Samsung Galaxy S8 Launch Date: MWC 2017 Won’t See Flagship Device Revealed, Report Says

Samsung Electronics is not planning to launch the Galaxy S8, its 2017 flagship device, at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona next month, the company’s mobile chief Koh Dong-jin told Reuters on Monday.

Samsung has often unveiled its flagship devices from the Galaxy S series at MWC. For instance, it had displayed the 2016 flagship Galaxy S7 around the trade show in February 2016, and started selling it a couple of weeks later in March. But this year, the company looks poised to make a break with tradition.

Koh did not specify when the device — the first flagship since the Note 7 fiasco in the second half of 2016 — will be released. However, there has been a lot of speculation that the Galaxy S8 could be released sometime in April.

A Samsung distributor who spoke on the condition of anonymity, also agreed with the April launch timeline in a conversation with International Business Times. He said the phone could be revealed at an event in New York slated for that time.

The trouble Samsung faced with the batteries of Note 7 — they overheated and exploded, causing injuries to users — forced the company to recall about 3 million of the devices and cost the company over $5 billion. And till it identified the exact cause for the problems with the Note 7, it was not expected to release the Galaxy S8.

However, the company’s internal investigation into the problems with the Note 7 are complete and it announced the results Monday, in which it blamed the structure of the batteries for the issues faced by the recalled devices. In the announcement, Samsung also tried to reassure customers why the issue won’t recur, saying it had implemented an eight-step safety check system.

Samsung shares closed 2.31 percent higher on the South Korean stock exchange Monday.