The Samsung Galaxy S8 has an official launch date

The company has decided to delay its unveiling because of the Note 7

Last year's Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge were enormously popular (REUTERS/Albert Gea)

Samsung has revealed that its next flagship smartphone will launch on 29 March.

The Galaxy S8 had been expected to make its first official appearance at MWC 2017, but the company decided to delay it because of the fallout surrounding the disastrous Galaxy Note 7.

The Galaxy S8 is heavily rumoured to be an 5.8-inch handset, though a 6.2-inch S8+ is also likely to launch alongside it.

Both phones will allegedly feature an “infinity display”, said to cover 83% of their front panel, enabling Samsung to keep them relatively compact.

They'll also come with an iris-scanner, a 12-megapixel rear camera and 8-megapixel selfie camera, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage.

The S8 and S8+ are also expected to be IP68 dust- and water-resistant and support wireless charging, as well as feature a new AI virtual assistant called Bixby capable of speaking up to eight different languages.