Samsung Galaxy S8 News and Updates: Analyst Reports Retail Release is on April 21 Despite Delay Rumors

By Jessica Ferrera, Christian Post Contributor Friday, March 17, 2017

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has ruled that the Samsung Galaxy S8 will be out in the market on April 21 despite other insider reports which say the company has pushed back the retail release for another week.

Kuo's name is very familiar in the mobile world since the analyst has an outstanding record in predicting specifications and other details about upcoming devices - whether they come from Apple, Samsung or other brands. And according to a recent report at 9to5Google, Kuo believes the highly anticipated device will hit store shelves on April 21.

However, there was an earlier report from another notable leaker Evan Blass (via Venture Beat) that says Samsung has decided to push back the retail release to April 28 or a week later than what Kuo said. Just like Kuo, Blass also has a good record in spilling bits of internal information from almost every anticipated smartphone release. With that said, the two mentioned dates are now both good possibilities.

Blass also mentioned that his source did not give a particular reason for the delay. However, it is highly possible that it is related to Samsung's move to take extra precautions to avoid the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco from happening again.

Despite the contradicting reports on the Galaxy S8's retail release, Blass maintains that nothing has changed about the official product announcement slated for March 29 in New York City. Samsung will unveil two devices, now being dubbed as the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, that both have curved-edge displays, with organic light-emitting diode panels and WQHD+ 2,960 x 2,400 resolutions.

However, one noticeable difference between the two is the Galaxy S8 sports a 5.8-inch screen while the S8 Plus has a 6.2-inch display. Also, the Galaxy S8 will reportedly run with a 3,000-milliampere hour battery pack while the Galaxy S8 Plus will have longer operating hours through a 3,500 mAh battery.

Consumers in Korea and China, according to Kuo, will be presented with 6 GB random access memory units since they are "particularly sensitive to DRAM specs," while people from other parts of the world will get a lesser, but still hefty, 4 GB RAM.

Kuo also expects buyers from the United States, Japan and China to get devices powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, while units shipped to other parts of the world will sport Samsung's own processor, the Exynos 8895.