The 5G member of the Galaxy S10 family that Samsung is said to be working on likely won’t be coming to the United States, according to a new rumor that started circulating the Internet early Friday morning PST. The Seoul-based technology juggernaut reportedly still hasn’t made a firm decision on the matter but the current provisional plan is to only launch that particular Galaxy S10 variant in its home country. Even if that agenda was to change, the device will still likely debut in South Korea before possibly being greenlit for a wider release. More concrete information on the matter will likely be available no earlier than November, which is when Samsung’s plans are expected to finalize, as per the same source.
While 2019 will see the release of a number of Android smartphones advertised as 5G-ready and both manufacturers and their distributors are likely to tout that feature as one of the key selling points of their products, the fifth generation of mobile networks isn’t expected to be offered on any significant global scale until 2020. South Korea is ahead of most countries in terms of 5G deployment and with its carriers already trialing the new telecom standard, Samsung wouldn’t be breaking any precedent if it decided to provide its home country with a 5G smartphone before launching a similar device in the U.S.
The Galaxy S10 lineup itself is rumored to consist of three handsets, not accounting for the 5G model that’s likely to be an ultra-premium variant of the larger member of the series meant to succeed this year’s Galaxy S9 Plus. Samsung is expected to stick with its existing product roadmap and announce the new Android flagships near the end of the first quarter of 2019, presumably at the next iteration of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The company’s mobile chief DJ Koh previously said the Galaxy S10 won’t be its first 5G-ready handset, making it unclear what exactly Samsung‘s plans for the new technology are, at least as far as early consumer adopters are concerned.