Bezel-less, dual-camera phones due in H2

Heated competition is expected in the premium smartphone market in the second half of the year, as three new handsets are set for release starting from August.

They are Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note 8, Apple’s 10th anniversary iPhone 8 and LG Electronics’ V30. 

The upcoming smartphones are predicted to have significant reductions in the bezels and adopt dual cameras following the latest consumer trend of preferring larger displays and wide-angle photos.

According to a recent video leak on China’s social networking site Weibo, a front panel of what was claimed to be Samsung’s next flagship Galaxy Note 8 smartphone was shown, which raised assumptions the 6.3-inch panel is likely to have a bezel-less display similar to the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus models.

Some industrial watchers say the Note 8 model is highly likely to succeed Samsung’s Infinity Display, which has an 18.5-to-9 width-to-length ratio that was first released in April with the S8 model. It was the first attempt by the South Korean tech titan to remove its brand logo from the upper part of the front panel and the physical home button on the bottom in order to reduce the bezel area.

“As users tend to consume more and more high definition movies and video clips and massive data content, they would opt for larger displays on smartphones,” said a source in the display industry.

Rumors are circulating that Samsung is planning to unpack the Note 8 in late August, strategically ahead of the debut of iPhone 8 in September.

According to foreign media and IT blogs, the iPhone 8 is speculated to be slightly larger than its predecessor iPhone 7, but smaller than Samsung’s Galaxy S8.

An Apple-focused blog Mac Rumors said the new 10th anniversary iPhone is expected to be 144 millimeters tall, 71 millimeters wide, and 7.7 millimeters thick, citing sources like Apple’s supplier TSMC. And the front panel is said to be made of a full display without a physical home button.

LG’s V30 is also projected to adopt the company’s proprietary Full Vision Display that was installed on the latest G6 smartphone.

LG was the industry’s first to apply the dual camera feature in its premium smartphone lineup since 2015. The G5, G6 and V20 smartphones had dual cameras on both front and back of the devices.

Samsung is also said to follow the trend in order to enhance the picturing function of the smartphone. The dual-lens camera on the Galaxy Note 8 is likely to feature a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera and a 13-megapixel telephoto lens, according to industry predictions. 

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)