The Galaxy SII...S?
Andrew Hoyle at Cnet’s Crave UK blog has indications from a “source in the UK telecoms industry” that the successor to the Galaxy SII will only be a minor update, “like the iPhone 4s was to the 4.” Though the source wished to remain anonymous, the news has spread throughout the blogosphere, no doubt due to Cnet’s reputation as a leading source of tech news. The source also believes that the phone will not be called the Galaxy SIII. Interestingly, Natasha Lomas, also from Cnet, quoted a Samsung vice president as saying that the Galaxy Note is considered the successor to the Galaxy SII. It is unclear what name Samsung would choose for its new device, which allegedly goes by the internal name “Bali.”
What Other Features Are Planned?
Cnet’s anonymous source believes that eye-tracking will be included with the new handset, a feature by which the front-facing camera tracks eye movement and can automatically lock the screen when your eyes move away from the display. For obvious reasons, this could actually become a very annoying feature, but if the hardware supports eye tracking, I’m sure the ingenious developers that grace our forums can come up with a myriad of other uses for this technology. Additionally, an article on PhoneArena claims that Samsung might use phosphorescent green for the pixels on its AMOLED displays going forward, which will reportedly reduce battery consumption significantly. Judging by the popularity of inverted gapps and blacked-out themes in the Samsung forums here at Rootzwiki, this would be a welcome feature.
How Reliable Are These Tips?
Since no indication was given of any change to the specs previously leaked, I personally find it hard to believe this rumor that the “Next Galaxy” will only be an incremental upgrade. It will still allegedly have a quad-core 1.5 Ghz processor and a 4.6-4.8” Super AMOLED HD Plus display, and these specs alone make the highly anticipated handset more than an evolutionary update. The "evolutionary" label may simply refer to the chassis as not being the revolutionary redesign that the fan renders have made it, but might more closely resemble the SGSII in outward apperance, if not in hardware specs. Of course, the iPhone 4S has a dual-core processor compared to the single-core iPhone 4, an improved camera and a graphics chip upgrade, but no other significant features were added save for Siri (iOS 5, which launched with the iPhone 4S, can also run on the iPhone 4 and the 3GS).
I myself would file this tip right alongside last year’s “Nexus Prime” User Agent Profile leak that the phone that eventually hit the market as the Galaxy Nexus would only have a WVGA screen. That leak reportedly came straight from an insider at Samsung, so my guess is that was a controlled leak by the company, and I suspect that this “evolutionary update” leak is something similarly misleading. As for tips regarding eye tracking and phosphorescent green pixels (which would apparently appear white to the eye) to save battery consumption, these features may indeed find their way to the “Next Galaxy,” but they’re probably not as reliable as the processor and display spec leaks. We will, of course, continue to update you on the latest news regarding the highly anticipated successor to the Galaxy SII as it comes out.
