The Galaxy S8 Will Be Samsung's Biggest Test Ever (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: You know what's coming tomorrow, you've known and waited for it for months now. Samsung's 2017 flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8, will be officially announced, and one of the most critical periods in the company's history will begin. The phone Samsung launches on Wednesday will carry greater expectations and have to prove a lot more than usual. Even as the world's biggest smartphone maker, Samsung's mobile credibility was deeply shaken by the Galaxy Note 7 snafu, so it now needs to reassert its reliability while also rebooting its technological advantage. Vlad Savov provides a "rundown of the biggest challenges facing Samsung" in his report. While Samsung will need to nail the design and camera performance, as well as many other things, the most critical area will be the battery, given how the Note 7 was recalled due to battery issues. Even though that incident took place half a year ago, we are still faced with the consequences. Samsung is still trying to figure out what to do with the "recalled units" and people are still making bad jokes about "explosive Samsung news." If the Galaxy S8 is to have any battery issues whatsoever, the result could be catastrophic for the company. Though, Samsung is well aware of this and has likely packed "the most robust and durable batteries we've ever seen in a smartphone" inside the Galaxy S8 devices.

Comments

"you've known and waited for it for months now"

[hcs_$reboot]

No.

Re:"you've known and waited for it for months now"

[crow]

Yeah, I don't think most people are terribly excited. It's not like five years ago when each new phone crushed the previous one. It's more like seeing what minor tweaks they're making to the previous model, and what things they're taking away that were good. In general, I expect more memory, better camera, longer battery life, and a loss of some feature that I used that most people ignored. Like when they took away the IR that my S5 had, so I couldn't turn off TVs in restaurants anymore.

In my case, I have an S7 now, so I'm curious about the S8, as I'll probably end up with an S9, so this gives me some idea of what to expect next year.

Re:"you've known and waited for it for months now"

[turkeydance]

lawyers, man. foaming. rabid. just you wait.

Re:"you've known and waited for it for months now"

[DontBeAMoran]

You know what's coming tomorrow, you've known and waited for it for months now.

We did?

Samsung's 2017 flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8, will be officially announced [...]

Oh, another shiny new widget version +1 is being released. Most of us don't care enough to even know about new releases anymore. Android, iPhone, whatever. They're all overpriced spying-on-yourself devices.

Re:"you've known and waited for it for months now"

[youngone]

In my case I have an S4, so in a month or so the S7 will drop $150 (of my local dollars) and I will buy one of those.

Re:"you've known and waited for it for months now"

[saloomy]

But if you buy one, based on their recent history, you will have a hole in your pocket, and you ... Hmm.... can't think of a good pun to tie fire sale into this one. Need more coffee..

Re:"you've known and waited for it for months now"

[BronsCon]

Clothing stores. Clothing stores will have fire sales.

On pants.

Because they're catching fire.

With S8's in their pockets.

Come on, man, PULL IT TOGETHER! How could you miss that?!

Re:"you've known and waited for it for months now"

[93 Escort Wagon]

It's more like seeing what minor tweaks they're making to the previous model, and what things they're taking away that were good.

Given the (necessary) quick turn-around, I imagine this will be even more the case than is usual.

1) Make sure the battery won't explode or catch fire
2) Iterate the quick & easy stuff like the camera and maybe the display panel
3) There is no step 3

Re:"you've known and waited for it for months now"

[saloomy]

Lack of sleep, or exercise. Well played.

Re:"you've known and waited for it for months now"

[Anonymous Coward]

I will pick up a refurbished Note 7 for cheap.

Re:"you've known and waited for it for months now"

[AmiMoJo]

The only really major advance in phone hardware in the last year was the Google Pixel camera, and even that is about 75% software.

Even so... We still don't have the perfect phone. The OnePlus 3 is close, just needs wireless charging to be complete.

Samsung Galaxy S phones are quite boring really, same silly price tag as an iPhone but little to offer over other phones costing half or a third as much. Since this is News for Nerds, how about more stories about phones from less mainstream manufacturers like OnePlus and Xaomi? They are affordable, hackable, high end and great build quality, probably of much more interest to the average geek.

Re:"you've known and waited for it for months now"

[Ol Olsoc]

The only really major advance in phone hardware in the last year was the Google Pixel camera, and even that is about 75% software.

Even so... We still don't have the perfect phone. The OnePlus 3 is close, just needs wireless charging to be complete.

