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Samsung Plans All-Screen Design in New Galaxy S8 Phones (bloomberg.com) 106

Posted by msmash from the pushing-the-boundaries dept.
Samsung may have big plans to overcome the whammy of its disastrous Galaxy Note7 this year. The company is reportedly planning to push the boundaries of design with the next flagship smartphone, dubbed the Galaxy S8. The smartphone, which was recently pegged to ship without a headphone jack, will have an "all-screen" design, Bloomberg is reporting. The report adds that there might not be a home button -- at least the way we know it -- and that any part of the lower display will serve as a fingerprint scanner. From the report: The bezel-less displays will provide more viewing real estate while a virtual home button will be buried in the glass in the lower section. Samsung needs the Galaxy S8 to be a hit after suffering through the Note 7 debacle that tarnished its brand, led to an embarrassing recall and may cost the company more than $6 billion. While Samsung is targeting a March release of the S8, that could be delayed until April, the people said. Samsung is adopting tougher testing procedures in the wake of the Note 7 debacle that could push back the launch by about a month, one of the people said.
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Samsung Plans All-Screen Design in New Galaxy S8 Phones More

Samsung Plans All-Screen Design in New Galaxy S8 Phones

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  • Yey (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 08, 2016 @10:28AM (#53446269)

    This will allow for more glass to be used as shrapnel when it explodes!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      This is a brilliant move by Samsung. If the Pentagon decides to make the Galaxy S8 standard-issue, think of the money to be made! The military-industrial complex just expanded to the phone market.

    • Had it been Apple with the exploding phone, I could easily imagine Jony Ive's British accent [youtube.com] narrating over a few minutes of 360 degree hero shots capturing slow motion explosions inside of shattering glass...

      Our new phone improves on the energetic properties we previously introduced. Its all-glass body provides an unobstructed view of the internal components as they fuse and divide, fundamentally transforming into something other than what they were, while releasing the primal energies contained within the device creates a pristine seamlessness between the case and the user's hand, allowing for a first-of-its-kind experience that is truly magical.

    • Re:Yey (Score:4, Funny)

      by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Thursday December 08, 2016 @11:48AM (#53446747)

      This will allow for more glass to be used as shrapnel when it explodes!

      Yes, it is quite cutting edge indeed!

    • But will it be thinner? That's the most important feature on a phone, I want it to be really, really thin. If you can't use it without tweezers, it's just not trendy enough.

  • Isn't this what caused the Note7 disaster? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dlb101010 ( 4779247 ) on Thursday December 08, 2016 @10:32AM (#53446307)

    .reportedly planning to push the boundaries of design

    Now might be the time for them to pull back, go for a less cutting-edge stable design, and save pushing boundaries for another day.

    • You lack courage.
      • The courage to make a profit? Samsung knew that batteries can expand during use, and they knew they weren't allowing much leeway for the expansion, but they courageously went with a hip slimmer design anyway. (And they surely were aware of what can happen when internal positive and negative parts of a battery rupture into contact.)

    • Re:Isn't this what caused the Note7 disaster? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Grishnakh ( 216268 ) on Thursday December 08, 2016 @10:47AM (#53446383)

      No, what caused the Note7 disaster was a lack of testing and a bad design of the battery compartment: there wasn't enough space for the battery to expand, so when it did, boom! This could happen with any cellphone, not just a cutting-edge one. Honestly, I'm surprised they made such a seemingly-elementary mistake; these companies have been making small devices with lithium-ion batteries for many years now, so you'd think this would be pretty basic.

      Anyway, they're already saying (in TFS) that they're going to do a more thorough job of testing now to avoid stupid mistakes like that. More thorough testing should also catch other problems that can happen with boundary-pushing designs.

      No, what they really need to do is go back to providing basic features that Apple and others have been removing lately: removable batteries and SDcard slots, and now headphone jacks. I'm listening to music at work now on my cellphone using, you guessed it, my 3.5mm headphone jack. WhyTF would I buy a "cutting edge" cellphone that won't let me use my noise-cancelling headphones at work? Utter stupidity. And no, I'm not going to use some fucking dongle, nor am I going to trash my nice noise-cancelling headphones and buy some shitty Bluetooth headphones.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        "WhyTF would I buy a "cutting edge" cellphone that won't let me use my noise-cancelling headphones at work?"

        ANSWER: Um they didn't you can use any headphones you want. That is what the adapter is for.

