Much to unpack at Samsung’s annual event
New Galaxy S10 phones top assortment of items
You can count on a few things to happen around this time of year: Major League Baseball’s spring training gets underway in Florida and Arizona, the Oscars air on ABC, and Samsung releases a new Galaxy S phone.
This year, Samsung is slated to introduce three new Galaxy S10 phones – plus a 5G phone, a foldable phone, new smartwatch, new fitness tracker and new wireless earbuds – at its “Unpacked” event on Feb. 20 in San Francisco.
It’s the 10th anniversary for the Galaxy line, and Samsung is apparently going all out. Here’s what we expect.
Galaxy S10E, S10 and S10+
Rumors point to Samsung following Apple’s lead from last year’s iPhone event in unleashing three versions of its main Galaxy flagship: a cheaper Galaxy S10E (an iPhone XR rival), Galaxy S10 (rival to the iPhone XS) and Galaxy S10+ (rival to XS Max).
Screen sizes will vary. According to German website WinFuture, the S10E is expected to have the smallest of the bunch at 5.8 inches. The S10, meanwhile, is said to have a 6.1-inch display and the S10+ a 6.4-inch screen (the same size as the Galaxy Note 9).
All three models will feature Samsung’s new “Infinity O” display, which features a circular cutout on the display for the front camera (or two front cameras, in the case of the S10+) as opposed to the “notched” display used by the iPhone, Pixel and other modern phones.
Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 855 processor is expected to be under the
hood of the S10 and S10+, both of which are also said to be taking advantage of Qualcomm’s new “ultrasonic” fingerprint sensor that puts the sensor inside the screen.
Both the S10 and S10+ are said to have three rear cameras, while the S10E will go with just two cameras on its back.
WinFuture reports that 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage will be standard across the trio, with the S10+ possibly available in what will no doubt be a pricey variation with a whopping 12GB of RAM and 1TB of storage – for those who need such power.
One novel featurethat may be coming to the line is the ability to charge other devices wirelessly using the Galaxy’s own battery. Earlier this month WinFuture leaked what appears to be a promotional image from Samsung that shows a pair of the company’s seemingly updated earbuds wirelessly charging off of a Galaxy S10.
5G variant with massive display
In addition to the three main S10 phones, Samsung is also prepping a 5G phone that would be compatible with the speedy new wireless networks that are just emerging. Such a model could appear this spring.
According to a report late last year from The Wall Street Journal, the 5G phone will have a massive 6.7-inch screen, six cameras (two on the front, four on the back).
AT&T and Verizon have announced they plan to have a Samsung 5G phone in the first half of 2019, with Sprint and T-Mobile saying that they, too, will carry a Samsung 5G phone this year. Beyond AT&T’s limited 12-city launch late last year, however, no other carriers have turned ontheir respective mobile 5G networks as of now.
Last year Samsung’s mobile chief DJ Koh told Korean journalists, as spotted by ZDNet, that the S10 would not have 5G, with a separate model getting the technology first.
Other specs for the 5G phone, according to South Korea’s ETNews, includes a massive 5,000 mAh battery, over 10GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.
ETNews reports that the 4G LTE S10 line will be available on March 8, while this 5G model will be available on March 29. We’ll see.
Foldable phone makes its debut
Samsung is also expected to properly introduce a foldable phone, after publicly displaying an early version in November.
In its closed position, this flexible screen device has a roughly 4.6-inch display. Unfold the screen, and it grows into a a tablet-sized 7.3 inches. Samsung is working with Google to optimize Android for the new foldable form factor, allowing the apps that you were using when the device is closed to be there when you open up the phone in tablet mode. Samsung also teased that you’ll be able to have three apps displaying at once, allowing you to multitask as you would on a more traditional computer.
That said, plenty about this device still remains a mystery, most notably how much it will cost and whether it will have similar specs to the S10 line, including 5G.
Galaxy Watch and fitness tracker
Samsung is also rumored to be preparing a new Galaxy Watch.
According to SamMobile, a website that tracks Samsung, the new smartwatch may be called the Galaxy Watch Active and will feature a 1.1-inch AMOLED display. It will likely offer wireless charging, and as withSamsung’s previous Gear Sport timepiece, be waterresistant down to a depth of about 50 meters, (roughly 164 feet).
Indian tech website 91mobiles, which previously leaked an image purporting to be the new watch, says it will also be capable of tracking sleep and making mobile payments.