An official press render of the upcoming flagship

Mar 1, 2017 03:31 GMT  ·  By

While Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017 is in full swing, information about Samsung's next Galaxy S flagship has never stopped coming. We've got loads of leaks showing the phone in various stages of development from simple panels to full working prototypes.

However, this is the first time that we get an official press render of the Galaxy S8, once again, courtesy of Evan Blass. We are only showed the front part of the handset, but we're confident that, by the time the smartphone is announced, we'll be able to admire its back side as well.

If you haven't been living on this planet and didn't know by now, then you might have noticed the date displayed on the phone's screen confirms the Galaxy S8 will be officially introduced on March 29.

The camera and phone icons are shown on the phone's lockscreen as well. Both these features can be used without having to unlock the phone, which comes in handy when you want to take a picture. It's not something new, but it's nice that Samsung has it on the Galaxy S8.

The side bezels are extremely thin, almost invisible due to the fact that the Galaxy S8 sports a curved-edge display. The upper and bottom side bezels are thinner than those of many other flagship smartphones announced at MWC 2017 (yes, I'm looking at you Sony).

A clear look at what's to come

The front-facing camera above the display is joined by an iris scanner, a new authentication method offered by Samsung's flagship smartphones besides the fingerprint reader that's not visible in the picture.

Unlike previous flagships launched by Samsung, the Galaxy S8 will come with a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, which is positioned rather awkwardly next to the camera, not below.

The power on/off button is on the right side of the phone, while the left side features a dual-volume key, and possibly a dedicated camera key.

Even if the phone in the image is the Galaxy S8+, the bigger brother of the Galaxy S8, the smartphones are virtually the same except for their size, so there won't be any design differences between the two.