        "Utter stupidity. And no, I'm not going to use some fucking dongle, nor am I going to trash my nice noise-cancelling headphones and buy some shitty Bluetooth headphones."

        ANSWER: Sooo... plugging into phone. AWESOME, BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD. plugging into adapter... STUPIDEST THING EVA! ??? Yea, makes perf

        • Is the adapter included with the phone, or is it sold separately? And does the adapter allow recharging the phone's battery while headphones are in use?

          • The short answer is that you'll be investing in USB C/micro USB headsets or adapters. And then you'll use the wireless charging feature for charging while you listen. I was super pissed when I heard the first rumor about them taking the port out, and since I only use headphones occasionally, bluetooth are useless to me, as they'll likely either be dead or at home in the charging cradle.

            But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wireless charge almost exclusively, unless I've been o

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I say this with all possible force. Fuck your adapters. Take a rusty spoon and put your adapter on it and then fuck yourself with it. Adapters are a workaround not a solution. Give me BT that actually fucking works before trying to shove a stupid ass design down people's throats. BT is still problematic at best and doesn't even work at worst.

      • I think that the phone was tested, and likely the issue was known.
        The problem is that, in an order to save costs and decrease the chance or product leaks, Samsung has moved away from using 3rd party labs and started setting up their own internal labs.
        An internal battery lab was used to test the note. The testing for batteries is standardized. And while the ISO 17025 accreditation requires a sort of separation of the lab and the production side, it is clear that the lab would be under intense pressure to bot

    • Heh "cutting edge"... That's what these phones will have if they get any thinner.

    • A rapidly expanding battery is going to push some boundaries all right. Perhaps also convert that screen glass into some nice cutting edges.
  • Well the iPhone 8 is going to have TWO screens. One on the front and one on the back.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by fubarrr ( 884157 )

      >iPhone 8 is going to have TWO screens. One on the front and one on the back.

      So its screen will break two times as often

      • So its screen will break two times as often

        Gorilla glass keeps improving, it might only be 1.5 times as often

      • >iPhone 8 is going to have TWO screens. One on the front and one on the back.

        So its screen will break two times as often

        No, because you won't be able to pick it up...
        Touch Disease Everywhere!
        Now to train Siri to say
        "Don't Touch Me!"
        "Stop Touching Me"
        "MOM!!!"

        • >iPhone 8 is going to have TWO screens. One on the front and one on the back.

          So its screen will break two times as often

          No, because you won't be able to pick it up... Touch Disease Everywhere! Now to train Siri to say "Don't Touch Me!" "Stop Touching Me"

          I'm telling HR!

          FIFY

      • >iPhone 8 is going to have TWO screens. One on the front and one on the back.

        So its screen will break two times as often

        Cue the beginnings of the iPhone double bounce video meme. Can you break both screens at once with the same drop test...

    • And from there its screens all the way down...

  • HAHAHAHA (Score:3)

    by fubarrr ( 884157 ) on Thursday December 08, 2016 @10:34AM (#53446315)

    >All-Screen Design

    I bet the replacement glass will be sold at 10000% markup.

    • >All-Screen Design

      I bet the replacement glass will be sold at 10000% markup.

      There's not really a vendor out there that isn't charging retail-diamond markup for smartphone solutions these days.

    • No, even worse... the glass will be glued to the OLED, so replacing one will require replacing both, and a cracked-glass repair will cost $300 instead of $30.

      Not to mention... fitting any kind of shock-absorbing drop-protection case onto a phone with no bezel at all will be almost impossible.

      Jesus. Are these phones designed for use in padded cells or something? Or are they crazy enough to think they can get people to repeatedly pay $1,500 over the (short) life of the phone (say, $900 up front, then two $300

      • Or are they crazy enough to think they can get people to repeatedly pay $1,500 over the (short) life of the phone (say, $900 up front, then two $300 glass+display repairs.

        Yes, they're that crazy. They're looking at iPhone users, who do exactly this, and they think they can get their customers to do the same thing. But they're probably wrong. Only Apple is so reliably able to get customers this willing to put up with their antics.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Calydor ( 739835 )

      Umm, isn't the very center of our galaxy a giant black hole with no burning whatsoever?

  • Accidental touches galore! When are they going just embed the phone into your hand? Or better yet, direct brain stimulation [newatlas.com]?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Calydor ( 739835 )

      Accidental touches galore!

      Still beats the S7 and the Accidental Torches Galore feature.