For those who believe that wireless charging is somehow a good thing. If wireless charging meant I carry the phone in my pocket and it charges, or if ir charges in any place I set it down, that would be okay - although harmful to people - but the business of placing a transformer secondary and the other associated circuitry inside a device where the real estate is already so crowded that not allowing for the inherent battery expansion gets us marketing based fires, exactly what advantage is there to placing a phone on a dock that could be served more efficiently by using a radio type dock? I have a number of portable radios where you charge them simply by placing them in a little dock. All of the charging current massaging is done in the dock. With the wireless charging devices, you have to place the phone in - a dock.

But marketing is such a powerful thing. It gives us Ketchup we can't get out of a bottle, milkshakes so thick, you have to eat them with a spoon - making them ice cream, and wireless charging which does something that can be done more efficiently and safer with a device that has been around a long time.

Samsung Galaxy S phones are quite boring really, same silly price tag as an iPhone but little to offer over other phones costing half or a third as much. Since this is News for Nerds, how about more stories about phones from less mainstream manufacturers like OnePlus and Xaomi? They are affordable, hackable, high end and great build quality, probably of much more interest to the average geek.

Well, I guess that the number of people here who actually are all that interested in smartphones aren't interested in hacking them - witness the number for whom plugging in an adapter to an iPhone is a demand too heinous - and those of us who might be interested in it, find our smartphones to be more of a utility. I want my phone to make phone calls, texts, some driving guidance, and if I need to look something up where I don't have access to a real device, I can do a little research.

Although the guy who made a cell phone out of a raspberry Pi - that was kinda interesting.

Re:"you've known and waited for it for months now"

[Ol Olsoc]

lawyers, man. foaming. rabid. just you wait.

Call Marcus and Mack. You may be eligible for substantial compensation! And tell them You...Mean...Business!"

Too soon.

[Narcocide]

Who wants to start a betting pool on how long it takes for the first S8 to explode?

Re:Too soon.

[hcs_$reboot]

Me. I bet it won't explode. The S8 may have many flaws, but if there is one Samsung focused on the most, that 's battery issues.

Re:Too soon.

[sexconker]

Tech blogs and YouTube "celebrities" will be champing at the bit to get the first exploding S8.

There will be reports, likely even before the official launch, of S8's going kablooey. We'll even see video or photographic "proof" of an S8 exploding/burning.
It'll all be staged.

Re:Too soon.

[ArylAkamov]

Exactly what I'm expecting. We will soon have news about "unconfirmed events" from """sources""" about this for the clicks, with those words in extremely fine text at the bottom of the article.

Re:Too soon.

[blind biker]

Considering that the Galaxy S range doesn't have a particular reputation for battery fire, I wonder where comments like yours come from. Apple PR paid shills?

Re:Too soon.

[Anubis IV]

Virtually every lithium ion battery has a small chance to combust seemingly at random. A few iPhones make the news for doing it every year. A few Andriod phones too. The problem for Samsung is that when that inevitably happens to one of their phones, it won't be treated as the uncommon, unlikely occurrence it likely actually is, but will instead be used for clickbait headlines, fear-mongering, and generally unscrupulous "journalism".

Mind you, I say this as someone who is no fan of Samsung (I've been boycotting them ever since the previous slush fund scandal), but even I have to acknowledge that they have a Herculean task ahead of them.

Re:Too soon.

[RotateLeftByte]

More like a bit of fun. Not everyone commenting is a fanboi, troll or shill you know.

Re:Too soon.

[hcs_$reboot]

While I agree about the likeness of such an event, my bet is that Samsung will accept reduced battery performance (at the expense of battery life), and work better on optimizations, to ensure that the probability of a burning experience be way lower than the competition (including better testing as well).

Re:Too soon.

[fisted]

In fact, some commenters are fanboys/tolls or shills i don't know.

Re:Too soon.

[nightfire-unique]

Given that they're continuing the practice of gluing batteries into phones despite the Note 7 debacle, almost nothing would make me happier than to see the same thing happen again. And again, and again, until they stop gluing batteries into flagship devices.

Re:Too soon.

[Ol Olsoc]

Tech blogs and YouTube "celebrities" will be champing at the bit to get the first exploding S8.

There will be reports, likely even before the official launch, of S8's going kablooey. We'll even see video or photographic "proof" of an S8 exploding/burning. It'll all be staged.

So are you saying that teh S7's had no problem? Was that all staged? After all, you must have some verifiable basis for pre-declaring this.

Re:Too soon.

