Samsung Galaxy S7 release date tipped for February 2016

According to previous reports on the upcoming Galaxy S7, Samsung's next flagship smartphone will be developed using the agile development methodology, with the move expected to shave as much as two months out of the handset's development cycle. These previous rumors correlate nicely with this recent report, but since nothing can be confirmed just yet, make sure to digest this info with a dose of skepticism.

The report from the South Korean media quotes an analyst from SK Securities. Interestingly, SK Securities is owned by SK Group, the same conglomerate that owns SK Telecom, one of the major South Korean telecom carriers. While this detail may seem to lend credence to the report, we can't be sure if the Galaxy S7 will get some sort of early launch in Samsung's home market, or if the Galaxy S7 release date is scheduled for February in other markets as well.

The previous two iterations in Samsung's Galaxy S lineup - the Galaxy S5 and the Galaxy S6 - were announced at the Mobile World Congress, a major tech event in Barcelona which usually happens late February to early May, and both handsets became available for purchase in April. While the past two years may seem to reveal a pattern, the early launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note5 can be interpreted as an indication that Samsung may be looking to shift its launch cycles a bit.

If Samsung was willing to break its tradition of officially unveiling a new member of the Galaxy Note phablet series at IFA, which is what the company did four years in a row, then it's not entirely unthinkable for Samsung to hurry up the unveiling and the release date of the Galaxy S7 as well.

According to previous rumors, the Samsung Galaxy S7 might come with either a Snapdragon 820 or an Exynos M1 / 8890 chipset (depending on the market). Furthermore, unofficial information suggests that the standard version of the Galaxy S7 will be launched alongside a curved-display version and an extra-sized phablet version, which wouldn't be surprising given the multiple variants of the current-gen Galaxy S6.

What do you guys think of this? Will you be surprised to see Samsung officially unveiling the Galaxy S7 in January?