Samsung promotes a phone with no name

An invitation to Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S event next month. [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

Samsung Electronics will be announcing a new Galaxy S series phone on Feb. 11, and that’s all the company is saying. It is not even giving the new product a name yet, leading to educated guesses that it will be the S11, since the last was the S10, or even the S20.

Local press is abuzz about the Unpacked event, which will be held in San Francisco, saying that details about the new Galaxy S will be revealed and that the new foldable will be featured. But the company wouldn’t deign to comment.

“The only thing we can say is that the new Galaxy S model will be released that day,” a spokesperson at Samsung Electronics said.

“About further details of the phone or which product will be jointly released, we can’t tell anything,” the spokesperson said.

This has led to a flurry of tea leaf reading. In the word “Galaxy” in the invitation, the two As are stylized as shapes, one a rectangle and the other a box. Soothsayers say that this might mean two phones will be introduced.

It is normal for companies to keep quiet until the release, but this time around, even the name is unspoken.

If things go as per usual, the phone will be the S11. But the leapfrogging theory has gained traction as an S20 would make sense in 2020.

History suggests the gimmick.

In 2016, the smartphone maker took the unconventional approach when it released the Galaxy Note 7. The number should have ticked up to 6, but Samsung Electronics pulled a fast one and went straight to 7, apparently to get the numbers matching between the note and the Galaxy S.

As for the specs, multiple media outlets have reported that Samsung will use the powerful Snapdragon 865 processor. A 108-megapixel main camera sensor with 5x zoom has also been mentioned in the press.

Local media outlets said that Samsung is coordinating the event with the three mobile carriers for the yet-to-be-named “clam shell” smartphone by February.

The clam-shell-type phone folds vertically while the Galaxy Fold folds around a horizontal axis.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]