Samsung just confirmed what we’ve been suspecting for a few weeks, that its next flagship smartphone will be unveiled in Barcelona, Spain, rather than Las Vegas.
Early Galaxy S9 rumors said that Samsung planned to unveil the phone at CES 2018, but as we got closer to the trade show, other reports said that Samsung changed its mind. Apparently, the iPhone X isn’t as scary as Samsung first thought, so the company supposedly fell back to the original launch schedule for the handset. That meant the Galaxy S9 would be unveiled at MWC in late February, nearly two months later than initially believed.
Samsung does have a considerable presence at CES, where it has unveiled several new products. But the Galaxy S9 wasn’t one of them — it may have been shown to Samsung’s carrier partners behind closed doors, but not to the public.
But Samsung mobile’s chief DJ Koh, who revealed that the Galaxy X foldable phone may be postponed to 2019, also went on record to say the Galaxy S9 will be unveiled next month.
According to ZDNet, Koh said that the Galaxy S9 will be unveiled in February at the trade show in Barcelona, which has been the home of the Galaxy S line for a few years now. The Galaxy S8 marked a notable exception, but that’s just because Samsung was still putting out Galaxy Note 7 fires at the time.
The Galaxy S8 was delayed to late March, and the phone hits stores only in April 2017. The Galaxy S9 will probably launch at some point in March in several markets around the world, following the upcoming announcement that we now know will take place in late February.
Koh didn’t specify the actual date of Samsung’s first Unpacked media event of the year, but it’ll almost certainly take place one day before MWC officially kicks off.
ZDNet also has Koh on the record with statements regarding the Galaxy X foldable phone. The top Samsung exec told reporters that the user interface was apparently the main obstacle in commercialization, adding that Samsung is aggressively looking to overcome the issue.