[Ol Olsoc]

The problem for Samsung is that when that inevitably happens to one of their phones, it won't be treated as the uncommon, unlikely occurrence it likely actually is

The problem for Samsung is not the random phone fire. The problem for Samsung was that there was a big design flaw in their phones and batteries. The case was too small for the battery expansion, or the battery was too big for the allotted area, depending on whose ox you want to gore. P This was simply going to happen pretty often as the battery would expand - especially during charge. It would hit the sides of the enclosing space, then start to compress. Eventually a hot spot would form, ant then you got thermal runaway.

You guys can cry fake news all you want, but the 7 was not going to negate the laws of physics and what happens when you try to overly restrain an energy dense power source like a Lithium based battery. You do as it demands you do, not the other way around.

Re:Too soon.

[Anubis IV]

I never suggested that the problem with the Note 7 was random fires (note that I was discussing their problems going forward, not their previous problems). It ABSOLUTELY had a major design flaw, exactly as you described. I was suggesting that random fires will be a problem with the 8 for Samsung. And if they have yet another engineering design flaw, then the problem will be compounded further.

Re:Too soon.

[Ol Olsoc]

I never suggested that the problem with the Note 7 was random fires (note that I was discussing their problems going forward, not their previous problems). It ABSOLUTELY had a major design flaw, exactly as you described. I was suggesting that random fires will be a problem with the 8 for Samsung. And if they have yet another engineering design flaw, then the problem will be compounded further.

I don't know that I was actually disgreeing with you.

Re:Too soon.

[Anubis IV]

Fair enough. I was taking "You guys can cry fake news all you want" as an indication that I was being lumped in with those who thought Samsung simply got a bad rap with the Note 7 (i.e. with the people who thought there wasn't an issue at all), but if that wasn't your intent, then I think we're on the same page about everything.

Re:Too soon.

[Agent0013]

So are you saying that teh S7's had no problem? Was that all staged? After all, you must have some verifiable basis for pre-declaring this.

The S7 had some problems. I don't think anyone is saying they didn't. But there were a lot of the reports of fire where the people that seemed not to actually exist, or were found out to have faked their reports.

Re:Too soon.

[Ol Olsoc]

So are you saying that teh S7's had no problem? Was that all staged? After all, you must have some verifiable basis for pre-declaring this.

The S7 had some problems. I don't think anyone is saying they didn't. But there were a lot of the reports of fire where the people that seemed not to actually exist, or were found out to have faked their reports.

Okay, Here is th eonly cite that I found. http://www.trustedreviews.com/... So Samsung claims 26 false reports. they call faulty on 12 handsets that they checked, and declared the phones okay.

There were seven people they couldn't get hold of, so they declared thos fake as well, and seven other either withdrew their claims of said they threw the phone away. So they declared those fake as well.

Certainly one might be expected to have some doubts as to the veracity of an investigation done by Samsung ( think of you you think that there is not problem and the reports are fake - the same can be applied to my own declarations, because I'm not so certain that a report is fake if I cannot get in touch with the person.

Regardless, I'd love to see your cites of an independent agency, declareing this a fake, because I'm a little skeptical that Samsung just thought it would be awesome to recall the entire line of phones when there is some very good reason to believe that it was all a lie, the batteries are sbject only to random failures, and nothing to see here.

Re:Too soon.

[Ol Olsoc]

Fair enough. I was taking "You guys can cry fake news all you want" as an indication that I was being lumped in with those who thought Samsung simply got a bad rap with the Note 7 (i.e. with the people who thought there wasn't an issue at all), but if that wasn't your intent, then I think we're on the same page about everything.

No problem - it's slashdot, so we're often on a heightened sensory level for trolling 8^)

Re:Too soon.

[Agent0013]

I never looked into who was declaring the reports as fake. It just seems that any company that wants to hurt their competitor could have added to the number of reports of burning phones. Some reports were to the news media or social media directly, it is even possible that Samsung was never able to look into some reports that were not reported to them.

In the end they did recall the phones, so there must have been enough of a problem that any number of fake ones would have been inconsequential. That still does not mean there were no fake reports put out there.

Bigger news is Android 7.0 for the S7

[crow]

The big news today is that Verizon launched the Android Nougat (7.0) update for the S7. I think this software update has had a lot more anticipation than the release of the S8.

Re:Bigger news is Android 7.0 for the S7

[BronsCon]

Grab the divider between the two apps and slide it to the bottom (if you want to keep the top app) or the top (if you want to keep the bottom app). How is that not intuitive enough that you might try it before googling?

Re:Bigger news is Android 7.0 for the S7

[93 Escort Wagon]

... and the return of butt dialing - which has been a missing feature since Android 2.2.

I butt-dialed 911 from my Froyo phone on a couple occasions, back in the day...

