MWC 2021 is here, sort of. The annual mobile tech expo was canceled at the last minute in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold around the world. But the event is going ahead this time as a hybrid live/virtual event.
Samsung is arguably the most high-profile attendee, and it’s holding a “Samsung Galaxy MWC Virtual Event” where we can expect some major news. The event will be live-streamed, and here are the relevant start times for your timezone.
- New York: 1:15 PM ET on Monday, June 28, 2021
- California: 10:15 AM PT on Monday, June 28, 2021
- UK: 6:15 PM BST on Monday, June 28, 2021
- Central Europe: 7:15 PM CET on Monday, June 28, 2021
- Moscow, Russia: 8:15 PM MSK on Monday, June 28, 2021
- India: 10:45 PM IST on Monday, June 28, 2021
- Beijing, China: 1:15 AM CST on Tuesday, June 29, 2021
- South Korea: 2:15 AM KST on Tuesday, June 29, 2021
- Japan: 2:15 AM JST on Tuesday, June 29, 2021
- Sydney, Australia: 3:15 AM AEST on Tuesday, June 29, 2021
Samsung will live-stream its MWC virtual event on YouTube, and we’ve embedded the video player below for your convenience.
Otherwise, the Korean manufacturer says it’ll also be covering the event on its Samsung Newsroom website. There’s also official social media coverage on the likes of Twitter, and we’ll be covering the event on the Android Authority website too.
What should you expect?
Samsung announced the event last week and in doing so, confirmed that smartwatches will be a focus. More specifically, the Korean brand said it will be “unveiling its vision for the future of smartwatches at the event.” An official listing on the MWC website also pointed to a “new watch experience” and claimed that the firm is “reimagining smartwatches.”
We already know that Samsung and Google announced a partnership for an all-new version of the Wear OS smartwatch platform. So it stands to reason that we’ll get a closer look at this update as well as any Samsung enhancements in this regard.
A major software update like this needs hardware to go with it, and many people are expecting Samsung to reveal a Galaxy Watch 4 smartwatch series. We’ve already seen leaked renders and rumored details, so we have a decent idea of what to expect in this regard.
More coverage: The best Samsung smartwatches you can buy
Aside from new smartwatches and software, Samsung will also reveal its “latest security enhancements and innovations” at the event. The invite image (seen at the top of the page) shows a Knox logo on the device in the bottom-right, so we’re expecting new features for the firm’s security suite.
Could we see any other news at this event? Well, despite the foldable phones on the invite image, we aren’t expecting major news for this product category. Perhaps Samsung will give us a launch window for the new foldables or hint at upcoming tech for the devices, but we wouldn’t hold our breath.
We aren’t expecting to hear any news on the Galaxy S21 FE or the first Exynos chipset with AMD graphics. Samsung will likely wait until later this year to divulge more details regarding these products.
