First live photo of Samsung Galaxy S8 surfaces online; includes 3.5mm headphone jack

Samsung Galaxy S8 has been the constant topic of speculation and hype ever since the disastrous events that lead to cancellation of the explosive Samsung Galaxy Note 7. The Guardian, a popular publication in the UK earlier posted apparent details about the smartphone but most of the details posted there were an estimated guess-work without posting any concrete details. Now, Venture Beat has posted the first live photos for the Galaxy S8. The photos show the front and the back of the smartphone. The photos are not very clear but they do give us a general idea of the smartphone.

We can’t make out if the design is same as what is pegged in the leaks because we can’t see the separate, thin bezel on the top and bottom portions of the front. One thing to note is that the speaker grill seems to have line-shaped holes instead of circular ones. Another thing which makes us question the fact that this is not the version that the consumers will see in the market is the fact that the fingerprint sensor is located in the top portion on the back, to the right of the primary camera. The smartphone does seem to have the 3.5-mm headphone jack along with a speaker at the bottom along with a USB Type-C port.

According to the details posted, Samsung Galaxy S8 will come in two models sized at 5.8-inch and 6.2-inch QHD Super AMOLED panels. These display sizes will cover about 83 percent of the screen on the front and the aspect ratio will be an unusual 18.5:9 because of the unusual screen size. One thing to note is that some of the details mirror the details given by The Guardian but still with concrete numbers this time. One thing to now is that both the versions of the smartphones are reported to have ’edge’ display that curves downward.

Both smartphones will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 along with Samsung Exynos versions according to the region. According to the report, S8 is supposed to be 11 percent faster than S7 along with a 23 percent jump in graphic processing. One thing to note is that S8 is reported to be 20 percent more energy efficient, which is where the 10-nm fabrication process will shine instead of raw power. The 5.8-inch version will come with a 3000mAhh battery while the 6.2-inch version will come with 3500mAh.

S8 is expected to come packed with 4GB RAM and start with a 64GB internal storage base model along with an expandable storage to expand storage up to 256GB with a microSD card. The front camera will be increased from 5MP in S7 to 8MP in S8 along with a 12MP camera on the back. Both the camera sensors will come with an aperture of f/1.7 for better low-light performance. The front camera will come backed with an iris scanner that first came out in Note 7.

Samsung will pack its own take on Digital assistants named Bixby which will go head to head with Google Assistant, Cortana and Siri. Last but not the least, the company is expected to hold ‘Unpacked event’ on 29 March in New York City and the smartphone will cost 100 pounds more in Europe than S7 as the sale starts on 21 April.