- The Galaxy Note 20 series will launch on August 5th, with preorders set to start soon after the media event.
- A leaker familiar with Samsung plans reiterated the date of the launch event, without providing an actual release date for the handset.
- The same person said the cheapest Galaxy Note 20 will have a high price tag, in line with Samsung’s Galaxy S20 series that started selling in mid-September.
We’re less than a month away from Samsung’s biggest press conference of the second half of the year. The upcoming Unpacked event will be an online-only affair because of the ongoing health crisis. The novel coronavirus pandemic is far from being over. In fact, it’s quite the opposite of that, as the global count of COVID-19 confirmation has been steadily increasing for several days, setting new daily records. The pandemic impacted the global economy as well, with tens of millions of people having lost their jobs in the past few months. Lockdown orders have forced several industries to pause their activities and lay off some of their workforces. Governments have stepped in to help, but it’ll take a while for the global economy to recover. As a result, many people might not afford the flagship smartphone upgrade they may have planned this year. But Samsung is still expected to set a high entry price for the Note 20, just like it did with the Galaxy S20 series earlier this year.
Update: Note 20 reservations are now live on Samsung’s website and it includes a deal that gets buyers a $50 credit when they pre-order.
The original starting price for the Galaxy S20 was $999 in mid-February. Since then, Samsung had to launch several promotions to make it more affordable. We saw significant price cuts, a buy-back guarantee program, as well as a new smartphone subscription plan for the Galaxy S20. Samsung struggled to sell Galaxy S20 units during the first quarter of the year, and the numbers for the June quarter will probably not be any better. Comparatively, the iPhone 11 that starts at $699 sold millions of units in the March quarter, just as the world began dealing in seriousness with the pandemic.
Long-time Samsung leaker Ice Universe took to Twitter to remind the world that “The Next Galaxy” launches on August 5th. Samsung will unveil the Galaxy Note 20 series and the new Galaxy Fold 2 on that day, and online preorders should start soon after that.
August 5, TheNextGalaxy
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) July 5, 2020
In previous tweets, Ice predicted the price of the Note 20 series. According to him, the cheaper Note 20 will cost $999, and the Note 20 Ultra will cost $1,299.
Predict the price of the Galaxy Note20 series:
Note20, $999
Note20 Ultra, $1299— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) July 4, 2020
While this isn’t one of these leaks, it’s an educated guess based on what Samsung did with the Galaxy S20 series. The leaker hasn’t been afraid to criticize Samsung in his previous remarks, and thinks a $999 Android phone with a “regular camera” and a Full HD 60Hz screen “can be considered fraud.”
Either way, in 2020, pricing an Android phone with a 1080, 60Hz screen and a regular camera at $999 can be considered fraud.
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) July 4, 2020
Even if the $999 entry price is wrong, Samsung probably can’t go significantly lower than that. The Snapdragon 865 processor that requires the extra purchase of the 4G/5G modem is supposedly the reason why Android phones are more expensive this year. Even the OnePlus 8 Pro costs $899. And it’s supposedly the reason why the Google Pixel 5 will feature a Snapdragon 765 chip instead of the 865 flagship CPU.
Samsung is also facing another huge problem. The iPhone 12 will start at $649, according to several leaks. That’s for the 5G version, as at least one leak said the 4G iPhone 12 could be even cheaper than that, starting at $549. Add to that the $399 iPhone SE, the rumored $349 Pixel 4a, and the OnePlus Nord that could sell for just $299. Not to mention that the iPhone 11 will probably stick around for one more year, at an even more affordable price than the current $699. Even without the coronavirus pandemic, Samsung will have a tough time selling a $999 Note 20. But when you factor in all these different details, it’s increasingly more evident that the upcoming Samsung flagship will have a hard time in stores.
