CES may be lean on phones this year, but the 17 we saw pointed out some trends that will help define handsets through 2017, especially as we head into next month’s Mobile World Congress , the phone world’s best and biggest show.
Cutting edge technology on display at the year’s biggest consumer tech show
2017’s year in phones is just kicking off, with more to come next week. HTC will launch a new product on January 12. The event, called “U”, doesn’t offer much of a hint of what we should expect, but rumors say there will be two phones called the HTC U Ultra and U Play.
A few weeks after that, we have Mobile World Congress (MWC), the world’s largest mobile conference. It’s there that we see flagship devices, a mountain of accessories and oddball concept devices from companies hoping to gain ground.
One big change we expect this year is Samsung’s lower-profile presence at the show. Its Galaxy S phone has been the anchor for years, but given the Note 7 recall and uncertainty over what caused the explosion, it’s probable that Samsung will hold off its Galaxy S8 launch until it can confirm that its next flagship won’t suffer the same fate.
CNET will be on the ground covering MWC live from February 26 to March 1.