Samsung will make fans wait longer for its iPhone 7 rival

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Samsung Galaxy
The Galaxy S8 won't appear at MWC.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Galaxy fans who are clinging onto their wallets in anticipation of Samsung’s answer to the iPhone 7 will have to wait a little longer.

The South Korean company was expected to announce the Galaxy S8 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month. It’s thought the launch was delayed so that Samsung can carry out additional battery checks to avoid another Galaxy Note 7 disaster.

MWC has been home to Samsung’s latest Galaxy S unveilings for years. With over 100,000 attendees from the tech industry descending on Barcelona for the event, it’s the perfect place to launch a flagship smartphone. But Samsung has other ideas for 2017.

Koh Dong-jin, head of Samsung’s mobile business, confirmed to Reuters that the Galaxy S8 won’t be making an appearance at MWC this year. Recent rumors have claimed the device could launch in April, but Koh would not comment on a new time-frame.

Koh did say that Samsung is now “working hard to regain consumer trust” following the Note 7 debacle. The company just confirmed the root cause of those Note 7 explosions, and it is desperate to ensure that the incident isn’t repeated with another phone.

One of its new safety measures is an 8-point battery check that tests things like durability, charging and discharging, and accelerated usage. It also identifies leakages, any abnormalities, and changes in voltage between production and assembly.

Samsung carried out some of these tests before, but a few of them are brand new to its process. It should mean that faulty batteries no longer slip through Samsung’s net and make their way into Galaxy phones and tablets.

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