Mavenvision : Android Circuit: Samsung Reveals Galaxy S8, New Nokia Sells Out, Deciding The S8 Launch Date

Taking a look back at seven days of news and headlines across the world of Android, this week’s Android Circuit includes Samsung's reveal of the Galaxy S8, the decision about the S8 launch date, Nokia sells out its new handset, thoughts on the Pixel 2 features, Android One's arrival in America, the history of Project Ara, analyzing Android update speeds, and details on Super Mario Run's arrival on Android.

Android Circuit is here to remind you of a few of the many things that have happened around Android in the last week.

Samsung Leaks Galaxy S8 Images

When you are keeping your flagship handset under wraps to create a big moment when you reveal it, the last thing you want to see is another division in your company potentially leaking the new smartphone.

Step forward Samsung Display, who's latest video on AMOLED panels features a suspiciously secretive Galaxy handset. In a pair of new promotional videos for display division, Samsung has shown off new AMOLED panels which are widely expected to be used in the Galaxy S8. But more than this, it ends both commercials by showing the panels morph into an unnamed smartphone with very slim top and bottom bezels: Does this look familiar? It should because the proportions and missing physical home button line up exactly with the leaked renders of the Galaxy S8 which surfaced just a few days ago.

Well played, Samsung, well played.

Samsung Galaxy with Samsung's Browser software (Image: Ewan Spence) S8 Needs A Launch Date Decision Staying with the Galaxy S8, Samsung has a tactical decision to make. Video leaks and stray web images aside, when does the South Korean company officially reveal the handset to the public? Does it stick with the traditional MWC date in late February? Does it wait until April just before the expected release of the handsets to the retail market? And can it avoid Nokia stealing all the PR oxygen from the ecosystem?

I look at the impact of mobile technology and online media. Taking a look back at seven days of news and headlines across the world of Android, this week’s Android Circuit includes Samsung's reveal of the Galaxy S8, the decision about the S8 launch date, Nokia sells out its new handset, thoughts on the Pixel 2 features, Android One's arrival in America, the history of Project Ara, analyzing Android update speeds, and details on Super Mario Run's arrival on Android. Android Circuit is here to remind you of a few of the many things that have happened around Android in the last week (and you can find the weekly Apple news digest here).

Finnish start-up HMD is already doing its best to ensure that the big story coming out of MWC will be the return of the Nokia name to the smartphone world. Samsung could consider an early Galaxy S8 reveal to disrupt a potential rival getting a foothold.

If HMD can get a handset like the rumored Nokia 8 on sale as quickly as possible after the reveal (which is the intention of CEO Arto Nummela) and the Galaxy S8 is already a known but unavailable quantity, consumers will have enough information to make a choice and potentially switch to Nokia.

Nokia Sells Out Not content with over one million pre-sale registrations in China for its new smartphones, the team behind the Nokia 6 placed the first units on sale through one of the classic Chinese marketing strategies... the flash sale. Phandroid's Quentyn Kennemer highlights the success and the question around this method: Unfortunately, we’re not sure how many units they’ve actually sold. Nokia boasted about having 1 million pre-registrations, so if initial stock teetered even on the side of 50,000 units then that doesn’t sound like an unreasonable conversation rate. (But without any actual official numbers, we’re talking just to talk.)

Our hope is that strong sales in China will encourage Nokia to consider spreading love to other markets in due time. As well as the Chinese bound Nokia 6, HMD Global is expected to announce a number of new Android-powered Nokia smartphones at MWC 2017 for sale in Western Europe and America.

better around the corner, and Android Central's Daniel Bader has some ideas on what that better could be, starting with waterproofing:

The most obvious one is a feature manufacturers can't afford to overlook in 2017. With the Samsung Galaxy line well established as the IP68 mainstay, and Sony not far behind with its admittedly less acclaimed lineup, Google has to appeal to the mainstream by waterproofing its 2017 flagship. There were just too many times in recent months where I would have preferred to be able to be more cavalier about taking the Pixel out in the rain or snow — or even using it near a sink — without worrying about death through mainboard corrosion.

More thoughts from Bader at Android Central.