The Mobile World Congress 2017 is one of the world's largest consumer electronics trade shows. Samsung has used this stage almost every year to unveil new products, particularly new Galaxy S series handsets, but the company confirmed a few weeks ago that it won't launch the Galaxy S8 at this event. So if not a new flagship, what does the company have in store for us? Here's what to expect from Samsung at MWC 2017.
Galaxy Tab S3
The new flagship Android tablet is most certainly going to be on the agenda, even Samsung hinted as much in its invite for its MWC 2017 press conference. Reports suggest that the Galaxy Tab S3 will have a 9.7-inch QXGA Super AMOLED display with a Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB RAM, a 12-megapixel rear and a 5-megapixel front camera all packaged inside a metal body that's 5.6mm thin. An S Pen may be shipped with it as well. The device is most likely going to be powered by Android 7.0 Nougat. Some images that were leaked recently suggest that it could have a metal and glass build much like Samsung's premium smartphones.
Galaxy TabPro S2
It has been a while since Samsung launched a Windows 10-powered device and the company is expected to rectify that by launching the Galaxy TabPro S2 at MWC 2017. It's the successor to the Galaxy TabPro S and is likely going to feature a 12-inch Super AMOLED Quad HD display, a 3.1GHz Intel Core i5 7200U 7th Gen Kaby Lake processor with 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 128GB SSD storage, a 13-megapixel rear and a 5-megapixel front camera. It may also come with an S Pen, a detachable keyboard cover and a 5,070mAh battery. Samsung is expected to offer this tablet in both LTE and Wi-Fi-only flavors.
Foldable smartphone
We've been hearing for a couple of years now that Samsung is working on a foldable smartphone. Recent reports suggest that this device might be launched at some point later this year. Samsung has obviously confirmed nothing about such a device so far but there has been ample circumstantial evidence to support the theory about a foldable smartphone being in development. A report came out from South Korea a couple of weeks ago and claimed that Samsung is going to show off its foldable smartphone at Mobile World Congress 2017. It will apparently do that behind closed doors with some of its biggest carrier and retail partners to gauge their response to the new product.
Galaxy S8 short teaser
While Samsung has confirmed that it's not going to unveil the Galaxy S8 at Mobile World Congress 2017 this month, reports suggest that the company is going to show a short teaser for its next flagship smartphone during its press event. What this means is that it might roll a clip that's a minute or two in length and gives us a glimpse of what's to come. It may not confirm everything about the device but it will certainly get the press talking about the Galaxy S8.
Galaxy S8 launch date
Since we already know that Samsung isn't going to launch the Galaxy S8 at this event, we're more interested in finding out when it's going to unveil it. Samsung confirmed last week that it's going to officially reveal the Galaxy S8 launch date during its press event at MWC 2017. Reports suggest that the Galaxy S8 is going to be launched at a special event in New York City on March 29 with shipments of the new handset beginning by mid-April.
That's about it on the hardware front. Samsung will make some demonstrations at MWC 2017 as well which include some new augmented reality and virtual reality experiences created by its internal incubation lab as well as some of the advancements that it has made in 5G technology.
Samsung's MWC 2017 press conference kicks off at 19:00 CET on February 26 at Palau de Congressos de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. We'll be there to bring you all of the latest updates as they come in.
