Samsung executive says two new high-end handsets coming soon

[Shawn Knight]

Samsung on Thursday looked to offer customers and shareholders a bit of reassurance by announcing intentions to launch two new high-end smartphones within the next six months. The news comes as Samsung's reported a quarterly drop in profit compared to the year-ago period, the first time that's happened in three years.

During an earnings call, senior vice president of Samsung's mobile-communications business Kim Kyun-Joon told investors that one of the handsets will feature a large screen while the other will be constructed of "new materials." The executive didn't go into any details on either of the phones although it's pretty clear which large screen phone and what building materials he is referring to.

The large screen smartphone in question is almost without a doubt the Galaxy Note 4, a handset rumored to include a 5.7-inch display operating at 1,440 x 2,560 and powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chip clocked at 2.7GHz. Most expect Samsung to debut the Note 4 at an Unpacked Event just ahead of the annual IFA trade show in Berlin come early September.

Both end-users and those in tech media circles have been calling for Samsung to ditch the plastic materials used to construct their smartphones for a premium building material like aluminum. It's a move that has paid dividends for companies like Apple and HTC and if speculation proves accurate, we may see Samsung do just that in the near future.

Rumors suggest this aluminum handset could arrive in the form of the Galaxy Alpha as early as this coming Monday. Initial chatter suggested this phone would be a high-end device that would upstage the recently launched Galaxy S5 but more recent rumblings indicate we could be looking at a mid-range device with a 720p display.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/57595-samsung-executive-says-two-new-high-end-handsets-coming-soon.html

 

[p51d007]

These high end devices...with their high end PRICES are over hyped. I use to play into the high end specs too, but think I've figured it out after buying a Huawei Ascend Mate2. It's FAST, the screen is clear as a bell, sound is very loud, and that battery WON'T run down. Doesn't have 2k screen, doesn't have 4.4kk, doesn't have 3gb ram, but it DOES have an attractive price of less than 300 dollars! It hasn't glitched once, no lag or stutter. This obsession with having the fastest processor is marketing gone wild. 3/4 of the people that buy the top end devices, will never use 75% of the power of the device, but will get one, because, well, it must be the best because it is a "iphone6" and 6 has to be better than 5.

 

[Trillionsin]

This obsession with having the fastest processor is marketing gone wild. 3/4 of the people that buy the top end devices, will never use 75% of the power of the device, but will get one, because, well, it must be the best because it is a "iphone6" and 6 has to be better than 5.

Yes yes... some of us do, however. I'm not saying me specifically, though, I think I get pretty close because I cause the Note 3 to lag on me at times because of what I'm using it to do. We dont just use these as phones anymore. We use them as toys, maps, video recording/even editing, streaming music and all sorts of other forms of entertainment.

Each generation isnt just faster, they add in new features, now we use them as personal health instructors (I'm not giving this any credibility though, yet.) and records your steps, next step they can detect the UV rays to help analyze... well, whatever you could do with that. Maybe you work with plants, or on a beach. lol Faster processors are required to keep up with more features, more things running, multi-tasking, and what-have-yous.

Yes, usually the next generation devices are faster, but it's not the only reason people purchase them.

You may see a phone as a phone, in which case, you could buy one for less than 30 bucks, no doubt $300. Well, if this seems really thought-out I assure you I just came up with it in a matter of minutes and didnt check for typos and grammatical errors.

 

[bexwhitt]

Samsung only do plasticy not high end.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

These high end devices...with their high end PRICES are over hyped. I use to play into the high end specs too, but think I've figured it out after buying a Huawei Ascend Mate2. It's FAST, the screen is clear as a bell, sound is very loud, and that battery WON'T run down. Doesn't have 2k screen, doesn't have 4.4kk, doesn't have 3gb ram, but it DOES have an attractive price of less than 300 dollars! It hasn't glitched once, no lag or stutter. This obsession with having the fastest processor is marketing gone wild. 3/4 of the people that buy the top end devices, will never use 75% of the power of the device, but will get one, because, well, it must be the best because it is a "iphone6" and 6 has to be better than 5.

Yes and no... first off, Samsung needs the latest hardware because I've read in reviews that the only way to get an 801 Snapdragon to lag is to throw TouchWiz over the top of it. In general though, faster processors (and faster networks even) cause tasks to be done with less power and more quickly which results in better battery life. Look at the HTC M7 and M8. Not much hardware upgrade, but the faster processor (Snapdragon 600 vs 801) means much better battery life. The faster processor (Faster than the S4 or M7) is also why the LG G2 owned the battery life benchmarks last year.

Better hardware also improves things we'd all like improved in a smartphone like shutter lag in the camera. The LG G3 and HTC M8 are both supposedly very fast at focusing and saving pictures.

What I think is funny is how Samsung is obsoleting their flagship phones by releasing new ones so quickly. Remember the heat Apple used to get for that?

 

[Guest]

What I think is funny is how Samsung is obsoleting their flagship phones by releasing new ones so quickly. Remember the heat Apple used to get for that?

When a company like Apple decides to release more options in screen size (much like Samsung and other Android manufacturers do), you have to do another release to stay relevant and in the game. I'm sure they were probably going to wait until they figured out that Apple was releasing the larger iPhone 6 for the Christmas season.

In any case, this isn't about making an old phone obsolete. This is about Samsung trying to lose as little market share as possible, essentially castling while they have to opportunity.