This could be our first proper look at the Galaxy S8, but it probably isn’t

Over the course of the past few months, we’ve heard an awful lot about Samsung’s much-anticipated upcoming flagship smartphone of 2017, the Galaxy S8 — and now it looks like we may be getting our first proper glimpse at the design of the device, thanks to a leaked photograph that surfaced on Chinese social networking website Weibo earlier today, which corroborates everything we’ve previously reported about its appearance.

As you can see in the image below, the most noticeable difference between the purported Galaxy S8 and its predecessor is the omission of the physical home button and capacitive navigation keys. What’s strange, however, is that there don’t appear to be any on-screen buttons, either. Typically, when you head into Settings, they don’t automatically hide — so we’re left wondering whether the photo is a product of some Photoshop wizardry.

There could be a simple explanation for the lack of buttons, though. It’s perfectly feasible that Samsung could have developed a full-screen mode, which can be manually activated to take advantage of the entire display. If this (or a similar feature) turns out to exist, then it’s likely that they keys would only appear when a user swipes up from the bottom of the screen. This is, of course, nothing but speculation on our part.

If it wasn’t for this major discrepancy, we’d feel pretty confident in saying that this picture is the real deal. Earlier this week, we heard from our insiders that by doing away with the front-facing buttons, Samsung was able to shrink the width of the top and bottom bezels on the handset by as much as 30 percent. Although, we have to say, it doesn’t look great; mainly because the bottom bezel is thinner than the top (another discrepancy).

Unfortunately, as with all leaks, we have to take this alleged design with a pinch of salt until Samsung provides us with some evidence with regards to what it has in store for its next flagship, and if the latest rumors are anything to go by it looks like we may have to wait until April 18 to find out more. There is some good news, though. As we approach its release date, the frequency of leaks should increase — so there’s a good chance we’ll see more of the device in the coming weeks.