Samsung’s upcoming iteration of the traditionally-styled W2019 flip smartphone has now cropped up in a 9-second video leaked via Twitter user and microblogger ‘bang_gogo’. The short clip shows the handset from a number of angles in both a closed and flipped open orientation, highlighting a dual camera array at the back and a USB Type-C charging port along the lower half’s bottom edge. The build features a copper or rose gold coloration in for the metal frame while a black glass panel is placed on the back to accent the front-facing display at the front. Flipped open, that color scheme continues on the inside, with a black keyboard set within copper surrounds and accents. Alongside the new video, the leak also included a promotional image that indicates the handset will be fully unveiled on November 9 and a series of images showing the device as listed at China’s TENAA.
Background: None of that is necessarily surprising since the company has already confirmed the device’s existence and it has already been reported at the regulatory agency’s website, in addition to having leaked via a support page on Samsung’s official Chinese site. The current expectation is that top-tier components will be used underneath the high-end aesthetics, including at least 6GB RAM and an octa-core Snapdragon 845 SoC to support a unique take on Android OS. The display panels are predicted to measure in at 4.2-inch and to be based on Samsung’s own Super AMOLED technology while the battery has been rumored to be at a capacity of 3,000mAh. No headphone jack is present in any of the images that have leaked out so far.
Stepping back from the current speculation and leaks about this specific device, the W201x flip phone series has been serving a somewhat niche audience in Asian markets for some time now. The devices center around the use of premium materials and a blend of modern features with tried and true design. They are meant to cater to the upper end of the market and to business-class users in particular. Following that approach, it has stuck to a fairly standard overall design so far. Updates have been focused on internal specifications and keeping up with the latest high-end components. As noted in the above-mentioned previous reports, this looks to be the first device in the series to include a dual-camera array, however. Given the flagship-like nature of Samsung’s flip phones and its most recently launched handsets, that should equate to much better photography than the previous Samsung W2018 model.
Impact: Because of the limited audience the Samsung W2019 is targeting, it isn’t likely to make its way over to the US or other markets anytime soon. That comes mostly down to the costs associated with enabling a wider diversity of radio bands, marketing, and the very low production figures here. However, the reasons behind that scenario are probably also derived from the fact that a flip-style phone would be viewed as something of a novelty in many of the world’s markets. That’s in tandem with the fact that the vast majority of users have embraced the more modern slate-style designs used in almost every other mobile device. All of that renders the economic feasibility and prospective sales effectively moot outside of the aforementioned well-established regions.
https://twitter.com/bang_gogo_/status/1053471870123536384