We knew in the weeks leading up to Mobile World Congress that Samsung would not be debuting the Galaxy S8 in Barcelona as was the case previous years. Following the bevy of battery issues the Galaxy Note 7 suffered, the company opted to refine its manufacturing checks and rather push back the S8's release date in favour of retaining consumer confidence.  

The South Korean manufacturer's forthcoming smartphone, however, still garnered quite a bit of attention, as Samsung detailed its impending unveiling for 29 March at its press conference on Day Zero of MWC 17. 

With that in mind, we question whether competitors have made enough of an impression to temporarily knock Samsung off its Android perch. 

Missed opportunity?

At this year's MWC, it was Huawei and LG that duked it out for the flagship crown, with each company having a press conference an hour apart from one another on 26 February. As such, both are attempting to fill the temporary void that a lack of Galaxy S8 at MWC 17 has left, and hopefully use that to increase their influence on the market. 

Have either LG or Huawei actually been able to do so? For us, the latter has the better chance, with the Huawei P10 and P10 Plus offering a well rounded device in our opinion. Add to that LG pushing pause on modular design in favour of its Full Vision 18:9 display on the G6.

With many of the top Android device makers having laid their cards on the table for 2017, it will soon be Samsung's turn, with many people still interested in what they have to produce. After Day Zero for example, we did a quick Twitter poll of which device most impressed our followers, serving up options to vote for the Huawei P10, LG G6, Sony Xperia XZ Premium (Glomo Award winner) and finally waiting to see what the Galaxy S8 is like. 

Which new smartphone has most impressed you from #MWC17?

— TechSmart (@TechSmartMag) February 27, 2017

Highly anticipated

The yet-to-be-seen S8 garnered most of the votes, with the P10 coming in second. As such, there is something to be said for mystery, as well as Samsung's influence on mobile in general. Whether or not the Galaxy S8 can deliver the goods, as the S7 did last year, and the S6 did the year before, remains to be seen.

To that end, 29 March will give us a clearer indication of which company has the edge heading into the rest of the year. As it stands, we think Samsung's gameplan of patiently waiting to unveil the Galaxy S8 following the Note 7 battery fiasco, could pay off for the company long term.      

Don't forget, @SamsungMobileSA has a Galaxy Unpacked event happening next month. pic.twitter.com/F0SnmCG24f

— TechSmart (@TechSmartMag) February 27, 2017