Samsung Galaxy S8: Full image leak shows new smartphone's 'infinity' screen

The handset is expected to launch on 29 March

Samsung has trimmed down the S8’s bezels to help keep it relatively compact, but the move could prove problematic for customers (Evan Blass/Twitter)

An official-looking press shot of the Samsung Galaxy S8 has just been leaked.

Tech tipster Evan Blass posted the image, which includes no additional details about the upcoming smartphone, on Twitter.

It matches up with the speculation surrounding the handset, providing the first clear look at the S8’s so-called “infinity display”, which is said to cover over 80% of its front panel.

Samsung has trimmed down the S8’s bezels to help keep it relatively compact, but the move could prove problematic for customers.

‘All-screen’ design is one of the hottest smartphone trends of the year, but it could lead to usability issues and increased prices.

“[Bezel-less smartphones] introduce a number of challenges that need to be managed, such as inadvertent activation of the display, and over-extending the thumb to reach the very bottom of the screen,” Dan Jenkins, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors and research lead at DCA Design International, told The Independent.

“Another thing to consider is the robustness of the phone. Moving the screen to the edges may make the screen even more likely to shatter if dropped. The edgeless design also complicates the design of the first-line of defence against dropping: the third-party protective case.”

As expected, there’s no sign of a fingerprint sensor on the leaked image, with Samsung believed to have moved it to the phone’s back panel.

The Galaxy S8 is expected to launch on 29 March as an 5.8-inch handset, though a 6.2-inch S8+ is set to be unveiled alongside it.

Both devices are expected to feature an iris-scanner, a 12-megapixel rear camera and 8-megapixel selfie camera, and a new AI virtual assistant called Bixby, which is capable of speaking up to eight different languages.

The South Korean firm has been heavily criticised for the catastrophic Galaxy Note 7, which was discontinued last year because of serious safety issues.

It unveiled a new pair of tablets at MWC, but the launch event was crashed by Greenpeace activists calling for Samsung to recycle the two million recalled Note 7 handsets it is believed to still have lying around.