After months of leaks and rumors, the tech world had reached something of a collective agreement that Samsung would abandon the “Note” moniker for its supersized power user flagship and move everything over to Galaxy S line. The company didn’t release a Galaxy Note in 2021, and a report out of South Korea claimed Samsung was more focused on foldables than its phablet-sized handsets. We shrugged our shoulders at the rumored death of the OG of large phones, arguing that the Note just doesn’t have a place on the team anymore.
But now a roster slot seems to have reopened because a South Korean leaker who goes by Tron said last week that Samsung could launch a Galaxy Note 22 alongside the Galaxy S22 series in the first quarter of next year. Moreover, a Chinese variant of the phone appears to have been spotted on Samsung’s official website under the model SM-S908U, and another leaker called Snoopy says production is in “full swing.”
In short, the Note may not be dead, and the next version of it, the Galaxy S22 Note, could be just months away. Further details about the device have proved elusive. It was widely reported to have appeared with the same SM-S908U model number in a Geekbench benchmark running on a Snapdragon 8 Gen SoC (ICYMI, Qualcomm’s next flagship chip has a new name). However, the listing said the device had 8GB of RAM, not the 12GB or 16GB expected, and the sub-par scores suggest the results may be fake.
Samsung is said to have started producing parts for the phones in October and should be ready to kick into production in December for what will likely be a February 2022 reveal. Leaker Snoopy says Samsung is also working on the Galaxy Tab S8, the company’s next flagship Android tablet.
When they arrive, we’re expecting the usual trio of devices: a standard Galaxy S22, a Galaxy S22 Plus, and a Galaxy S22 Note/Ultra. Whatever it’s called, the S22 Note/Ultra is rumored to include a stylus slot for the S Pen. Yes, this year’s S21 Ultra supported Samsung’s Pen, but only as an optional accessory without a slot to store it in.
It’ll be interesting to see what other changes Samsung makes to the Note to differentiate it from the other large devices. Perhaps tacking “Note” onto the end of a product name is Samsung’s way of indicating that its beloved phablets are no longer unique enough to have their own space. At the same time, Samsung can appeal to longtime Note fans by offering them a powerful, large productivity machine. Maybe it doesn’t matter what the thing is called.
I just beg you, Samsung, try not to follow your instincts and go muddying your product lines any further by doing something silly like calling it the Galaxy S22 Ultra Note.