Some more Samsung product announcement including the Galaxy range is on the horizon. The South Korean tech giant has revealed that its next Unpacked event will take place on February 9th, during which the Galaxy S22, its latest flagship phone series, will be officially announced. Samsung’s Galaxy S handsets are usually the company’s highest-specced non-folding phones, and they’re usually our first glimpse at the year’s main smartphone trends.
However, given Samsung’s track record, phones are unlikely to be the only thing introduced on September 9th. According to recent reports, they’ll be joined by a new Galaxy Tab S8 tablet lineup, which will both successor the Tab S7 devices that arrived in 2020 and add a new, larger “Ultra” branded tablet to the mix. There are also rumours of a new smart speaker called the Galaxy Home Mini 2, whose manufacture has just begun.
Continue reading for a full breakdown of what we’re anticipating.
S22 SERIES OF THE GALAXY:
The Samsung Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22 Plus, and Galaxy S22 Ultra are slated to be released this year, marking the start of a new year with a fresh lineup of top Samsung Galaxy S smartphones. We also have a fair notion of what their specs will be courtesy to WinFuture’s thorough leaks and tipster Dohyun Kim’s information.
All three will reportedly be powered by Qualcomm’s latest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, in the United States, while devices in Europe will most likely be powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 2200 processor, which is notable for being the first smartphone chip with AMD graphics in over a decade, ever since Qualcomm bought AMD / ATI’s Imageon division and renamed it Qualcomm Adreno graphics.
According to reports, all of the upcoming Samsung phones will include ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanners, albeit only the Plus and Ultra will have UWB support to ensure complete compatibility with Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag Plus trackers.
The S22 and S22 Plus appear to be simple revisions of the S21 and S21 Plus, with both models sporting extremely similar designs to last year’s models. That implies both phones should have the new design language for 2021, which includes camera bumps neatly incorporated into the upper left corner of the phone’s back, as well as flat displays with centrally oriented hole-punch notches for their selfie cameras.
They also include 120Hz OLED displays that are 0.1 inch smaller than last year (at 6.1 and 6.6 inches, respectively) but have higher peak brightness of 1,500 and 1,750 nits, up from 1,300 nits last year, according to WinFuture. The handsets are about 5mm shorter and appear to be a smidgeon slimmer than last year’s devices. This year’s rated battery capacity is said to be slightly lower at 3,700mAh and 4,500mAh, respectively, so it’ll be interesting to see how this affects battery life.
When the non-Ultra phones’ backs are exposed, we’re expecting to see two camera bumps that appear remarkably similar, each with three cameras. However, their specifications may differ significantly from those seen last year, with far higher resolution primary cameras but lower resolution telephotos.
According to a source, both phones will be equipped with 50-megapixel primary cameras, 12-megapixel ultrawides, and 10-megapixel telephotos this year. Other specifications, such as aperture, are largely same, while the main 50-megapixel sensor has been increased in size to 1/1.56″ (up from 1/1.76″ last year), while the sensor behind the telephoto lens has apparently been reduced in size to 1/3.94″ (down from 1/1.72″ last year).
Because of the bigger primary sensor, Samsung claims that these phones will help you “conquer the night” and create “the finest and brightest photographs and videos you’ve ever captured with a phone.”
Like last year, both phones are expected to contain 8GB of RAM and 128 or 256GB of storage. According to the sources, the hues available include black, white, pink gold, and green.
While the S22 and S22 Plus appear to be incremental improvements over its predecessors, the S22 Ultra is expected to be a completely different animal. Instead than adopting the same design language as the rest of the S22 series, as the S21 Ultra did for the S21, leaked renders imply the S22 Ultra will adopt a squared-off style similar to Samsung’s prior Note smartphones. This time around, Samsung is said to have included a built-in slot for its S-Pen stylus, which replaces the case holder company supplied last year.
THE NOTE HAS BEEN UPGRADED TO ULTRA:
Samsung has even hinted at this shift, saying that the upcoming event will see the unveiling of its “most notable S series ever.” After deciding not to release a new Galaxy Note phone last year, the firm now looks to be incorporating its features into its most expensive Galaxy S handset.
WinFuture has the speculated specifications for the smartphone once again. Despite its strikingly different form, the S22 Ultra appears to be a gadget with relatively identical specifications to its predecessor.
It appears to have the same screen size (6.8 inches), battery capacity (5,000mAh), weight and thickness (both 8.9mm and 227g), and even camera resolutions (108-megapixel main, 12-megapixel ultrawide, and two 10-megapixel telephotos with 3x and 10x zoom) and apertures. You’ll apparently be able to choose between 128, 256, or 512GB of storage, but it appears that your RAM options will be limited to 8 or 12GB, rather than the 12 and 16GB offered by the S21 Ultra.
The S22 Ultra will apparently be offered in burgundy in addition to black, white, and green colours.
Finally, according to WinFuture, the S22 will start at €849 (about $958) and go up to €1,049 (roughly $1,183) for the S22 Plus and €1,249 (roughly $1,409) for the S22 Ultra.
S8 SERIES OF GALAXY TAB:
While Samsung’s new Galaxy S smartphones may be the brand’s most “notable” to date, the company is undoubtedly betting that its new tablet lineup will be a cut above the competition (ahem). Its new Tab S8 series has been hotly touted in recent months, but it hasn’t been verified that they’ll arrive alongside the Galaxy S22.
Rumours claim Samsung’s new flagship tablet, the Tab S8, will include a display notch similar to the one it lambasted Apple for, including on the iPhone X, according to what appears to be the Tab S8’s Unpacked announcement film. According to the source, the notch is expected to be coming to a new Ultra tier in the Tab S8 lineup, which will sit above the Tab S8 and Tab S8 Plus in the company’s 2022 Android tablet portfolio.
Despite the fact that all three tablets are said to be powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 CPU, screen sizes vary, ranging from 11 inches for the Tab S8 to 12.7 inches for the Tab S8 Plus and 14.6 inches for the Tab S8 Ultra. Only the Plus and Ultra have OLED panels, although all three are 120Hz. The Ultra also has a second 12-megapixel selfie camera (thus the notch), though it’s unclear what use this extra sensor will serve at this time.
5G, S Pen, and wireless DeX support, as well as Dolby Atmos-compatible speakers, are all expected to be included in the Tab S8 series. Pricing is unknown, however WinFuture speculates that the Tab S8 might cost as little as €680 (about $767) while the Tab S8 Ultra could cost as much as €1,220 (roughly $1,377).
THE NEXT GALAXY HOME MINI COULD BE LAUNCHED?
Samsung’s Bixby smart speaker, which was released in South Korea and nowhere else in 2020, does not appear to be getting a follow-up. However, according to MySmartPrice, the Bluetooth SIG certification website has lately included a new listing for a “Samsung SmartThings Home Hub.”
Despite the fact that the entry doesn’t appear to be labelled “Galaxy Home,” its SM-V320 model number was previously linked to the anticipated smart speaker in a SamMobile article from November. The speaker went into production earlier this month, according to tipper Max Jambor. There aren’t much information about what shape it could take, however SamMobile speculates that it could have a display.
To be honest, it would be a daring move for Samsung to announce a follow-up to a South Korean-exclusive smart speaker, which was itself a scaled-down variant of another smart speaker that notoriously never shipped — much more so if it insisted on including its much-maligned voice assistant. Stranger things have happened, after all.
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