      • The S7 has no such problem. It's the Note7 that has that problem. Different product. It's like bitching about the "you're holding it wrong" "feature" on iPads, when that was a problem on iPhones and not iPads.

    • Accidental touches galore! When are they going just embed the phone into your hand? Or better yet, direct brain stimulation [newatlas.com]?

      Exactly! WTH are we who don't have 2mm thick fingers supposed to do to be able to even hold on to this thing without accidentally emailing all our porn links to grandma, use fecking telekinesis? I have enough problems with the current model (S7)! (sorry grandma...)

      I think it's time for the THICK revolution to start. Tell the manufacturers that we don't want these damned wafer-thin phones, much less anything thinner. Just one manufacturer should provide a 'thick' version of their flagship phone, and adve

      • Grandma knows... Thicker is better....Though she might not admit it if you ask.

      • Reportedly phones which very small bezels (like the Xiaomi Mi Mix) have implemented some filtering in software to (hopefully) prevent accidental touches. How well that works I don't know.

    • Accidental touches were not really an issue with the N7 variant at all. OTOH, it is a pain to try and pick them up from a desk without somehow pressing a button/active area - and this will make it worse.

  • So, in the wake of exploding phones and the efficiency at which consumers break or shatter their displays regardless of Gorilla hardening, you chose to make the new model essentially out of glass?

    Let me guess, the new Samsung VP of Design is Elijah Price. [imdb.com]

    Brilliant move there, Samsung. Way to re-gain consumer confidence.

    Don't forget to include a wireless buttplug to prepare consumers for the reaming you plan on giving them for display repairs...

  • The whole exploding battery could have been resolved a lot easier and probably wouldn't have happened at all had Samsung not chosen to seal the battery into the phone. As it is I won't be upgrading past Note 4 because being able to remove and replace the battery is a feature that is very important to me.

    • I definitely felt this way with my S4. When the charging port finally died on it, I bit the bullet and got an S7. I have to say, 3-4 months in and I don't miss the replaceable battery. Between much more battery capacity and wireless charging, I rarely run my phone dead. I used to run my S4 dead a couple times a week. Between the convenience of just setting my phone down to charge it and the water resistance, I'm ok with the glued-in battery so far.

      • I definitely felt this way with my S4. When the charging port finally died on it, I bit the bullet and got an S7. I have to say, 3-4 months in and I don't miss the replaceable battery.

        I also upgraded direct from a S4 to a S7, and I very much miss the IR blaster. Do they even make phones with those any more?

  • Both of these design changes (screen taking up the entire face of the device, home button integrated into the display) are also rumors that have been floating around for the iPhone 8. The iPhone 7's design that changed the home button from a physical button to a capacitive touch "button" using the haptic feedback engine was an incremental step towards that end. Samsung is trying to preempt Apple and get a phone to market first that incorporates the rumors of what Apple is going to do.

    • Everyone seems insistent on copying all of the features of the iPhone, even the absolutely braindead ones like removing the headphone jack. If I was Apple, I would "leak" rumors of extremely ridiculous changes to the next version of the iPhone, watch as the competition scrambled to beat me to market to release a phone full of things nobody wants, and then release a new iPhone that has the features people actually want. Of course that will never happen since Apple itself is all too focused on figuring out

      • Everyone seems insistent on copying all of the features of the iPhone, even the absolutely braindead ones like removing the headphone jack..... and then release a new iPhone that has the features people actually want.

        The problem with your theory, as much as I really do like it, is that there's no shortage of drooling morons who will rationalize Apple's "braindead" design decisions like removing the headphone jack, even right here on Slashdot. Just watch, some stupid AC will respond here telling me how all

        • Apple even has MP3 players without screens (the ipod shuffle). Yes, that's not absolutely necessary to listen to your audio files but it severely limits the player's usability

    • Wait...trying to preempt? Apple is about the last company to incorporate new tech into phones. Now, they are usually pretty good about making sure it works instead of being first out the gate, but "early adopter" is not in Apple's lexicon. They still don't have wireless charging. They just added water resistance this year. They're two years behind Samsung on edge to edge screens (and about 3 years behind everyone on resolution). They've lost any claim they might have once had to the best phone camera. Even

      • Apple is about the last company to incorporate new tech into phones

        Multi-touch capacitive touch screen. Accelerometers. Reversible data / charging port that can be used when flipped either way. Haptic feedback engine (not talking about just vibration). Using the body of the phone as the antenna. Those are just some I can name off the top of my head.

