Samsung devices slated for launches in 2013 have started showing up in system logs and could give us a general idea of what the South Korean electronics manufacturer has in store for the new year. The latest device sightings could be the Galaxy S4 and a flexible Samsung smartphone.
Website SamMobile states that the GT-I9505, which is believed to be the Galaxy S4, shows up in the first firmware for the NFC-enabled Galaxy S3 Mini. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is model GT-I9300, and since the number 4 is bad luck in Korea, it's believed that the GT-I9500 series refers to the Galaxy S4 and its variants.
The Galaxy S4 is believed to launch with a 5-inch 1080p HD display, an Exynos quad-core processor, a 13-megapixel camera, and the latest version of Android upon its release.
The GT-I9500 series could also be Samsung's recently announced Tizen smartphone. Tizen is another open source mobile operating system that some companies such as Samsung are interested in promoting to curb Google's dominance on open source smartphone platforms.
SamMobile also spotted a mysterious GT-Q1000 device in the Galaxy S3 Mini firmware logs which the website states could be the marker of a new "Q" line of handsets that includes flexible smartphones. Flexible smartphones are believed to begin launching in 2013, with Samsung leading the way. Samsung has already showed off numerous flexible displays for mobile devices, and is expected to show off more at CES 2013.
Whatever it is, Samsung should be revealing its next flagship smartphone in the coming months. More likely than not, Samsung will be shooting for a pre-summer release similar to the Galaxy S3's in 2012.
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
