According to a new leak, Samsung may be about to switch up its naming scheme with next year’s mid-range lineup. The South Korean company’s Galaxy A line has built up a pretty good name for itself ever since its inception back in 2015, with the Galaxy A3, A5 and A7 being the most popular models. According to a new leak from Twitter user @MMDDJ_, though, the company may be about to scrap the latter two names in favor of a new system, which would see them called the Galaxy A8 and A8 Plus (2018) respectively.
As has been rumored until now, both Galaxy A models are expected to make use of Samsung’s Infinity display, which means the design differences between the Galaxy A line and next year’s flagship models will be minimal. Because of this, Samsung may be hoping to unify its Galaxy A model naming scheme with its flagships. Therefore, the new Galaxy A8 models would match up to this year’s Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy S8 devices. In terms of the smaller Galaxy A3, there are yet to be any significant leaks surrounding the model, but if the device eventually becomes official the Galaxy A8 mini moniker would certainly compliment the other two, while fitting in with Samsung’s previous naming schemes. Despite the new names making sense at first, though, when launch dates are taken into consideration the logic doesn’t add up quite as well. With the South Korean giant’s next mid-range lineup set for a January launch, the unification would only remain in place for a matter of months – the Galaxy S9 is expected to launch in the spring and the Galaxy Note 9 will likely arrive later on in the year, therefore rendering the Galaxy A8 moniker outdated for the best part of a year.
If Samsung chose to unify the Galaxy A naming scheme with its flagships, it’s also likely the company would unify the lower-end Galaxy J line. In this case, the Galaxy J line would likely launch as the Galaxy J9, J9 Plus and J9 Mini due to their early summer release dates, which would mean that, by the end of next year, all Galaxy lineups would be using the number nine except for the Galaxy A series, which would still be using the number eight. The South Korean company is yet to confirm any name changes among future models, so it’s also possible that the new names refer to other devices. Until any official announcements are made, though, it’ll remain to be seen what the company has planned for its future devices.