Samsung’s smartphone launches are always highly anticipated events, but this year’s Galaxy S8 launch is set to be even more interesting. The company has a lot to prove with its newest product, as it’s the first device to be launched since the exploding Galaxy Note 7 grabbed headlines last year.
Still, we’re expecting big things from the Korean giant. Its last few phones have been best-in-class devices – in fact, until it started exploding, the Note 7 was one of the best phones ever made. The company looks set to continue this trend and recent leaks look very promising indeed.
The Galaxy S8 will not be launched at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress but will instead debut later in the year, Samsung has confirmed.
The announcement follows the conclusion of an internal probe by the Korean firm into the causes behind the Note 7 debacle, which saw a full recall of its previous handset, after many units were overheating to the point of exploding.
Koh Dong-Jin, Samsung’s president of mobile, told reporters that the company was working to make sure its new device was not subject to the same problems, according to Reuters .
„The lessons of this incident are deeply reflected in our culture and process,“ he said. „Samsung Electronics will be working hard to regain consumer trust. “
The company has traditionally timed the launches of its flagship devices to coincide with MWC, which is one of the world’s largest smartphone industry trade shows. This year, however, the latest Galaxy device will not be appearing at the show.
While Samsung did not specify when fans could expect to see the Galaxy S8, rumours suggest that a likely release date could be mid-April.
Samsung is slated to reveal the latest iteration of its flagship Galaxy S line on 15 April, according to rumours. The company has announced previous devices at the same time as Mobile World Congress in February, but it’s possible that Samsung wants to announce its new device during a quieter period, rather than competing with other manufacturers for attention.
As for when the device will actually hit shelves, it’s likely to show up around the end of April or early in May. That’s based on previous launches like the Galaxy S7 and Note 7 , which took about two weeks to go from announcement to retail release.
Samsung generally prices its flagship Galaxy phones at around £550 inc VAT, with the fancier ‚Edge‘ variants costing a little bit more. Ordinarily, we’d use this as a basis for predicting the Galaxy S8’s launch price, but rumours that Samsung may be ditching the vanilla, non-Edge versions of its devices altogether complicates this slightly.
