Samsung’s next Android flagship could be closer than you think. Android Authority has heard from a Samsung store in India that the Galaxy S21 series will be launching globally on January 14th. It will then hit store shelves on January 29th, according to employees that work at the retail space in Bengaluru. These dates match the ones that Android Police reported earlier this week. If accurate, these timings would suggest a strategic shift by Samsung. The company typically announces its Galaxy S phones at an Unpacked event in February, before or during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. That trade show has moved to June, however, so it’s possible that Samsung is targeting CES (January 11-14th) instead.
According to Android Authority, the Samsung store in Bengaluru has already launched a pre-ordering system for the Galaxy S21 series, which includes an S21 Plus and S21 Ultra model. Customers can grab a place in line with a Rs 2,000 ($27) deposit, and then decide post-reveal which model they would like. The actual device prices are yet to be revealed.
The standard S21 will be available in grey, pink, purple and white, according to Android Authority, while the S21 Ultra will ship in pink, purple, silver and black. The even-higher-end S21 Ultra, meanwhile, will reportedly come in black and silver. All three handsets will reportedly use a Samsung-made Exynos 2100 processor, rather than a Snapdragon chipset. That contradicts earlier leaks that suggested Samsung would use the unannounced but expected Snapdragon 875 in at least some markets.
Android Authority used the store representatives to confirm that the S21 Ultra will have a 108-megapixel primary camera and two secondary 10-megapixel sensors. One of the latter will have a 10x optical zoom, the outlet reports, which lines up with a previous leak from Android Police.
If you want to know what the S21 lineup looks like, just check out the various renders and teasers that are floating around the web at the moment.
Author: Nick Summers, @nisummers
Source: Engadget