Samsung is guaranteed at least a 'C' on this test

[JoeyRox]

Provided the phones don't self-immolate.

Nervous testing department

[Tablizer]

Boss: Did it fry yet?
Tester: No.
Boss: Did it fry yet?
Tester: No!
Boss: Did it fry yet?
Tester: No!!
Boss: Did it ... ~ *KABOOM!* ~
Tester: Can I have a vacation now?

Re:Nervous testing department

[rtb61]

Tester: Phone doesn't work
Boss:Take out the battery and put it back in.
Tester:Can't do that
Boss:Fuck.

My favourite way of silencing a noisy phone, rip of the back and flick out the battery, it is faster than holding the stupid switch which refuses to function when the phone is ringing. Can be a few days before the battery goes in, meh, that's what messaging banks are for (if I need to use it, well, the battery goes back it).

Sounds like...

[Bodhammer]

Sounds like the next hottest thing! It's going to be smoking hot! What a blast!

Re:here's an idea...

[TimSSG]

I liked the below answer; but think having a fire detector that can call the fire department would be more in line with past phone features. Tim S.

will it have a fire supression system?

Re:GUN SHY?

[afaik_ianal]

I would never trust Samsung to sell me a phone that would not blow off my dick anymore.

Some people pay good money for that, you know?

I can see it now

[Dunbal]

This TV will spy on you like no TV has ever spied on you before.

It's all about the battery

[fyngyrz]

If the battery is still a non-replicable unit, then I will know they haven't learned the obvious, profound lesson:

Non-replaceable battery: Battery problem? Phone is garbage. Write off entire cost. Purchaser has nothing. Seller loses everything.

Replaceable battery: Battery problem? Send new battery. Preserve most of purchaser's value and seller's income.

Re:It's all about the battery

[fendragon]

Replaceable battery: Battery problem? Send new battery. Preserve most of purchaser's value and seller's income.

Unless the "battery problem" was that it caught fire and melted the phone.
But agreed in principle, of course, that non-replaceable batteries are a Bad Thing.

Re:It's all about the battery

[pscottdv]

Presumably one would send the new battery to people to whom this has not yet occurred.

Re:It's all about the battery

[iampiti]

Nope, it's a sealed battery again. This year even LG seems to have gone for the sealed battery. Alas, it seems removable batteries in flagship phones are a thing of the past. It seems most people don't care about removable batteries. I do and I don't know what I'll buy when my current phone dies.

Re:It's all about the battery

[Holi]

Unfortunately absolutely no one in the industry agrees with you.

Re:It's all about the battery

[Ol Olsoc]

Nope, it's a sealed battery again. This year even LG seems to have gone for the sealed battery. Alas, it seems removable batteries in flagship phones are a thing of the past. It seems most people don't care about removable batteries. I do and I don't know what I'll buy when my current phone dies.

A flip Phone?

But yeah - you're right. Most people don't care at all about removable batteries. It's all in the length of time before they get a new phone versus battery life. A lot of my Android using friends get a new phone just about every year. When the entire device is disposable, and the batteries last as long or longer than the replacement period does, the tiny percentage who want to hang on to their phones forever don't outweigh the design issues of access covers, and where to put other things in the phone.

The profit margins in Android phones are pretty slim, so these will add significantly to the cost of a phone that only a tiny number of people want the feature, and who are probably going to be replacing their phone at a much longer interval, and are probably demanding rock bottom prices anyhow.

Re:It's all about the battery

[nightfire-unique]

Seriously, this.

The one singular takeaway from the Note 7 debacle, for any rational, knowledgeable, thinking person should be what you wrote.

If Samsung management continue to glue batteries into their phones after that epic fail .... as a shareholder I would run, and run fast.

Re:It's all about the battery

[xession]

Speculation: Non-removable batteries have become standard to keep people from being able to actually completely shut off their device. Likely they receive a small subsidy from a publicly funded agency for purposes.

Re:It's all about the battery

[rickb928]

The manufacturers think we care more about water resistance than replaceable batteries.

And they care more about water resistance since it impacts warranty costs and dissatisfaction more than battery longevity.

Besides, the live cycle is assumed to be 2 years. The OS itself moves so much in 2 years that 'old' phones are a liability.

Re:It's all about the battery

[fyngyrz]

We know they want to create disposable phones, because then they get to sell you a new one.

However, this issue shows that this particular reduction in function can cost them billions in immediate costs, plus loss of reputation. If this doesn't change the approach, then we know they're stupid, and some people will make decisions on that basis.

