It’s almost that time again, though it’s happening a little early this year. Samsung has set the date for Unpacked 2019, their annual event where we get our first proper look at the year’s flagship phones, officially. 20 February marks the reveal of the Galaxy S10 and, perhaps, Samsung’s first folding smartphone.
The event takes place at 11:00 Pacific Time (PT) in the States, which works out to 21:00 South African Standard Time (SAST) — also on 20 February, in case time zones make you do mental cartwheels. The venue? The Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. What’s strange about the event this year is that Samsung’s opted to do it before Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019. Typically Samsung picks a March date for these events, after MWC finishes. It looks as though this year they’re hoping to steal some of the attention that focuses on Barcelona.
Samsung always takes the wraps off their headline devices for the year at Unpacked, so the appearance of the Galaxy S10 is a bit of a no-brainer. Since it’s the tenth Galaxy S handset — the invite could be more blatant about that but not much — the event (and hopefully the device) should be something special. Three versions of the phone, including one with 5G, are expected to turn up for the party.
What we might also see, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a “… a fully functional foldable-screen handset”, a closer-to-final version of their Galaxy F (or whatever it winds up being called). Samsung might also hold something in reserve, however, as Mobile World Congress kicks off from 25 February. Usually their phone reveal is their attention-getter around the event — Samsung must have something different in mind for 2019.
