Samsung’s first foldable smartphone is launching sooner than you think

The Galaxy S8 is finally official, which means all those annoying leaks that spoiled all of Samsung’s surprises have finally stopped. You know what that means, right? It’s time to check out rumors detailing Samsung’s next flagship handset. And no, it’s not the Galaxy Note 8. Instead, a new report says that Samsung’s first foldable smartphone will be the next flagship to be unveiled this year, which means the launch is coming much sooner than most people thought.

A Chinese leaker who goes by the name of @mmddj_china on Twitter posted a couple of tweets that were largely ignored on Thursday, as the media was busy following Samsung’s announcements from its first Unpacked event of the year. It was Android Guys who noticed the tweets, which seem to reveal Samsung’s roadmap for its next couple of flagships.

“Samsung Galaxy Note 8 in Q4,” the leaker wrote. Then he followed up with “and Samsung Galaxy X in Q3.”

Assuming these details are accurate, we might see Samsung introduce its first foldable phone at some point this summer, maybe at IFA 2017. We already know that Galaxy X is the rumored product name for the foldable Galaxy phone that’s supposed to be unveiled this year. A recent report said, that Samsung plans to test the waters with a limited launch in 2017, and see if customers really want foldable devices. Galaxy X mass-production should then start in 2018, if Samsung sees enough consumer demand.

What’s also interesting is that Samsung would be willing to move to the fourth quarter with the Galaxy Note 8. If accurate, that might be a wise decision. Samsung can blame faulty batteries for the Galaxy Note 7 fires all it wants, but the fact that it rushed to beat the iPhone 7 to market in 2016 is definitely one factor that contributed to the phablet’s demise. Then again, pushing the Note 8 launch back means going head to head with the iPhone 8.

One other reason Samsung might want to delay the Galaxy Note 8 this year is the late Galaxy S8 launch. The handset was supposed to be unveiled at MWC, but Samsung pushed the date to the end of March following the Galaxy Note 7 debacle.

A recent report suggested the Galaxy Note 8 will feature a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED screen with 4K resolution. The phone is also expected to pack the same speedy processors from the Galaxy S8, and it’ll obviously come with Bixby integration. A purported schematic of the handset was also leaked, but that’s pretty much all that we know about the Galaxy Note 8 for now — and none of those details can be confirmed at this time.