With just over a week to go before Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. unveils its latest flagship device – the Galaxy Note8 – the speculation continues to flow in.

The Note8 is set to be unveiled at the company’s Unpacked event scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 23, in New York City. After its disaster with the Note7, Samsung will be hoping its latest flagship proves to be much more successful and if rumors are to be believed it could be a very impressive device.

The Galaxy Note8 is rumored to sport a similar design and display to the S8, but will have a dual-rear camera, a first for Samsung, 6GB of RAM, a 128GB model and a 3,300mAh battery, which all comes at a rumored price tag of $900.

Here’s a look at the latest rumors, including a teaser video from Samsung, a possible release date of next week, a dual-SIM option and more:

Release date on Aug. 24

We have known for some time that Samsung’s Unpacked event would take place on Aug. 23, but the latest rumors suggest the Note8 could be in consumers’ hands earlier than expected.

According to a Best Buy Co. Inc. employee, the Note8 will go on sale the day after the press conference, on Thursday, Aug. 24.

Consumers normally have to wait between two and four weeks before they can get their hands on the latest smartphone, following a launch. A next day release date would be incredibly beneficial for Samsung considering the number of competitors set to unveil their own devices over the coming weeks, including LG Corp.’s V30 on Aug. 31 at IFA and Apple Inc.’s iPhone 7s, 7s Plus and its premium iPhone 8, which is rumored to face delivery delays, in September.

This latest rumor does, however, contradict what DJ Koh, mobile chief for Samsung, who spoke to reporters last month. Koh said the Note8 would go on sale in two waves in September and October, depending on the country. Samsung could have bought this date forward however in an attempt to get a jump start on its competitors.

Samsung teaser video

Ahead of the Note8’s launch next week, Samsung has released a teaser video of its latest flagship device.

The video focuses on replacing specific words with others like “update” with “innovate,” “follow” with “lead” and “step” with “leap.” The video ends with “Do bigger things” and “#DoWhatYouCan’t” on Aug. 23.

Dual SIM option

Samsung could offer a dual-SIM variant of the Note8 for European customers. The details have been discovered on the company’s own support page in Austria. Dual SIMs have been on the rise in smartphones over the last few years and has become a popular feature in BRIC countries.

What isn’t clear from Samsung’s support page is whether the Dual SIM will be the only variant offered in Europe or if it will also offer a single-SIM option. Considering the Note8 is marketed as an enterprise device, it would make sense for all models to offer a dual SIM, allowing consumers to have a SIM for business and one for personal calls in a single device.

Dual rear-camera setup

New details about the Note8’s rumored dual-lens rear-facing camera have been revealed, according to the latest reports from Korea. Dual rear-facing cameras have become a trend in smartphones lately, but Samsung chose to hold off until the technology was mature enough. This is set to change next week with the launch of the Note8.

The latest report suggests the camera will have a 12-megapixel main unit with dual-pixel autofocus and an 13MP telephoto sensor. Both sensors will have optical image stabilization, while the telephoto sensor will also have 2x fixed optical zoom. The zoom amount differs from previous reports from renowned analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, who said the camera would feature 3x optical zoom.

Leaked benchmarks

When the Note8 launches it will contain Qualcomm Technologies Inc.’s Snapdragon 835 processor for U.S. consumers, while the rest of the world will get Samsung’s own Exynos 8995 chipset.

The version launching in the U.S. is set to be one of the fastest smartphones available, but consumers in the rest of the world will benefit from an even faster device. According to benchmark results discovered last week, the global version, known as the SM-N950F, crushed the Geekbench 4 test in single-core tests and in the multi-core benchmark test.

The global version of the Note8 scored 1984 for its single-core test and 6116 for its multi-core test, compared to 1815 and 6066 for the U.S. version.  

We will have to wait and see whether the differences will be noticeable.

Image: Samsung