        Just the capacitive touch screen alone is what revolutionized mobile devices.

    • There's no pre-empting going on. Apple is not the originator of these ideas - they may be talking about adding them to the next iPhone, but Android has had them for close to 7 years. My Samsung Galaxy S (the first one they made) didn't have physical navigation buttons - it had capacitive touch buttons and used the phone's vibrate module to generate haptic feedback. The navigation buttons were simply a separate touch-sensitive OLED display [androidcentral.com]. Heck, my current Nexus 5 does the same thing except the buttons a

  • Yes, I know it was a corny movie.
    However, I am still waiting for Val Kilmer's hand held. That roll our screen, IMO is what Samsung and others should be shooting for. Not a giant 8inch PC that I need to cram in my pocket. How cool would that be to have something which is small enough to fit in your pocket, but can unroll to look at real internet pages?

  • Those of us who use protective phone cases dislike this trend.

  • Yeah, but non-swappable battery and no stereo jack (Score:4, Informative)

    by blind biker ( 1066130 ) on Thursday December 08, 2016 @11:52AM (#53446763) Journal

    Sorry Samsung, as a current user... I won't be getting anything above the S5.

    It's probably going to be the LG G5.

    • >It's probably going to be the LG G5.

      That's a pretty fucking sad state of affairs. (I owned the G3 and G4...I couldn't stomach more of the same but in a clunkier package)

      • I own a LG G4 currently.

        I used to strictly buy Samsung phones, but when they went to sealed batteries I didn't follow. I've always had some sort of problem with Samsung's phones, whether it be a bad battery or some other weird quirkiness that I'd have to reset my phone every other day.

        I have discovered, now that I bought something besides a Samsung, that it is Samsung and not Android like I previously thought. I've had my G4 for a year and a half and haven't had any hardware issues. I did have a software is

      • >It's probably going to be the LG G5.

        That's a pretty fucking sad state of affairs. (I owned the G3 and G4...I couldn't stomach more of the same but in a clunkier package)

        Do tell more. I haven't heard anything negative about the G5, but I also have not done a super-thorough research, either. Any and all accounts would be of value to me.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      >sticking with the S5

      I'm also sticking with the S5. I really like a removable battery and a headphone jack and a microSD card. (and waterproofing) If they can add all that back to the S8, I'll buy one the day it comes out. If not, I'll hold pat until I have to buy a new one...then I'll look for another S5.

      Can anyone pass this along to Samsung? There are a LOT of us out here who want the features of an S5 back.

  • If the screen is the entire front of the device, will you be able to put it in a case? I would not want to pay for a phone that I couldn't protect.

  • With glass to the edges it will have almost zero impact toughness. You can't use a case as it would fall off or obstruct the screen and you couldn't do things like scroll or click properly.

    God forbid they actually put some rubber around the corners and make it a sane thickness.
  • Does this mean that it will not burst out in flames? For, if it does not, it cannot be a true Samsung phone.
  • Removing the headphone jack and the home button would be the last shitty straws. Unreliable phones, bloatware, nagware, and lagging Android releases = a bad experience. Not to mention a battery you can't remove - they are copying Apple's worst decisions. My next phone will not be a Samsung. Which is a shame.
  • You just lost another loyal customer. I DO NOT WANT a phone that has no headphone jack, no swappable battery and will break if I look at it cross-eyed. The idiots at Apple and Samsung have such a hard-on for innovation - any innovation whether good or bad - that they don't even realize they're losing tons of customers by doing so.

  • Do we need a phone where the entire surface area is touch responsive?

    I just want better versions of existing phones. The Note 7 would've been fantastic, had it not exploded and had the idiot curved screen.

    I guess I'm skipping the S8

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • ...only in reverse: odd numbers good, even numbers bad.

    S5 - great
    S6 - removed the SD card slot
    S7 - put the SD card slot in again
    S7 - removed the headphone jack...

  • Is any user out there clamoring for an extra 0.8 mm of screen real estate?

    Is this even going to be viable when someone puts a protective case on their phone, or will the case impede on the edges of the screen?

    This smacks of change for the sake of change, with little regard for improving the actual design or usability of the phone.

    Removed a feature? UPGRADE
    Less user friendly? UPGRADE
    Harder to service? UPGRADE

  • Finally a phone that will not only be awkward to hold, but impossible to hold.

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