A new Samsung Galaxy S8 rumor suggests the smartphone may feature 8GB of RAM, based on a post on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. An anonymous source who claims to be familiar with Samsung’s plans detailed that the upcoming smartphone will feature a 10nm processor and UFS 2.1 flash memory, in addition to 8GB of RAM.
While rumors have already connected the Galaxy S8 to the Snapdragon 835 chip, which Samsung and Qualcomm announced in November as being developed with a 10nm technology, pundits find the other claims farfetched. Samsung and Qualcomm previewed the Snapdragon 835 chip as having greater efficiency, performance and lower power consumption than previous high-end chips. An overall faster chip likely would not require an increase in RAM, even if it could support the upgrade.
Samsung announced its development of a 8GB LPDDR4 module in October; however, the manufacturer has yet to feature the next plausible upgrade of 6GB RAM to its globally distributed smartphones. The Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge and Galaxy Note 7 all released in 2016 with 4GB of RAM, which has been the standard for Android-based premium devices for just short of two years. Samsung began mass producing 6GB RAM modules in September 2015, but the component has yet to make it onto its smartphones.
Earlier rumors suggested Samsung had plans to release a Galaxy Note 7 model with 6GB of RAM in China; however, the device was ultimately discontinued due to a faulty design before that model could be confirmed. Several devices released in 2016 with 6GB of RAM, including the OnePlus 3, Axon 7 and Vivo Xplay5 Elite. These devices typically saw limited releases in Asian markets.
Following the Galaxy Note 7 misfortune, there have been several rumors suggesting Samsung will overcompensate heavily for the device it was forced to prematurely pull off the market. However, considering it was Samsung’s push for innovation that lead to the ultimate downfall of the Galaxy Note 7, the manufacturer will likely tread lightly when it comes to stuffing the Galaxy S8 chock full of new and upgraded features.
Rumors have suggested smartphones may need massive RAM upgrades to support virtual reality content with minimal lag. But Google’s Pixel smartphones, which launched the power center for the tech giant’s Daydream VR protocol, both feature 4GB RAM. The fact that devices designated as the Android VR standard have 4GB of RAM could be an indication that the mass market may not be ready to make RAM capacities such as 6GB and 8GB the standard just yet.
