- Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Photo: Samsung
The unfolding legal drama between Samsung and Apple does have its upsides, like the fact that both companies have been forced to unveil things they rather wouldn’t, such as details on their internal design process or, in the case of Samsung, information on future products. Some of these future Samsung devices have been leaked to the press, including two Windows 8 smartphones, as well as a tablet with a retina quality display.
Samsung vs Apple legal war continues
The multi-year legal battle between Apple and Samsung is nearing a crescendo in California, where a trial is underway to determine whether Samsung in fact slavishly copied Apple’s products, including its iPhone and iPad, as Apple have claimed. Previous court battles between the two tech heavyweights have usually only resulted in temporary injunctions, but this one has a lot more riding on it.
Billions on the line
Apple is seeking billions in damages and, moreover, if the Cupertino company were to be victorious, it would likely have repercussions worldwide, as well as against other Android manufacturers. Unsurprisingly, Samsung is doing every single thing it can to ward off Apple’s attacks, including going as far as accusing Apple of copying Sony when it made the first iPhone. Opening arguments for the trial began today and it’ll be awhile before we know the verdict, but in the mean time the Verge has gotten its hand on court documents which reveal some of Samsung’s upcoming products.
Samsung Windows Phone 8 models unveiled
Samsung is best known for its Android smartphones, like the Galaxy S3, which have made the Korean company the world’s biggest smartphone maker. However, Samsung did produce a few Windows Phone models, such as the Omnia 7 and Omnia W, so it should come as no surprise that the tech giant is also planning a few Windows Phone 8 smartphones too. Now, thanks to the leaked court documents, we know a bit more about the two W8 handsets in question, which are named the Odyssey and Marco respectively.
High-end Odyssey phone details
The Samsung Odyssey is the larger and more advanced of the two Samsung Windows 8 phones. It features a large 4.65 inch AMOLED HD display, on top of a 8MP rear facing camera and 2MP front facing one. The Odyssey boasts a dual-core 1.5GHz MSM8960 processor, aka the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, which, although only a dual-core CPU, has performed quite favourably in benchmarks. The Odyssey’s remaining elite specs include NFC, as well as LTE.
Expected in Q4
The Samsung Marco, meanwhile, offers the same Snapdragon CPU, but with a smaller, less detailed 4 inch screen, only a 5 megapixel camera and no NFC. Both phones have an expected fourth quarter launch date, which is around the same time that Windows 8 is expected. Of course, on the hardware side of things, there isn’t much here to differentiate these WP smartphones from Samsung’s own Galaxy Android phones, or a possible iPhone 5 competitor.
Retina display tablet uncovered
Besides details on upcoming WP handsets, the press (in this case The Verge) also got its hands on internal documents which suggested that Samsung is planning a retina display tablet of its own. The Samsung tablet in question, codenamed P10, would actually include a larger than average 11.8 inch screen with a 2560 x 1600 resolution. Although the resolution might seem better than the new iPad, due to its larger screen size, the Samsung tablet would actually sport a slightly lower 256ppi pixel density.
Could threaten iPad
The leaked slide also indicates that the Samsung P10 will offer LTE connectivity and that it will launch in 2012. We can assume the slides are authentic too, especially since BGR reported on a similar Samsung tablet, back in late 2011. Right now, no rival can come close to touching the resolution offered by Apple’s new retina display iPad 3. However, if Samsung does release the P10, then Apple would no longer hold such an obvious hardware advantage. Of course, the P10 still isn’t guaranteed success against the iPad (it’s much larger and we have no idea how it compares price-wise), but it could certainly threaten the Apple tablet.
Samsung a serious rival to Apple
Samsung is slowly emerging as the world’s largest mobile device maker behind Apple. In some ways, such as overall smartphone sales, the Korean company has already surpassed its Californian nemesis and it’s also by far the world’s largest Android phone maker. As we see from the company’s leaked product map though, it’s not content to only do well in Android smartphones; Samsung also wants to sell Windows Phone models (likely on Microsoft’s behest) and to break into the tablet market more. It will be interesting to see what kind of success these upcoming models have, but one thing is more than certain at this point: Samsung’s retina display tablet will no doubt invite legal action from Apple if and when it launches.