Samsung Galaxy S10 will launch on 20 February in San Francisco

Pencil that Wednesday into your diaries, Samsung fans: the S10 is coming

Samsung Galaxy S10 launch
Paul Douglas
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UPDATE: Samsung has officially confirmed the Galaxy S10 launch on 20 February

Original story continues below...

The trio of Samsung Galaxy S10 phones – the Samsung S10, S10 Plus and S10 Lite – are scheduled for an official launch at an event in San Francisco a week ahead of MWC 2019, which kicks off in Barcelona on Monday 25 February.

That surprising piece of news comes via Korean news site The Korea Herald. It's surprising because the assumption up until now was that the S10 would be announced at a Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event at MWC on Sunday 24 February, just as the S9 was launched at MWC 2018 on Sunday 25 February.

Going a step further and adding a specific launch date, reliable leaker Iceuniverse waded in on Twitter this morning to say that the Samsung Galaxy S10 official launch will take place on Wednesday 20 February, space year 2019.

The Korea Herald says that there was an internal discussion at Samsung about changing the date and location of the Unpacked event to mark the 10th anniversary of the Galaxy phone and that the decision to move the Galaxy S10 launch forward was taken, in part, to get the jump on a possible announcement of Huawei's folding phone at MWC.

Even if Huawei doesn't announce its folding phone at MWC, it's almost certain that the Chinese manufacture will have something special to unveil. Perhaps the company's first 5G handset or the successor to the P20 Pro, the P30 Pro. We're also expecting MWC to see a new flagship phone from Sony unveiled: the Sony Xperia XZ4. Nokia, Honor, Oppo, Xiaomi, OnePlus and HTC are all likely to have large presences, too.

So it makes sense that Samsung would want to give the S10 launch a bit of breathing space. Also, that earlier launch date might explain why EE is already promoting the "the new Samsung Galaxy".

The same report also adds, citing a "a high-ranking Samsung official", that the release date for Samsung's folding smartphone – the Samsung Galaxy X or Galaxy Fold – hasn’t been confirmed. The phone was, however, reportedly recently shown to a select few attendees at CES.

UPDATE: Samsung has officially confirmed the Galaxy S10 launch on 20 February and the Samsung Galaxy X folding phone will also launch on 20 February

Paul Douglas
Paul Douglas
Global Digital Editorial Strategy Director, Future

Paul Douglas is Global Digital Editorial Strategy Director at Future and has worked in publishing for over 25 years. He worked in print for over 10 years on various computing titles including .net magazine and the Official Windows Magazine before moving to TechRadar.com in 2008, eventually becoming Global Editor-in-Chief for the brand, overseeing teams in the US, UK and Australia. Following that, Paul has been Global Editor-in-Chief of BikeRadar and T3 (not at the same time) and later Content Director working on T3, TechRadar and Tom's Guide. In 2021, Paul also worked on the launches of FitandWell.com and PetsRadar.

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