Samsung has been launching a premium flip phone every year exclusively for the Chinese market. The first one, Samsung W2017, was launched in November 2016 with a Snapdragon 820 SoC. The second phone in the W series, W2018, was unveiled in December 2017 and was powered by a Snapdragon 835 chipset. Following the pattern, Samsung is expected to launch the W2019 in November-December this year with a Snapdragon 845 SoC on board.
There is, however, more than a ‘release pattern’ hinting at the launch of the Samsung W2019 in China. A Chinese leaker stated in July that Samsung is developing the W2019 flip phone under the project name ‘Lykan’ and that it will sport a dual-camera setup. Adding to it, last week, we reported exclusively that Samsung is testing the W2019 with firmware version W2019ZCU0ARI1.
Samsung W2019 launch in December?
Today, XDA Developers have come out with another piece of information about the W2019. They looked into the kernel source code of the Galaxy S9's Snapdragon variant and found references to the ‘lykan’ code name. They came across two files in their investigation – sdm845-sec-lykanlte-chn-r00.dtb and sdm845-sec-lykanlte-chn-r01.dtb – which point to a ‘lykan’ device headed for China with a Snapdragon 845 chipset onboard.
That is all the information we have about the Samsung W2019 as of now. If Samsung sticks to the release schedule, the device may be unveiled in a couple of months from now. Since the Korean company’s market share has dropped below 1% in China in the recent quarters, we wonder if Samsung will expand the availability of the W2019 flip phone beyond China.
