Although Samsung may still be on track to release the Galaxy S8 by February next year, the flagship's release may be delayed until April.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the many improvements that Samsung will feature on its upcoming flagship may come as a disadvantage to its release. While the South Korea-based company is expected to launch the Galaxy S8 as its showcase product in the 2017 Mobile World Congress in February, its release may be set back to April at the earliest.
Usually, Samsung releases its Galaxy S-series flagship at least a month after its debut. The current-gen lineup iteration, the Galaxy S7 series, was launched at the 2016 MWC in February this year and was released in the market the following month.
Reportedly, one major improvement that may set back the release of the Galaxy S8 next year is the AI-supported digital assistant. Samsung has recently acquired Viv Labs, which is the AI development company responsible for Siri, Apple's digital assistant for its iOS. With the partnership, it is seemingly likely that Samsung is also thinking of putting up its own AI assistant for its flagship starting with the Galaxy S8. This is highly likely, as Samsung will want to focus on making the Galaxy S8 better if only to make up for its debacle in launching the Galaxy Note 7.
Meanwhile, aside from the AI assistant, other major improvements are also expected to be featured in the Samsung Galaxy S8. Speculations suggest that the South Korea-based tech giant will introduce a major redesign in its flagship, and will incorporate a near bezel-less display for the Galaxy S8, ditching the home button for a virtual one. Under the hood, the Galaxy S8 is expected to run on the latest Exynos 8895 chipset, and Samsung is also likely to come out with a Snapdragon 830 version for the flagship. The new lineup is said to feature at least 6 GB of RAM, as well as Samsung's first-ever flagship dual cam setup.
