Samsung Galaxy S8 release date, specs rumors: SD 835 leak confirms MWC 2017 debut for the flagship?

Keith Kressin, senior vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies Inc. and Ben Suh, senior vice president, foundry marketing, Samsung, show off the first 10 nanometer mobile processor, the Snapdragon 835, at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology Summit in New York.Qualcomm/Samsung

With Qualcomm and Samsung already confirming development of the new Snapdragon 835 chipset, it is said that the tech maker's next flagship, the Galaxy S8, is expected to come out early next year, its debut coinciding with the 2017 Mobile World Congress.

Recently, Samsung has already confirmed that it has partnered with the Qualcomm in developing its next-gen chipset, the Snapdragon 835 processor. In its official statement, Jong Shik Yoon, executive vice president of foundry business team at Samsung Electronics, said, "We are pleased to have the opportunity to work closely with Qualcomm Technologies in producing the Snapdragon 835 using our 10nm FinFET technology. This collaboration is an important milestone for our foundry business as it signifies confidence in Samsung's leading chip process technology."

Meanwhile, although the new chipset is not expected to appear until early next year, its supposed specs have already leaked online. According to rumors, the new Snapdragon 835 chipset will have an octa-core CPU, a massive upgrade over the quad-core setup for the SD 821 chipset; Adreno 540 GPU and UFS 2.1 technology. In addition, with the new 10nm FinFET assembly confirmed by Samsung, it is likely that the SD 835 chipset will be able to flawlessly handle 6 GB of RAM, which is rumored to be one of the configurations for the Samsung Galaxy S8.

Although the Snapdragon 835 chipset is expected to feature in the Samsung Galaxy S8, it will only be available in some regions, much like the previous SD-powered flagships in the Galaxy S series. The South Korea-based tech giant is expected to rely heavily on its own homegrown Exynos 8895 chipset which is also based on the new 10nm FinFET technology.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is the anticipated flagship follow-up for the tech maker, as Samsung is expected to heavily make up for the fiasco with the Galaxy Note 7 recall and discontinuation. Supposed specs and features for the upcoming flagship include near bezel-less display, a dual-cam setup, and a new, AI-supported digital assistant. It is expected that the new flagship will debut in February next year, opening for Samsung's showcase at the 2017 MWC.