Samsung finally attached a release date to the Galaxy S10 5G, a limited-edition member of its latest Android flagship family. The company on Thursday said the device will hit the store shelves in its home country on Monday, April 5, confirming that it’s still on course to release it in the United States where Verizon will begin offering it on April 11.
No pre-orders are accepted in South Korea, which is interpreted as a sign that the Galaxy S10 5G will be in extremely short supply next week and Samsung wants to maximize the impact of the few units it will be able to sell over the course of the next week by making consumers turn up at any one of the firm’s larger brick-and-mortar stores in the country. Verizon, on the other hand, is offering – something. Pre-registrations, it seems, though the carrier’s half-baked page dedicated to the Galaxy S10 5G certainly raises at least as many questions as it answers.
From the looks of it, no one will be swimming Galaxy S10 5G units – now or ever, really. By the time the fifth generation of wireless networks is widely available in the United States or South Korea, the Galaxy S10 will likely be older than the S9 range currently is, and there will be newer, better options on the market, particularly for those willing to drop well over a grand on a smartphone.
Over on the Far East, Samsung is running a promotion similar to the one offered alongside regular Galaxy S10 models, meaning consumers who manage to get their hands on the first batch of devices will be able to choose between a free pair of the new Galaxy Buds – regularly priced at around $200, depending on the market – a comparably valuable wireless charging bundle with first-party gear, or a 50-percent discount on screen replacements, which essentially serves as an extended partial warranty. So, if you screen just gives up on you within the warranty period, Samsung will replace it without any further complications (well, it says so, at least) but if you happen to break the handset through no one else’s fault but your own, you can at least count on a massive 50-percent discount on its replacement, no questions asked.
Given how this is yet another generation of Samsung-made Android flagships relying on a predominantly glass-and-metal combination, you surely can’t count it on to survive (m)any drops, so being able to save in the ballpark of $170 on a replacement is nothing to scoff at, especially if you’re already set on the wireless audio and charging front.
There’s still no word on what kind of promotions will be on offer in the U.S. but some will certainly be launched by both Samsung and Verizon, especially since the device is bound to be even more expensive than the Galaxy S10+ which starts at $1,000, though probably not by much.
Announced late last month, the Galaxy S10 series represents the absolute pinnacle of Samsung’s accomplishments in the mobile industry up until now. It’s also the company’s answer to the rapidly growing trend of notches that may now grind to a halt after Samsung showed its rivals “a better way” to keep increasing screen-to-body ratios, or at least that’s the general consensus among analysts right now.