Samsung could be ready to follow Apple and remove the headphone port from its next flagship smartphone.
The online rumour mill, fuelled by a report by Bloomberg suggesting the re-design, has sparked into life in recent days. It’s claimed the Korean smartphone giant is looking to re-engage rivals Apple at the top of the smartphone market with a number of new features.
Samsung is expected to reveal the Galaxy S8 in March next year as it looks to rebuild following the Note7 scandal, which saw the firm having to recall and then ultimately discontinue the device due to ongoing safety concerns and devices exploding.
The plan, according to various reports is to remove both the headphone port and the home button from the device. While Apple has already ditched the audio port it is said to be considering doing the same with the home button on in order to expand the size of the screen – filling the entire front of phone with a display.
It’s now being claimed Samsung wants to beat them to it and build a bezel-less phone, while also inserting a virtual home button into the screen on the S8.
It has also been claimed that Samsung will only offer the device with curved displays – at the moment it offers both uncurved and curved screens via the Edge version of the Galaxy S range.
In further upgrades Samsung will also introduce a new digital assistant that can handle a host of voice commands, with the aim of taking on the range of assistants currently flooding the market – including Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google Assistant and Amazon Echo’s Alexa.
Samsung has already confirmed it will be implementing a new assistant in the S8 after buying artificial intelligence software company Viv Labs in October, but is yet to specify details.
The company was founded by developers previously part of Apple’s Siri team.
Samsung has already been hit by income drops as a result of the Note7 recall, with a hangover expected into 2017 too. So success for the S8 is critical to the business, just as it is to rebuilding trust with customers.