Samsung has traditionally held its Galaxy Unpacked events a day before the Mobile World Congress (MWC). But this year it’s going to be different. Sources familiar with the matter told Gizmodo UK last month that the Korean electronics giant was planning to hold the Galaxy S10 Unpacked event on February 20, a few days before the MWC kicks off on February 25th. Samsung has now officially sent out press invites for the February 20 Galaxy S10 Unpacked event.
Samsung to hold the Galaxy S10 Unpacked event in San Francisco
The company doesn’t say in its invitation what devices it is going to unveil. But the teaser accompanying the invitation clearly suggests the Galaxy S10 is going to be the star of the show. Previous reports have indicated that there would be three variants of Galaxy S10 – a standard S10, a larger S10+, and an affordable Galaxy S10 E. Samsung could also tease or unveil its first 5G phone and the foldable Galaxy F at the same event.
The Galaxy S10 Unpacked event is scheduled to take place at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. Samsung will kick off the event at 11 AM Pacific Time on Wednesday, February 20. If you can’t attend the event live, don’t worry. Samsung will live stream the unveiling on its website, as it has done in the past.
Samsung has kept the invitation simple, but it prominently features the number 10. It appears to be indicative of the company’s 10th anniversary flagship Galaxy S10. The seam running down the middle of the device shows edges of two curved screens side by side. It could be indicative of a foldable device or two different phones.
Samsung wouldn’t want to launch two different devices at the same event. A foldable Galaxy X could steal the limelight from the Galaxy S10 models. The company teased its foldable phone in November. It’s possible that Samsung would tease the foldable device further at the Galaxy S10 Unpacked event before unveiling it later, hopefully at the Mobile World Congress.
The company also has a 5G phone in store that it would be desperate to show off. The 5G phones could debut with the Galaxy S10 branding, but they would have different specs than the S10, S10+ and S10 E. Samsung has joined hands with Verizon and AT&T to sell its 5G phone in the US.
The Galaxy S10 will be a crucial phone for Samsung. Consumers are expecting a radical design overhaul because it marks the 10th anniversary of Samsung’s most popular smartphone. Last year’s Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 were great phones, but didn’t sell as well as Samsung had hoped. A Galaxy S10 with exciting new features could boost sales.
The Korean company is also facing stiff competition from Chinese brands such as Huawei and OnePlus, which have been eating into its market share. In fact, Huawei has become the world’s second largest smartphone vendor, right behind Samsung. Another big worry is the slowing smartphone sales. Samsung and Apple both have seen weaker than expected sales in the premium segment as the market matures.
What the rumor mill has revealed so far about the Galaxy S10
According to supply chain leaks, all three variants of Galaxy S10 will have the Infinity-O display, which has a hole in the top-right corner of the screen to accommodate the front camera. It will allow the company to offer a nearly bezel-less experience without adopting the notch. The S10, S10+, and S10 E will have 3,500mAh, 4,000mAh, and 3,100mAh battery, respectively. They are said to have at least 20W fast charging technology.
Galaxy S10 series charging power is not less than 20W.
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) January 5, 2019
Sources told MobileFun that the Galaxy S10 and S10+ would have an in-display fingerprint sensor that would let users quickly unlock the device and authenticate payments by placing their finger on the screen. The cheaper S10 E would feature a side-mounted fingerprint reader to keep its manufacturing costs down. It will compete with the devices like iPhone XR and OnePlus 6T.
All three variants of Galaxy S10 would run Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 855 or Samsung’s in-house Exynos 9820 chipset. The new Exynos processor has an integrated neural processing unit (NPU) to take care of AI tasks. The devices would run Android 9 Pie software out of the box.
According to the rumor mill, the Galaxy S10+ would sport three camera lenses on the back and dual cameras on the front. The other two models would feature dual cameras on the rear panel and one selfie camera. Sources recently told Galaxy Club that the Galaxy S10 would come with new camera features including the Bright Night mode and Artistic Live Focus. The Bright Night mode would enhance low-light photography and work in the same way as Google Pixel 3’s Night Sight mode. The Artistic Live Focus could be used to create digital animations.
