- Samsung has confirmed it will announce its Galaxy S9 smartphone in February during Mobile World Congress.
- The manufacturer said it would share details at the launch event about when the smartphone will become available.
- Samsung also indicated the Galaxy S9 will see updates to the company's Bixby artificial-intelligence software.
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Samsung will reveal the Galaxy S9 in February
Samsung debunked rumors that it would announce the Galaxy S9 at CES this week, saying its launch event will take place during Mobile World Congress next month.
Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S9 and its release date at a launch event during Mobile World Congress in late February, DJ Koh, the president of the company's mobile business, said at a press conference at CES.
Rumors previously suggested Samsung would unveil its 2018 flagship smartphone at CES, the tech industry trade show in Las Vegas this week.
And before Samsung's announcement, the release timeline for the Galaxy S9 was up in the air.
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Samsung announced its previous S-series smartphone, the Galaxy S8, at a standalone event in New York in late March. But because it was the first smartphone Samsung launched after discontinuing its Galaxy Note 7 — some of which were found to have a battery defect that could cause it to explode or catch on fire — the company delayed the launch to implement a new safety-testing protocol to ensure the phones' batteries were safe, it said.
Unveiling the new Galaxy phone at MWC would be more in step with Samsung's usual launch cycle. It has announced the Galaxy S5, Galaxy S6, and Galaxy S7 at the convention, which takes place in Barcelona.
Based on what we've heard so far, it doesn't sound as if the Galaxy S9, expected to go on sale in March, will have many major updates.
Koh said consumers could expect updates to Samsung's artificially intelligent assistant, Bixby, especially to its user interface. Rumors suggest the device may have a design like that of the S8, with some small tweaks to the camera and placement of the rear fingerprint scanner.
The Galaxy S9 is also expected to include Samsung's Exynos 9810 chip, which could bring features similar to Apple's Face ID and Animoji on the iPhone X. Other reports suggest Samsung may increase the amount of internal storage in the S9.
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