In the wake of a number of rumors and leaks, it’s business as usual for updates to a long-running device lineage, as Samsung’s mobile division in Malaysia has taken to Facebook to let everybody know in every way except verbally that the upcoming members of the Galaxy A lineup, likely to be shown off at CES, will be water-resistant or perhaps even waterproof. A post with the hashtag #A2017LiveUnplanned carries the attached image, bearing the text, “IT ALL BEGINS WITH A. HOLD YOUR BREATH.” Given the aquatic motif and how close we are to 2017’s CES show, two things can be logically assumed from the post; that the Samsung Galaxy A lineup’s newest members will be attending the show or will be shown off in some sort of live fashion soon before or after, and the new phones will be water-resistant.
Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy A phones have already been tipped to offer IP68 protection against the ingress and operational disturbance of watery conditions, among other threats, which makes this tease all the more likely that Samsung’s newest devices will be able to live through a quick dip. Specs for the new devices have also been hitting the web in various forms, including at least one of the new Galaxy A phones stopping by the FCC to say hello and get its approval to hit American shores in the near future.
Past entries in the Galaxy A series have historically coped somewhat well with getting wet, but have never sported IP68 protection, nor received an endorsement of this sort from Samsung, implicitly telling users that underwater use capabilities will be a big feature of the phone. Past devices outside of the Galaxy A lineup, such as the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7, have had the ability to survive a dunk or even be used underwater feature prominently in their advertising, so adding the function on to the new Galaxy A phones and making sure everybody knows about it should not come as that much of a surprise. It remains to be seen whether this will set a new standard for mid-range devices, but it should be a nice addition to the new versions of the Galaxy A series.