[News] Galaxy S8 gets pictured: No home button, huge 5.8- and 6.2-inch displays

[StyM]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017...inch-displays/

Over at VentureBeat, Evan Blass has what is supposedly the first-ever live picture of the Samsung Galaxy S8. At first glance it looks like every other Samsung phone?the long edges on the front and back are still curved, the back is still glass, there is still a single bottom-firing speaker, and there's still a heart rate sensor on the back. Look closer, though, and there are a few key differences.

First, there's no home button. Samsung has been rumored to finally ditch physical buttons with the Galaxy S8, and this picture seems to line up with that expectation. The rumors say that Samsung will use on-screen software buttons on the S8, five years after Google started on-screen Android buttons with the Galaxy Nexus. There's also no Samsung logo on the front, resulting in a very clean looking device.

VentureBeat claims there are two sizes for the Galaxy S8: 5.8 inches and 6.2 inches. At first this might sound like the phones are massive size increases over the 5.1- and 5.5-inch Galaxy S7 variants, but according to the report the new displays will have a 18.5:9 aspect ratio instead of the standard 16:9. With no physical buttons and no front Samsung logo, we're really just getting taller screens, not wider bodies. Sadly the screens are turned off on VentureBeat's picture, but for an idea of what the screen-and-bezel situation will look like, check out the third-party screen protector in the gallery.
The "inch" measurement is a diagonal measurement, so a 5.1-inch, 16:9 screen should be about the same width as a 5.8-inch 18.5:9 display. The same goes for the bigger version. It would not surprise me if the "big" 6.2-inch and "small" 5.8-inch Galaxy S8 models had a similar overall footprint to the "big" 5.5-inch and "small" 5.1-inch Galaxy S7 models. Smaller bezels mean more screen in the same size body.

With no physical home button, Samsung needs to find a place for the fingerprint reader, and it seems the new spot, as previously rumored, is on the back. It's the rectangle right next to the camera bump. I wonder how easy it will be to accidentally smudge up the camera lens when reaching for the fingerprint reader. On the bottom it looks like Samsung is making a great decision and keeping the headphone jack. And given that the Galaxy Note 7 had a USB Type C port, we're going to guess that's the port on the bottom of this, too.

[NEOAethyr]

No home button = , same goes for the no removable battery.

Every time there's a new one it seems that my s4 i9500 was a good buy, shame it doesn't go up in price.
I wouldn't trade it for this, even I don't have a 4k cam (s4 does..., just the software, hardware speed is an issue too)

I did have a bad battery with my s4, it lasted a few years though before it swelled up to about half an inch.
I still don't have service on the phone though lol, I don't even know how so whatever lol (I'm not buying 30 day cards...).

[AliG]

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really liked both my S6 and S7, looks like I won't be getting an S8

[Sparky]

I got over the no removable battery thing when my S4 went 3 years and never needed a battery change and never needed a battery pull to reboot it like the old S1 with Android 2.x.

Removable storage is still a big deal to me, which is why the S6 was a no go but my S7 is fine.

No physical home button... well, other Android phones don't have one, so... no big deal? I've only ever had Galaxy phones so I've only ever had a home button, but, whatever.

Not upgrading though, I've been skipping 3 generations at a time, so Galaxy S10 will be the next one I'm sure - hm, sounds like a small Chevy pickup

[Tim]

Year old S5 needed a new battery, which we thankfully could. Year old S3 needed one too, and so did the S4.

We've had an S3, two S4s, and an S5. S3 had hardware issues, usable though, both S4 had hardware terminal failure, replacing the SD card module did nothing, the S5 has got display issues.
Family and friends have all had similar issues with Samsungs. Those who haven't had any issues have just been lucky as far as I'm concerned.

Samsung? In my opinion stands for replace your phone every 12 to 24 months. No thanks!!

[Sparky]

Just goes to show everyone's experiences are different.

S1 for 3 years, S4 for 3 years, now on my S7 for nearly a year and plan on 2 more... Nothing had failed on any of them

[zanzabar]

No home button = , same goes for the no removable battery.

Every time there's a new one it seems that my s4 i9500 was a good buy, shame it doesn't go up in price.
I wouldn't trade it for this, even I don't have a 4k cam (s4 does..., just the software, hardware speed is an issue too)

I did have a bad battery with my s4, it lasted a few years though before it swelled up to about half an inch.
I still don't have service on the phone though lol, I don't even know how so whatever lol (I'm not buying 30 day cards...).

so long as there is no wasted chin space i dont see the need for physical front buttons. if we can go nexus 6p and not pixel xl it will be a nice upgrade.

they also have to have a UFS slot, that was their whole point in making it.
http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor...h-storage/ufs/

[Particle]

Amusingly, a physical home button for me is a deal breaker. After using a capacitive button a few phones ago, I've always found physical buttons to be extremely displeasing.

[SinOfLiberty]

bunch of bull, go "enthusiasts", jump on it.

[dengyong]

Batteries can still be replaced with relative ease... just takes 10 minutes rather than 10 seconds.

[zanzabar]

Batteries can still be replaced with relative ease... just takes 10 minutes rather than 10 seconds.

samsung bonds the screen to the unibody, and they glue the board/ribbons to the battery. i can do an iphone screen and battery in 10min but the last s4 screen i did was a PITA and took almost an hour with all of the glue and no pry points (the screen was destroyed.)