Samsung Galaxy S8 Release Date: MWC 2017 Tease, Disappointing USA Specs And More

The Galaxy S8 is coming, and if speculations prove accurate, it would not be long before Samsung officially unveils the device to the public. With leak after leak trickling down in a steady stream, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is slowly taking shape, and from what could be determined so far, the upcoming flagship appears to be a powerful yet flawed masterpiece of mobile technology.

The release date for the Samsung Galaxy S8 has not been officially unveiled by Samsung, though speculations are high that the device would make a brief appearance at the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2017, which would be held from late February to early March. Rumors state that the Galaxy S8 would not make a physical appearance on the event itself, with Samsung releasing a teaser video for the device instead, according to TechRadar.

In a lot of ways, a teaser for the Galaxy S8 in the MWC would make a lot of sense for Samsung. The South Korean tech giant’s mobile business took a blow last year when the Galaxy Note 7 was pulled off the shelves due to its fiery battery problem. Thus, despite not revealing the actual device in the MWC, releasing a teaser for the upcoming flagship would help Samsung spark more interest and generate more hype around the Galaxy S8’s launch.

Samsung Galaxy S8 (2017) with "Infinity" Display, Bixby button and fingerprint scanner on the back. Coming March 29th. #GalaxyS8 pic.twitter.com/7aYgNkqkHr

— Ben Geskin (@BenGeskin) January 28, 2017

Despite its absence in the MWC 2017, however, leaks and overall speculations point to a possible April 21 release date. True to form, rumors are high that Samsung would be releasing different variants of the device depending on where the Samsung Galaxy S8 would be released. This means that devices that would be distributed in the United States might have different specs and internals from those which would be released for Asian countries such as China and South Korea. If recent speculations prove true, however, it appears that the West might be on the losing side of the deal when the Galaxy S8 rolls out.

Over the last few years, Samsung has been releasing two variants of its flagship handset, with its North American devices being equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and those distributed in Asia being equipped with the South Korean tech giant’s home-grown Exynos chip. While the power of the devices is fairly similar, Exynos-powered devices have been found to rank higher in benchmark tests in the past.

Thus, with the Galaxy S8, the Exynos version, which would be released in Asian territories, would most likely hold a slight advantage over the device’s counterpart in the West. This is not all, however, as a recent Slashgear report stated that the Galaxy S8’s RAM and internal storage would also be somewhat different depending on where the devices would be released.

Details of the Galaxy S8 have been rumored for months now, with speculations pointing to the flagship being equipped with 6GB of RAM and up to 128GB of storage. Inasmuch as the idea of the Galaxy S8 having these specs is very compelling, however, a new wave of leaks and rumors have recently suggested that the upcoming flagship would only pack a 4GB RAM/64GB internal storage combination. As it turns out, both rumors might actually be accurate, as the Galaxy S8 might be released in both 4GB/64GB and 6GB/128GB configurations.

Recent rumors have begun to suggest that the 6GB RAM/128GB internal storage variant of the Galaxy S8 would be reserved only for devices that would be released in China and other specific markets. Thus, while powerful variants of the device would indeed be created, they would only be distributed to select territories, and if history is any indication, the USA and other Western territories might very well end up receiving the 4GB RAM/64GB internal storage Galaxy S8 variant.

This particular rumor has managed to disappoint numerous Samsung fans, especially since the best configurations of the Galaxy S8 would probably not even make it to the West. This means that for the majority of consumers, the device would be capable enough but not much else. Then again, considering that the Galaxy S8 is rumored to feature the most significant upgrades in Samsung’s flagship series in years, there is a good chance that the device, despite inferior versions being released in countries such as the USA, would be immensely successful nonetheless.

[Featured Image by Valentin Valkov/Shutterstock]