This morning, some reports out of South Korea hinted that Samsung might be announcing the Galaxy S10 on February 20 in San Francisco. A few hours later, Samsung sent out invites to press for an event in San Francisco, with a big “10” on the invite, hinting at the Galaxy S10. The event is taking place in San Francisco this time around, as opposed to Barcelona at Mobile World Congress (or New York for the later Galaxy Note launch). Which means it will be starting a bit later than usual. The keynote will start at 11AM PDT, and as always, you can keep it locked to AndroidHeadlines for all the latest details.
Samsung breaking with tradition, announcing the Galaxy S10 ahead of Mobile World Congress
Typically, Samsung announces the Galaxy S smartphone at Mobile World Congress most of the time. There have been a few years where the device was not ready for MWC, and it announced it a few weeks or months later. The Galaxy S8 was a prime example of that – also likely due to Samsung doing more tests on the battery before launching the phone, after what happened with the Galaxy Note7 the year before. However, Samsung has never announced the phone ahead of Mobile World Congress. The February 20 date is a bit strange though, as that is just five days before Mobile World Congress kicks off. So it’s only a few days before a number of other smartphones get announced. Making it a bit weird to see Samsung jumping ahead of everyone, and announcing it here in the US.
Mobile World Congress is the biggest mobile trade show on the calendar, of course the name pretty much hints at that. This is where most smartphone makers bring out their spring flagship smartphones. LG typically announces its next G-series smartphone there, Huawei will announce its mid-rangers and tablets there (typically the P-series comes at a separate event a bit later), Sony announces its latest flagship as well. And to see Samsung doing it roughly a week ahead of the show, is weird, but it’s also going to take some attention off of the event.
What to expect at Unpacked?
Looking at the invitation, the Galaxy S10 is definitely going to be the star of the show. However, it does also look like we might see a foldable phone at this event. The crease in the zero might indicate a foldable phone, but it could also indicate two smartphones. The rumor mill has pointed to Samsung releasing a ton of Galaxy S10 variants this year – with a couple of 5G models – so it is very possible that this could be indicating that there is more than one Galaxy S10 model to show off this year. Other than the Galaxy S10, we could expect some updates to Bixby, as well as release details for the Galaxy Home that debuted at Unpacked back in August. Samsung still has not offered any details on the Galaxy Home, including specs, pricing or availability. Whatever Samsung has in store for February 20, it’s going to be interesting.