Galaxy S9 sales aren’t as good as Samsung had hoped, but a new report says Samsung is preparing a significant update for the Galaxy S10 next year, to celebrate the phone’s ten-year anniversary and to restore sales. To do all that, Samsung plans to swipe a page from Apple’s unwritten book of selling hundreds of millions of iPhones year in and year out. But it’ll also copy a new rival for a change, China’s biggest smartphone vendor.
What that means is that the Galaxy S10 will come in three distinct versions, just like new iPhones. The flagship model, meanwhile, will pack a triple-lens camera, just like Huawei’s 2018 flagship phone.
For the second year in a row, Apple will release three new iPhones this year. Unlike last fall, the 2018 models will all have the same design.
Per ETNews, Samsung will swipe that move next year. The “Beyond 0” apparently will be a 5.8-inch handset with a flat-screen and a single-lens camera. The “Beyond 1” will be a 5.8-inch Galaxy S10 with a dual camera. And the “Beyond 2” will be the true flagship, a handset with a triple-lens camera on the back. Those are all codenames, of course. In-display fingerprint-sensing technology is also coming to the Galaxy S10 line, although it’s not clear whether or not all three “Beyond” models will get it.
Samsung is looking to celebrate the Galaxy S line’s 10-year anniversary by showing the world it can still innovate. That’s what the Beyond 2 is all about. This year’s iPhone X line isn’t expected to feature a model with a triple-lens camera, so this could be a solid advantage for Samsung. The Beyond 0 handset, meanwhile, should help Samsung increase sales by offering a model at a more affordable price point. From the looks of it, the handset will compete directly against Apple’s 2018 6.1-inch iPhone X model.
The report notes the phones will be launched in the first half of 2019, which is in line with what Samsung has done with previous models. A report said a few months ago that the Galaxy S10 might be unveiled as soon as January 2019, but ETNews makes no mention of specific timing.