Galaxy S9 Release Date News: Samsung To Announce Flagship in MWC 2018

By Jessica Ferrera, Christian Post Contributor Friday, January 12, 2018

Samsung is expected to unveil its next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S9, next month in time for the Mobile World Congress.

Many expected the South Korean electronics giant to announce the Galaxy S9 during this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, the president of Samsung's mobile business, DJ Koh, reportedly hinted that the announcement would be held in Barcelona, Spain, next month.

The annual MWC event is said to provide a regular venue for major electronics companies to unveil their latest hardware products. Samsung will reportedly join the affair in order to put the Galaxy S9 series in the limelight.

During the CES 2018 event, Samsung held a press conference for media outlets from Korea where Koh reportedly confirmed the timing of the announcement of their first flagship device in 2018. While he did not appear to have specifically mentioned MWC, the Samsung executive suggested the unveiling would occur at a trade show happening next month, which others said was an obvious reference to MWC 2018.

Coming off the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco in 2016, Samsung previously decided not to unveil the Galaxy S8 series in February 2017. Instead, it held an exclusive Unpacking Event the following month dedicated to the 2017 flagship device.

Koh's recent statements seem to corroborate an earlier leak that showed that the Galaxy S9 and S9+ would likely be powered by the latest Snapdragon 845 platform from Qualcomm and that the devices would be announced in February.

So far, nothing has been officially confirmed yet about the specifications and features of the Galaxy S9 series. However, there have been rumors that the upcoming devices might sport a minor -- but highly requested -- design change.

A number of alleged Galaxy S9 case renders previously surfaced and showed that its fingerprint scanner would remain on the rear side of the device but will be moved right below the camera. The Galaxy S9+ is also expected to sport a dual-lens camera system.

When Samsung launched the Infinity Display technology on the Galaxy S8, it dropped the physical home button in the front and needed to replace it with a fingerprint scanner. However, many were not fans of the decision to place it beside the smartphone's camera.

Supporting these speculations was another report that claimed Samsung had ditched its initial plans of introducing in-display fingerprint sensor technology.