Samsung has made us grow accustomed to the launches of its flagship Galaxy S smartphones in February at the MWC Barcelona, followed by a new Galaxy Note phablet every September, at IFA Berlin. Now, according to sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal, the South Korean electronics giant is going to trash that timetable in a strategic timing switch, to better combat its fiercest competitor Apple.
The next Samsung Galaxy Note model will be launched in mid-August a "person familiar with the matter," toldthe WSJ today. This move will break a tradition spanning back to 2011 when the first ground breaking, hand and pocket stretching, Galaxy Note was launched at that year's IFA Berlin tradeshow and began the 'phablet' trend.
According to some industry observers Apple took the wind out of Samsung's sails (and sales) last year by introducing its oversized iPhone 6 Plus model a mere six days after Samsung's Galaxy Note 4 IFA debut. Apple's large 5.5-inch screened smartphone arrived in 2015 after years of single hand operation friendly design obstinacy. In the background most other smartphone making companies had started to offer 'Note'-like smartphone sizes months/years previously.
There's a question about where Samsung will choose to stage its Galaxy Note 5 launch if it is to do so weeks before IFA Berlin. On this matter the WSJ source said that Samsung will hold a launch event in an as-yet-undecided major US city.
Earlier in the week we saw Samsung trim its outlook due to tepid demand for its Galaxy S6 and misjudging the clamour for its pricier S6 Edge model. It will really want to capitalise on the popularity of the Galaxy Note range to help inject some energy back into its activities.
If you want to be tickled by specification rumours concerning the upcoming Galaxy Note 5, and a new Galaxy S6 edge Plus smartphone, SamMobile published an 'exclusive' a couple of days ago touting various high end specs. It said that both the devices would feature a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. Interestingly the Note 5 is expected to be the first smartphone to employ Samsung's first true all-in-one solution combining a 64-bit octa-core CPU, the GPU, RAM, storage, homegrown LTE modem in a single package. This package is known, in short, as the Exynos 7422 SoC.