Not that I'm surprised Samsung continues to act stupidly. After all, they can only see 1/4 down the financial road, because they have allowed themselves to be captured by a diseased financial system. Same for everyone else that copies the thin-over-all mindset.

Re:It's all about the battery

[93 Escort Wagon]

Or the next of kin...

Aaaand we already have the first rumour of a fire

[Gumbercules!!]

Not even kidding. There's been a fire at a Samsung Store stocking the S8's. No one is confirming it was the S8's that started it - but no one is confirming it wasn't. Either way, it's publicity Samsung could have done without.

https://9to5google.com/2017/03...

NASA is carefully following the test!

[LordHighExecutioner]

After so many aborted attempts, NASA engineers believe that this time Samsung will succeed in putting a Galaxy 8 into orbit around the Earth.

Here's a crazy idea

[DrXym]

If the Galaxy S8 shipped with removable batteries then it wouldn't matter half as much if some were faulty. They could simply ship out replacements. Embarrassing yet but nowhere near as embarrassing as having to recall, refund and junk every single device.

It was their desire to copy Apple and build obsolescence into their devices with sealed in batteries that tripped them up. The Note 7 became obsolete a lot sooner than even they were expecting.

Re:Here's a crazy idea

[thegarbz]

If the Galaxy S8 shipped with removable batteries then it wouldn't matter half as much if some were faulty. They could simply ship out replacements. Embarrassing yet but nowhere near as embarrassing as having to recall, refund and junk every single device.

It was their desire to copy Apple and build obsolescence into their devices with sealed in batteries that tripped them up. The Note 7 became obsolete a lot sooner than even they were expecting.

Dumbest comment on the internet. If there are any issues with the S8 it will be bad. How easy they are to fix is completely irrelevant. The cost of rip and replace is tiny. There is literally no incentive to make these removable even if they are volatile.

The note 7 was far from the first phone without a removable battery.

Re:Here's a crazy idea

[DrXym]

It's only dumb if you didn't grasp the point.

Re:Here's a crazy idea

[thegarbz]

Oh I got the point. That doesn't mean it was good or made sense. The embarrassment would have been the same even with removable batteries (blowing up twice). The outcome would have been the same (total recall demanded by governments). The only difference is they'd be even deeper in the hole because someone decided to sell them volcano insurance just like the Simpsons, or do you think spending lots of money to prevent something that has never happened in the industry and there's no good reason for it to happen is a sound business decision.

Dumb comment with a dumb point.

Re:Here's a crazy idea

[Overzeetop]

Which is funny, because the replacements on the N7 were bad. They still would have had to recall the units in shame, and with the black mark from the CPSC you wouldn't have been able to use them with 3rd party batteries either. Still a brick.

By the way - removable batteries suck. I had them on the LG G3 and G4. You have to shut the phone down to remove them and then cold boot. By the end of the run on my G4, I found it was less weight and more capacity* to carry an external battery with a slim cable and just plug it in to charge. Plus I never had to shut down in the middle of what I was doing or drop a call for a minute to wait for power down/swap/powerup. Just plug and go.

*remember, LiPos can't be safely stored in your pocket or purse without a fire resistant case/pouch, so the advantage of their slim form means nothing if you don't want a fire in your pocket.

Re:Samsung is guaranteed at least a 'C' on this te

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow! You are so funny. ha ha ha, I can hardly contain myself. Do you come up with your own material, or do you have a team that creates such hilarious wit? I can't wait to see you live in NY.

You lost me

[soccerisgod]

You know what's coming tomorrow, you've known and waited for it for months now.

[ ] omgomgomg I can't wait!
[ ] I'm somewhat excited, and I know what this is all about
[ ] Wait, I don't even have a "smart" phone
[x] wtf are you drivelling on about?

I love it when people make really stupid assumptions based on their own fanboy experiences :)

And it will be a flaming success

[OneHundredAndTen]

With such an explosive product, Samsung will prove that it is a company on fire, which has, single-handedly, managed to reignite the interest of the public - something that one can see in the fact that so many are burning with anticipation to buy this device, the hottest of the year.

Corporate hype post

[celeb8]

Nice to see the corporate hype machine isn't ignoring good ol' Slashdot in their attempts to spin up buzz. I predict a game-changing paradigm-blowing corporate word salad about a stupid smart phone that will be an incremental improvement over its predecessors!

Interesting

[fyngyrz]

Ya have to wonder what this speculative subrosa funding operation would do when presented with a bill for the five billion dollar hit Samsung took with their stupid non-replicable battery, though. "Sure, no problem"?

At that point, assuming remuneration was not forthcoming, might be best to part ways with said public agency.