14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung is expected to take the wraps off the new Galaxy Note 8 phablet on August 26 at a dedicated event in New York, according to a new report.
With the IFA show in Berlin kicking off in early September, people close to the matter said that Samsung would use this event to introduce its new Note model as well. Plans have changed, however, mostly because of Apple unveiling its new iPhone generation during the same month, according to South Korean newspaper Naver, so Samsung moved the launch to August.
Furthermore, Samsung has typically released its flagship devices at separate events and not at mobile conferences like IFA, especially because it wants all the attention to be on its new mobile devices.
So a late August release for the Note 8 makes sense, especially given that Samsung wants to begin sales ahead of its rival in September.
Fingerprint sensor moved to the middle of the phone
The Galaxy Note 8 is expected to feature a design similar to the existing S8 and S8+ model, though the more substantial change will be the additional of the S Pen plus a dual-camera configuration that reminds of the iPhone 7 Plus.
The bigger problem for Samsung, however, is the location of the fingerprint reader, mostly because the company has been trying to embed it under the screen even before the launch of the S8 series.
The South Korean manufacturer didn’t complete work on the new fingerprint sensor, however, so it decided to postpone its release, with the Galaxy S9 now more likely to be the first model launching with such tech.
As far as the Note 8 is concerned, the device will come with a more conventional approach featuring a fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone in typical Android fashion. But as compared to the S8, the Note 8’s sensor will be placed in the middle of the phone to be easier to reach, and not next to the camera as it’s the case of the current flagships.