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Samsung’s president of mobile devices, TM Roh, dropped several hints about the company’s product roadmap in a blog post today. He confirmed that Samsung will hold an event in January, presumably for the Galaxy S21. It also hinted that S Pen support will be coming to more phones and that Samsung intends to expand its foldable phone lineup with less expensive options.
The track that’s likely to have the biggest impact on the most customers is stylus support for Galaxy phones beyond the Note line. That’s been rumored for some time, but Roh also claims that Samsung intends to “add some of its most beloved features to other devices in our lineup.”
It may mean that the other Half of those rumors will also come true: that the Note line itself will soon come to an end, at least as a premium flagship in Samsung’s lineup. The Note hasn’t differed that much from the normal line of S phones in a while. The main difference beyond the design language has been that silo for the stylus.
With S Pen support on Galaxy S phones like the upcoming Galaxy S21 lineup and Z phones like the Z Fold (and maybe even a Z Flip), Samsung probably thinks it’s just as easy to store a stylus in a case as it would be inside. of a phone.
Roh also confirmed that Samsung will provide more details in January. That’s when Samsung is expected to introduce the Galaxy S21 line, a month or two earlier than it usually does.
The S Pen wasn’t the only thing Roh hinted at in the post. He also said that Samsung intends to have a “folding wallet” and that it wants the category to be “more accessible to everyone.” “Affordable” in this case is probably a reference to the price of foldable phones, which cost between $ 1,300 and $ 2,000 for a new phone right now. The buzz here is 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 come down in price significantly. That seems to be what Samsung is looking for.
Roh says that Samsung will put more emphasis on “professional-level video and camera capabilities” in its phones. That’s not a huge revelation, but it may mean that Samsung is hoping to return to a camera quality race with Apple and Google, a race that Samsung has yet to definitely win. Roh promised an “epic new year” and specifically mentioned the use of AI to improve image quality. Computational photography is precisely where Samsung has traditionally lagged a bit behind its competitors.
He hinted that he would also start doing 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 his family’s pet.”
It’s a lot of teasing for Samsung’s January event, which we currently expect to happen on the 14th. That’s when we’ll see the Galaxy S21 announced and perhaps a bit more, an earlier than usual start to a new year of phones.
