Richard takes a look at some exciting upcoming mobile handsets – including rumours emerging about Samsung’s first foldable smartphone! As always, we aim to keep you up to date with how these will affect the world of development and what it means for testing and QA.
Samsung Galaxy S9 & S9+
As we approach the closing months of 2017, we’re starting to see rumours of new devices that will be released early next year. The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ will be the biggest and potentially most impressive of these, continuing to perfect what have so far shaped up to be (arguably) the best phones of 2017. The handsets look to continue with the infinity display trend and it appears that the S9 may well exceed the 4GB of RAM we’ve become familiar with in Samsung’s previous flagship devices.
Following in the footsteps of the iPhone however, one controversial aspect of the Galaxy S9 is the predicted removal of the traditional 3.5mm headphone jack.
Release date: March 2018 (Rumoured)
Rumoured New Features:
- Snapdragon 845 processor
- Dual-lens rear cameras
- Fingerprint scanners embedded into the infinity display
- 3D sensor front camera
What to look out for in Testing:
- If the S9 proves to sell as well as previous Galaxy S range devices from Samsung, it’s sure to be a highly recommended device when scoping projects here at Zoonou.
HTC U11 Plus
HTC has already launched two flagship devices this year, with the HTC U11 and HTC U Ultra, but something new is likely coming on 2nd November as a possible rival to the Google Pixel 2.
Phandroid reports that HTC has been sending out invites for an announcement in Taiwan, so there’s reason to think there will be a new flagship release, the HTC U11 Plus, arriving next month. Rumours suggest that it will be a bigger and better version of the HTC U11. Little is known about the design, but it looks to be IP68 waterproof. We will be keeping our ear close to the ground for anything new.
Release date: 2nd November 2017 (Rumoured)
Rumoured New Features:
- Snapdragon 835 chipset
- 12MP rear camera and an 8MP front-facing camera
- Waterproof build
- Choice of 4GB or 6GB of RAM paired with 64GB or 128GB of storage
What to look out for in Testing:
- HTC will ship the U11 Plus with Android Oreo. It will be great to have another phone available on the latest Android version to add to the device lab.
Samsung Galaxy X
The foldable phone will finally become a reality in 2018 if rumours are to be believed. The Galaxy X, previously known as Project Valley, is thought to be a smartphone with a dual-screen (one on each side) that folds out to reveal a 7 inch tablet. If a foldable phone is sold by Samsung next year, we suspect it will be available in limited numbers and likely at a very high price.
Release date: TBC
Rumoured New Features:
- Foldable OLED screens
What to look out for in Testing:
- The new technology and variety of screen size options on one device will likely have a huge impact on the user experience for websites and apps. With little information currently available, we’ll be keeping on top of any updates, and will be sure to post them here when we know more!
For more information on our Device lab and the large range of devices we have available to test on, please see our Device Lab page. For more details on our compatibility testing service please contact us at info@zoonou.com and one of our team will get back to you. If you’d like to get in touch about anything else, please head over to our Contact page.
Points raised in this article are based on general rumour and should not be used as actionable advice until specifications are confirmed.
Article Published: 26/10/2017
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Published by Richard King
on the 26th October 2017
Test Analyst at Zoonou