February is going to be an exciting one for gadget-heads. It’ll be book-ended by new Android Wear smartwatches from LG in early February, followed by Mobile World Congress (MWC) at the end of the month. We’ll miss out on the Galaxy S8 announcement, which is no longer going to be made during MWC, but don’t let that bum you out. Here’s a look at what we should see in the next four weeks.
LG G6 Android smartphone
LG has already confirmed its press conference will be held on February 26 where, unless something crazy happens, we’ll get our first look at the LG G6. It’s LG’s 2017 flagship Android smartphone and we’re expecting drastic changes. Rumor has it LG is ditching a removable battery and last year’s failed “mods” to instead add water-resistance, something fans will likely welcome with open arms. We’re also expecting a Snapdragon 821 processor instead of Snapdragon 835 (apparently Samsung ate up the only batch), a Quad HD display with an 18:9 aspect ratio and all the trimmings of a true flagship.
Android Wear 2.0
Android Wear 2.0 is already deep in developer testing and will be the next major release of Google’s wearable platform. It’ll even support the iPhone. We expect a fresh batch of Android Wear 2.0 devices, starting with the LG Watch Sport and LG Watch Style, which we exclusively revealed just a couple of weeks ago. Rumor has it the watches will pack Google Assistant, a welcome new feature, and will be available for as low as $250. February 9 is currently the target announcement date, so mark your calendars now.
Galaxy Tab S3 Android tablet
Samsung won’t unveil the Galaxy S8 next month, that much is confirmed, but it also won’t show up to Mobile World Congress empty handed. The company is, surprisingly, expected to unveil its new Galaxy Tab S3 Android tablet, the successor to the Galaxy Tab S2 (pictured above.) We haven’t really heard much in the way of Android tablets recently, so this is actually pretty exciting. Word on the street is the tablet will sport a 9.6-inch 2048 x 1536-pixel display, a Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM and more. This is going to be a high-end slate that’ll go toe-to-toe with Apple’s 9.7-inch iPad Pro.
BlackBerry Mercury Android smartphone
We saw the BlackBerry Mercury at CES 2017, where we had a chance to go hands-on with the new device that’s being sold by TCL. We dig the design but still don’t know a whole lot about the specs hiding under the hood. TCL will unveil all of that and, we hope, the price during Mobile World Congress. The Mercury will also get its official name during the show. Word on the street is this phone sports the same camera module as the Google Pixel, whether or not BlackBerry can tune it as well as Google remains to be seen, though. This should be on your radar if you’re any sort of Android fan.
