Black or colored front? New Galaxy S8 images muddy the waters

Evan Blass leaked some supposed Galaxy S8 and S8+ press images yesterday which reveal the devices in black and silver color variants with black upper and lower bezels. However, this design is at odds with other recent leaks, and some we’ve encountered previously.

The images above, for example — picked up by Sam Mobile — show the handset with a white front and a gold front: colors we’ve seen on leaked front panels before.

But then you have the photo below from PhoneArena which reaffirms the colored rear, black front design seen in Blass’s most recent images. So, what’s the story?

Firstly, this is all based on rumors and speculation, Samsung hasn’t revealed official photos/promo shots for the handset just yet. With that in mind, it looks like we have four plausible options for the S8 and S8+:

1. Colored front and back
2. Black front and colored back
3. Both the previous options
4. Black front and colored back with optional colored screen protectors

The first possibility is that Samsung is prototyping options one and two and will make a decision on the final production models later (this could explain why we’ve seen both variants in the wild). It does seem a little too close to kick off for Samsung to still be testing this, however.

As for option three, Samsung could produce handsets in both styles, but this would lead to an uncharacteristically large number of color combinations, so it’s also unlikely.

Option four, then, appears most probable: Samsung is making screen protectors to match the color of the rear of the handsets, but the front will be black. Blass is generally reliable when it comes to these leaks and since his images show the black front, colored rear combo, I’d bet that this is the default state of the handset.

That’s my take, what’s yours? Let me know in the comments.