Samsung to Unveil New Smartphones at Galaxy Unpacked Event on January 14

[MacRumors]

Samsung has sent out media invites to its Galaxy Unpacked event on Thursday, January 14, when the company is expected to officially announce its new Galaxy S21 lineup.

Samsung is expected to unveil three new smartphones at the event: The Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra. The successors to last year's Galaxy S20 series will come in familiar 6.2 to 6.8-inch size options, with the S21 and S21 Plus said to be similar except for size, and the S21 Ultra offering a more premium device featuring better specs and cameras, and support for Samsung's S-Pen stylus.

According to rumors, the S21 and 21 Plus have a flat display with a centered hole-punch camera and minimal front bezels, while the rear camera is a triple camera setup arranged vertically, consisting of a 12MP main sensor, a 12MP ultra wide, and a 64MP telephoto lens.

Meanwhile, the S21 Ultra has a larger curved screen and a quad-lens camera system featuring a single periscope lens with 10MP 10x super-telephoto zoom, alongside a 108MP main sensor, a 12MP ultra wide, and a 10MP 3x telephoto camera. It also has a laser autofocus system that replaces the time-of-flight sensor found in the S20 Ultra.

Image credit: WinFuture​

Samsung is rumored to use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 and Exynos 2100 chips in its new smartphones depending on the region. Like their predecessors, all the devices will offer 120Hz and 60Hz refresh rates as well as 5G connectivity.

When it became clear that the iPhone 12 lineup and other iPhone models wouldn't ship with a power adapter and headphones, Samsung mocked Apple on its social channels by pointing out that the Samsung Galaxy smartphones continue to ship with a power adapter. However, recent reports have said that Samsung may also remove the power adapter and headphones from its smartphones beginning with the Galaxy S21 lineup.

Samsung's iPhone 12 rivals are expected to come in at a cheaper price point than last year's S20 family – WinFuture cites prices of 849 euros (about $1,043 USD) for the S21 and 1,049 euros (about $1,290 USD) for the S21 Plus. The phones should be available to buy a couple of weeks after the Samsung Unpacked event.

We'll have coverage of the event as it is interesting to take a look at what new features Apple's competitors are unveiling to compete with the iPhone.

Article Link: Samsung to Unveil New Smartphones at Galaxy Unpacked Event on January 14

 

[alpi123]

They could also potentially reveal their Smart Tags (AirTags competitor) since those got leaked just a few days ago.

 

[haruhiko]

Will there be any charger included in the box?

 

[44267547]

The Galaxy line has some decent hardware specs’, that’s for sure. And they’ve got some nice advantages over the iPhone, but I just can’t convert over to android. Unless they can match Apples security and fluidity with continued software updates, there is a reason the iPhone has such a strong-hold when it’s more about the software integration to the user experience, then it is about the hardware.

 

[haruhiko]

They could also potentially reveal their Smart Tags (AirTags competitor) since those got leaked just a few days ago.

You cannot be a competitor of a non-existent product.

The Galaxy line has some decent hardware specs’, that’s for sure. And they’ve got some nice advantages over the iPhone, but I just can’t convert over to android. Unless they can match Apples security and fluidity with continued software updates, there is a reason the iPhone has such a strong-hold when it’s more about the software integration to the user experience, then it is about the hardware.

Hardware-wise I don't think any SoC in the Android world has similar performance than the A14.

 

[44267547]

Will there be any charger included in the box?

I mean, sensibly we will know once the product actually launches, amirite? [I get your punchline here, with the iPhone not including the charger, but Samsung also will probably follow suit with the charger not included at some point.]

 

[goobot]

Is it me or does this event keep happening earlier every year?

 

[44267547]

Hardware-wise I don't think any SoC in the Android world has similar performance than the A14.

Does that translate anything for the average consumer? I don’t think it does. Like I said, you can throw out some of the most advanced technology these phones have, the loyalty lies to the software integration, not the hardware. It’s been that way for years now.

 

[44267547]

Is it me or does this event keep happening earlier every year?

Technically, it’s usually in February. But with no ‘live events’ for masses, there’s no sense holding back these events if all the course material is ready, Now they can just stream everything and push the marketing sooner.

 

[djcerla]

Does that translate anything for the average consumer? I don’t think it does. Like I said, you can throw out some of the most advanced technology these phones have, the loyalty lies to the software integration, not the hardware. It’s been that way for years now.

A phone like the Mini is made possible by its chip. There’s no Android equivalent and no way to build it.

 

[Jony Ive and Co.]

Samsung's S lineup design peaked with the S8, but the Note continues to look nice up to Note 20. I'll say S9 and later (just the S lineup) simply look horrendous

 

[haruhiko]

Does that translate anything for the average consumer? I don’t think it does. Like I said, you can throw out some of the most advanced technology these phones have, the loyalty lies to the software integration, not the hardware. It’s been that way for years now.

