Last week, Samsung’s foldable Galaxy F phone got the soft launch we all expected. We saw Samsung’s daring new screen design for the upcoming flagship series, as well as the new user interface that Samsung designed together with Google for foldables. But the Galaxy F is hardly the flagship most Samsung fans are waiting for right now. The Galaxy S10 will be Samsung’s most important product launch of the first half of 2019, and a new report might finally reveal release plans for all these new handsets.
According to sources said to be familiar with Samsung’s plans, the Galaxy S10 will be unveiled in February, The Korea Herald reports. Then, in March, the Galaxy F will follow alongside a 5G edition of the Galaxy S10. The Galaxy F, however, will not get 5G.
Samsung wants to showcase the Galaxy F at the Mobile World Congress show in late February, ahead of the official launch in March, the report says. It’s unclear whether the phone will be shown to the public or only behind closed doors at the event. The latter is more likely, since it would be odd for Samsung to detract from the Galaxy S10’s launch at MWC 2019.
The report also echoes what a previous story from Korea said, that the phone may be priced at around $1,770. A pricing structure for the Galaxy S10 wasn’t mentioned, but the phone should compete against the iPhone XS series, as well as the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, which is already slightly cheaper than the new iPhones.
A previous story claimed the Galaxy S10 would be unveiled at MWC 2019, so it’ll be interesting to see how Samsung will schedule the actual announcements for these two devices. To some extent, the two phones will compete against each other, given they’re both launching in the first quarter of the year if this report is accurate.
Since the Galaxy S6, Samsung announced new Galaxy S phones at MWC in Barcelona, Spain, with the Galaxy S8 series being the only exception — Samsung was recovering from the Note 7 battery fiasco at the time, and the S8’s arrival had to be postponed. The introduction of the Galaxy F might change things for Samsung. It’s likely the company will want to give each of the two devices plenty of time to shine in the limelight. The Galaxy S10 will mark Samsung’s tenth anniversary of the Galaxy S line, and the phone is already expected to bring over a slew of new features compared to the Galaxy S9.
The Galaxy F, meanwhile, will be equally exciting when it comes to new features, being the first handset of its kind. Its prohibitive price and Samsung’s limited production run will make it less interesting for most buyers, but the phone is still meant to highlight Samsung’s ability to innovate when it comes to mobile devices.
