Samsung Galaxy S8 release date, specs rumors: No flatscreen version for next flagship?

Speculations suggest that Samsung will be shifting its flagship lineup next year, starting with the Galaxy S8. The upcoming lineup is said to only come out with an Edge variant.

According to The Korea Herald, the South Korea-based tech giant is thinking of releasing its next flagship as a curved display iteration, a different lineup from its predecessor the Samsung Galaxy S7. The current-generation flagship has been released in both regular screen — a flat, 5.1-inch display — and Edge version. For the Galaxy S8, however, the industry follower stated that Samsung will stick with the Edge version. Reportedly, the move is seen as a shift in Samsung's focus, owing to the performance of the Galaxy S7. Sales figures supposedly indicate that the Edge variant is much more popular than the flatscreen version.

Although Samsung has yet to confirm the rumors, it is said that the company has already secured display orders from Samsung Display and that the Galaxy S8 will come out in both 5.1-inch and 5.5-inch Edge variants. In addition, the company has already started "phasing out" the regular screens from its flagship lineups, starting with the recently-released Galaxy Note 7, which also launched only with a curved display.

Meanwhile, Samsung may be starting its shift for its flagship lineups due to recent woes for its iterations. Even if the curved display for the Galaxy S8 has been rumored a few months back, the tech giant may be shifting up its re-alignment for its flagship series, which recently suffered a setback. Its recent release of the Galaxy Note 7 has been mired with glitches, the most serious of which, Samsung was constrained to order a recall of much of the released Galaxy Note 7 units.

As for the Galaxy S8, not much is known about what Samsung will do with its next flagship release other than launching it without regular, flat screens. It is expected though that the new flagship will come out with at least 4 GB of RAM and the latest Snapdragon and/or Exynos chipset.

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