Real time photo and video processing, to name the most obvious one.
Apple's M1 Macs tell us that hardware advancement can really translate into real world benefits for the average consumer.
Anyway I'm not starting any argument here. Just enjoy what you like.
Cheers.

 

[rp2011]

Apple needs Samsung to be healthy. Apple’s consumers and stockholders need Samsung and competition to be healthy. Samsung makes good products. Without healthy competition we get innovative stagnation and even worse, complacency. We also get government intervention.
So here is to Samsung and Android and Google and Microsoft and Intel and AMD and Qualcomm and everyone having a great year this year!

 

[Serban55]

You cannot be a competitor of a non-existent product.



Hardware-wise I don't think any SoC in the Android world has similar performance than the A14.

Nothing does compare with Apple SoC, M1 is around top there arm, second just to the Japans' Fugaku arm brain cpu

 

[haruhiko]

Apple needs Samsung to be healthy. Apple’s consumers and stockholders need Samsung and competition to be healthy. Samsung makes good products. Without healthy competition we get innovative stagnation and even worse, complacency. We also get government intervention.
So here is to Samsung and Android and Google and Microsoft and Intel and AMD and Qualcomm and everyone having a great year this year!

Apple users also need the data from Android users. We should be grateful that there are so many Android users out there to make services like Google Maps and others so accurate.

 

[Pangalactic]

The Galaxy line has some decent hardware specs’, that’s for sure. And they’ve got some nice advantages over the iPhone, but I just can’t convert over to android. Unless they can match Apples security and fluidity with continued software updates, there is a reason the iPhone has such a strong-hold when it’s more about the software integration to the user experience, then it is about the hardware.

I guess someone hasn't used a good android phone for a while. The software updates on my Galaxy roll out pretty much as often as on the iPhone, perhaps even more. As for the security, I would say Apple is definitely ahead but not that much. You get all the stop/allow tracking options on Android, and you can get a lot more monitoring software to see what is happening with your data

 

[44267547]

The software updates on my Galaxy roll out pretty much as often as on the iPhone

It’s not the consistency in which the updates ‘roll out’, it’s the longevity. Three years v.s. five years on the iPhone? I’d say the iPhone is more dominant in that respect. That’s why the iPhones perform so well, and look at the iPhone 7 for example compared to a Samsung Galaxy on the same year, which phone do you think peforms better?

 

[sw1tcher]

The Galaxy line has some decent hardware specs’, that’s for sure. And they’ve got some nice advantages over the iPhone, but I just can’t convert over to android. Unless they can match Apples security and fluidity with continued software updates, there is a reason the iPhone has such a strong-hold when it’s more about the software integration to the user experience, then it is about the hardware.

They (Google and Qualcomm) are trying

Google and Qualcomm are working together for faster Android updates

Starting with the Snapdragon 888

www.theverge.com

 

[waquzy]

Will there be any charger included in the box?

No. After all, Samsung’s motto is: “First we mock and then we copy!”

 

[LFC2020]

Another snooze fest with more gimmicks coming up.

Good looking hardware let down by crap software and gimmicks.

 

[d5aqoëp]

Is it me or does this event keep happening earlier every year?

There will be a time when Galaxy S26 will be launched the same day as S25. Then Galaxy S31 will be launched before S30.

 

[Kabeyun]

A 108 megapixel main sensor. Good lord. And the spec war continues.

 

[Liquid Galaxy]

The Galaxy line has some decent hardware specs’, that’s for sure. And they’ve got some nice advantages over the iPhone, but I just can’t convert over to android. Unless they can match Apples security and fluidity with continued software updates, there is a reason the iPhone has such a strong-hold when it’s more about the software integration to the user experience, then it is about the hardware.

And lets not forget the very poor Google Play store; thats always been my biggest bugbear. All the iOS apps I currently use run worse, or don't have the added features and functionalities of their iOS equivalents. It's gotten better for sure, but it was still pretty terrible when I trialled the S20 when it first launched.

 

[rp2011]

Those rumored prices seem way too high for the specs. I know that Samsung has midrange phones also, but the S20 line didn’t have a great year, and this sounds like they will have an even worse year. I don‘t get it. It’s like they are ceding the market to Apple at the high end, and Chinese brands for everything else. And their silly folding phones flopped.
Hopefully Samsung has secret plan, but things do not look good for their phone lines.

 

[The Game 161]

I guess someone hasn't used a good android phone for a while. The software updates on my Galaxy roll out pretty much as often as on the iPhone, perhaps even more. As for the security, I would say Apple is definitely ahead but not that much. You get all the stop/allow tracking options on Android, and you can get a lot more monitoring software to see what is happening with your data

Security updates they do but OS updates not so much. android 11 has been out a number of months and still no sign of it arriving on all samsung phones. one UI 3.0 has been rumoured for months and it's still not out and if it's out it's only out on certain devices thats the difference really.

the difference from S20 ultra to S21 ultra is basically cameras as it's hard to improve much year on year certainly for a phone that has all the features already it's hard to see how they be justified to most people.

10x optical zoom will be great though