Samsung’s Next Galaxy Device – Final Rumour Roundup and Our Thoughts

Well the day is almost here, in a little over 24 hours, Samsung will unveil to the world their Next Galaxy device, a device which has had as much hype, if not more then the anticipated new iPhone said to be coming out later this year. We thought we’d breakdown the rumours up till now as well our thoughts on them so fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride!

Processor and RAM

We should have really done a separate post for this one, but Samsung got a bit too excited about the Next Galaxy device and let slip the detail that it will be the first device to have their new Quad core Exynos chip, with a clock speed of 1.4 GHZ. This chip, according to Samsung provides double the processing power of its predecessor as well as 20 per cent less power consumption, making it more efficient. In regards to RAM, 1 GB of onboard is claimed, atleast from TinhTe’s video.

Display

Samsung’s always been known for high quality AMOLED displays since the first Galaxy S smartphone and so the Next Galaxy device should be no exception. We reported in February of a 4.8 inch display and this may prove to be true if a recent screen protector leak is anything to go by.  As far as resolution goes, people including myself thought that since Samsung made the retina display for the new iPad, they could surely outdo themselves and be the first to bring to market a full 1080p display, however this does seem fairly unlikely judging from recent rumours, and instead a 720p display is expected. We’ll have to wait and see when 1080p displays do become mainstream but it might be quite a wait.

Camera

Now this one’s a bit of a doozy. Samsung’s previous Galaxy device, the Galaxy S II has a 2.0 Mega Pixel front facing camera and 8.0 Mega Pixel back camera, with auto focus and an LED flash, capable of recording 1080p footage at 30fps. Recent leaks suggest that a 12.0 Mega pixel camera is more likely but when an alleged manual for the next galaxy leaked, it revealed an 8.0 Mega pixel back camera. Now if Samsung goes with the 8.0 mega pixel, to the average consumer, that would seem as no change in the camera even if they upgrade the sensor, because to average consumers, numbers are everything, the higher the better. 12.0 megapixels could be the next leap in mobile camera technology since Sony’s recent Xperia S smartphone has that camera, and if Samsung does go with it then one would expect the same mega pixel camera to be in the next iPhone too, whenever Apple decide to *cough* release that.

Software

Touchwiz, it’s not for everyone is it? Well there were rumours a while back suggesting the Next Galaxy will come in two flavours, one with TouchWiz, one without Touchwiz. Since then some rumours are saying Samsung may have an option within the operating system to turn the UI on and off. This does seem quite unlikely in actual fact because if people wanted a stock Ice Cream Sandwich experience, Samsung would happily recommend the Galaxy Nexus, so they will probably keep TouchWiz in the next galaxy, but it would be good for Samsung to give consumers the choice because isn’t Android all about customization? Apart from the user interface, it’s expected to launch with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Google’s Android operating system.

Casing, Colours and buttons

Whoah nelly! Most people would agree in saying that Samsung smartphones, despite being premium for their specs feel cheap in the hand due to the plastic material. The initial rumour about the casing suggested a ceramic back and metal around the sides, this would certainly give it a more premium feel like HTC devices. Colours is an interesting one, the press invite suggested white and blue offerings and a recent Carphone Warehouse Inventory Scan found by GSMArena does suggest this could well happen. It’s most likely going to have touch sensitive buttons because that’s been the trend with recent Ice Cream Sandwich devices, but some people reckon Samsung will stay true to the physical home button, but the back button and menu buttons will be touch sensitive, identical to the Galaxy S II button style, but what about the multitasking touch sensitive button then? Hmm..

Storage and Battery

Samsung’s always been generous with internal storage in their devices, so one could expect 16GB/32GB models available and the ability to expand that with a micro SD card up to 32 GB. However if Samsung just released a 32 GB model, they might scrap the micro SD card slot altogether, like what they did with the Galaxy Nexus. Battery life is important to the end user and rumours are suggesting we could see a 2050 mAH battery.

Summary

Processor and Ram

• Exynos Quad Core Processor @ 1.4 Ghz – Confirmed!
• 1 GB RAM – Unconfirmed

Display – 4.8 inches 720p Super Amoled HD Plus – Unconfirmed, but highly likely

Camera – 2 Mega Pixel front facing, 12 Mega Pixel Back Camera – Unconfirmed

Software

• Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich – Pretty much confirmed
• TouchWiz 4.0 User Interface – Pretty much confirmed (could be toggled on and off though)

Casing and Buttons

• Ceramic back with metal around the sides – Unconfirmed
• Touch sensitive back, menu buttons but physical home button – Unconfirmed

Storage and Battery

• 16/32 GB Internal Storage – Unconfirmed
• micro SD card to expand storage – Unconfirmed
• 2050 mAH battery – Unconfirmed

Final Thoughts

We are really excited for this device and it’s great to see that Samsung has outed the internet leaked images and renders of the device as being fake, because I for one, really don’t want the final design to be revealed till the event and it looks like it won’t. As you can see from the summary above, Samsung has kept pretty much all details about the next galaxy under wraps, apart from the Exynos Quad core chip but they must have revealed this only to build up hype.

How to Tune In To The Stream

We won’t be at The Next Galaxy event tomorrow but the event will be livestreamed at SamsungMobileUK’s official Facebook Page or for you Android users out there, download the Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012 Android app to get the livestream sent directly to your handset.

We will also be doing a VOKLE live show during the stream starting at 6:30 PM GMT so feel free to join that for up to date information as well as hearing our thoughts as the news come on. Check back with us after the event for our reactions.

So what do you guys think of these rumours? What are you most looking forward to?

Written by Purav, PDTechHD (My personal account is PDTalkinTech)