the front camera will be 8-megapixels, which ET News has also suggested.

Contradicting these rumours however, is another leak from a different source claiming the Galaxy S8 will have a 30-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilisation, coupled with a 9-megapixel front-facing snapper. There has also been a claim that the S8 will have the same Duo Pixel camera of the S7 and S7 edge, which is something that the VentureBeat report also suggests.

According to VentureBeat, the rear camera will be 12-megapixels with an f/1.7 aperture and a new visual search feature, while the front camera will have an 8-megapixel sensor, also with an f/1.7 aperture. The site also claimed the front camera will have iris scanning capabilities. ET News has also reported that the front-facing snapper of the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus could have auto-focus rather than fixed.

Weibo

Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus: Hardware

• Qualcomm SD835 chip rumoured with 4GB or 6GB RAM
• USB Type-C and 3.5mm headphone jack
• 3500mAh suggested 

The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are not only likely to share the same design and features, but they are also likely to share the same hardware, except battery capacity. Ice Universe claims we will see 8GB of RAM, while another leak says can expect a 3.2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip, supported by 6GB of RAM. A Phone Arena leak lists two processors – Exynos 8895 chip and the Snapdragon 835 – and 6GB and 8GB of RAM, suggesting there could be different versions for different regions again and it has also been claimed the new Samsung flagships will be the first device to receive the SD835 chip.

VentureBeat supports the idea of two processors, but it claims the S8 and therefore presumably the S8 Plus will stick with 4GB of RAM with internal storage options starting from 64GB with microSD support. The site also says the S8 Plus will have a 3500mAh capacity which is the same as what a report from News1 Korea also claims. 

In other reports, SamMobile has reported there will be a USB Type-C port on board for charging and audio and it’s also been claimed the 3.5mm headphone jack will be ditched, like the iPhone 7, though the latter point has been contradicted by the Guardian and VentureBeat, as well as many of the more recent image leaks.

That said, SamMobile leaked some Samsung-made in-ear wireless earbuds like Apple’s AirPods, supporting the removal of the headphone jack. A report from Fone Arena also adds fuel to this fire, claiming the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus will offer dual speakers and they may be Harman branded, though the VentureBeat image leak and the Weibo leak suggests dual-speakers won’t be the case.

Samsung acquired Harman in November 2016 so the claim of Harman branded speakers, even if not dual, is a reasonable one, especially as both LG, HTC and Apple have made moves in audio in their recent handsets so it’s an obvious area for Samsung to focus on to keep in line with competition.

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Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus: Software

• Viv personal assistant confirmed
• Android Nougat base software expected
• Could connect to monitor for desktop view of Android

Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 edge both feature Android 6.0 Marshmallow, overlaid with the TouchWiz software. There are some handy features with TouchWiz, but we would still like to see some more refinement for the new Galaxy S smartphones.

As we mentioned earlier, we can expect to see Viv on the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. Details are thin on the ground as to what Viv will be able to do, other than provide answers and actions, but it has been confirmed by Samsung that it will appear on the new flagships.

Sam Mobile has said the Bixby voice assistant, powered by Viv, will feature in all native apps on the S8 and S8 Plus. In other software news, the site also claimed the S8 and S8 Plus would have an always-visible status bar and it has also been claimed that the handsets will be able to connect to a monitor for a desktop view of Android.

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Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus: Conclusion

We still have a couple of months of waiting before we know what the S8 Plus will officially feature, but based on the amount of image leaks and rumours, it looks like there will be a change up in design, more improvements in camera capabilities and software refinements. A more powerful processor and more RAM are also likely.

We will update this feature as new rumours appear, as well as when the official specs are announced so keep checking back.