Samsung’s president of mobile, TM Roh, gave several hints about the company’s product roadmap in a blog post today. He confirmed that Samsung will be holding an event in January – presumably for the Galaxy S21. He also suggested that S Pen support will come to more phones, and that Samsung plans to expand its line of foldable phones with cheaper options.
The hint likely to have the biggest impact on the greatest number of customers is stylus support for Galaxy phones outside of the Note line. This has been rumored for a while, but Roh also claims that Samsung plans to “add some of its most loved features to other devices in our range.”
It could mean it Others half of those rumors will also come true: that the Note line itself is coming to an end soon, at least as a premium flagship in Samsung’s line-up. The Note hasn’t been that differentiated from the regular S line of phones for a while. The main difference from the design language is that silo for the stylus.
With S Pen support on Galaxy S phones like the upcoming Galaxy S21 line and Z phones like the Z Fold (and maybe even a Z Flip), Samsung probably thinks it’s just as easy to put a stylus in a case to store like in a phone.
Roh also confirmed that Samsung will provide more details in January. That’s when Samsung is expected to unveil the Galaxy S21 line a month or two earlier than usual.
The S Pen wasn’t the only thing Roh alluded to in the post. He also said that Samsung plans to have a “portfolio of foldable items” and that it wants to make the category “more accessible to everyone”. ‘Accessible’ in this case is likely a reference to the price of foldable phones, which currently come in somewhere between $ 1,300 and $ 2,000 for a new phone. Rumor has it that there will be a Z Fold “Lite” sometime in 2021. If folding phones are ever going to be more than a curiosity, they will have to drop in price significantly. That seems to be what Samsung is aiming for.
Roh says Samsung will put more emphasis on “professional camera and video capabilities” on its phones. That’s not much of a revelation, but it could mean Samsung hopes to return to a race over camera quality with Apple and Google – one that Samsung hasn’t yet to win definitively. Roh promised an “epic New Year” and specifically mentioned the use of AI to improve image quality. Computer photography is exactly where Samsung has traditionally been a bit behind its competitors.
He hinted that it would also do more with UWB in 2021. Like Apple, it promises that your phone will open your car door. Unlike Apple, he’s willing to talk about using it to locate objects and “even your pet.”
That’s a lot of teasing for the Samsung event in January, which we are currently expecting on the 14th. That’s when we’ll see the Galaxy S21 announced and maybe a bit more, an earlier than usual start for a new year of phones.