There is understandably a lot of excitement for Samsung's next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8. This has been mostly due to the immense success of its predecessor, the Galaxy S7, which was considered to be one of the best flagship offerings this year.

However, new reports are suggesting that consumers may have to pay an additional premium for the next Galaxy flagship by as much as 15 to 20 percent. Investment bank analyst Goldman Sachs has reportedly predicted that the next-generation smartphones of Samsung may be priced a bit higher than this year's model, thanks to the increased quality of materials being used. Samsung is also investing a lot of money into fully developing new features for their upcoming smartphone, including the possible integration of a new proprietary artificial intelligence-driven virtual assistant.

The upcoming smartphone and its possibly increased price tag would also have to be justified in its fit and finish, which means that the next model could come with even more premium materials this time around. If the estimated price increase does turn out to be true, then the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 will likely be breaching the $700 mark --- even reaching $800 or more.

There is also, of course, a possibility that this is the company's move to alleviate some of its financial losses following the exploding battery issue with their previously released Samsung Galaxy Note 7 flagship. Whatever the case may be, there is still quite a strong demand for the Galaxy S line; even with the increased price, the next-generation device is still expected to sell very well.

As for the device's release date, previous reports have claimed that the Galaxy S8 will likely be unveiled after the MWC 2017 in April next year. Apparently, Samsung wants to skip the MWC hype to give its new flagship enough room to be properly marketed.