Samsung's New Android Flip Phone Rumored To Arrive With Snapdragon 835, 6GB RAM

Samsung might be more well-known for its Galaxy series smartphones, but the company is also building a new high-end Android flip phone. A new rumor has surfaced claiming that Samsung’s upcoming flip phone will be powered by a Snapdragon 835 processor and will have 6GB of RAM.

The new high-end Android flip phone is said to be the successor to last year’s Samsung W2017. The alleged W2018 model was first spotted back in May from the Chinese telecommunications equipment certification agency, TENAA. At the time, the device was listed as having a Snapdragon 821 processor and 4GB of RAM.

But now, a Chinese leaker on Twitter (@mmddj_china) claims that the Samsung W2018 will actually be powered by the Snapdragon 835 processor along with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The leaker also claims that this is not a Galaxy-branded smartphone.

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The Snapdragon 835 processor from Qualcomm is the same chipset that’s on the United States version of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus. The same chipset is also being used on other flagship devices like the Sony Xperia XZ Premium, the HTC U11 and the OnePlus 5.

With Samsung’s new flip phone, it appears as though the South Korean phone maker wants to turn the device into a flagship product with matching high-end specs. If the Android flip phone does indeed have the Snapdragon 835 inside, then it’s also expected to have an octa-core processor and an Adreno 540 GPU, as pointed out by Phone Arena.

The Samsung W2018, or SM-W2018, is also believed to have a pair of 4.2-inch displays — similar to what the W2017 sports. Both displays are believed to have 1080p full HD screen resolutions. The device is also said to be packing a non-removable 2,300mAh battery, a 12-megapixel camera on the back and a 5-megapixel camera up front.

On the software side of things, the Samsung W2018 might run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and not 7.0 Nougat. It’s being speculated that this is because of the W2018’s form factor. It’s possible that Android Nougat simply doesn’t support flip phones, but there’s no confirmation on that yet.

There’s no word yet on an official release date, but it’s likely that it won’t officially arrive in the U.S. Flip phones are still popular in China and South Korea, which is why the Samsung W2018 might simply be released in those two regions exclusively, according to PlayfulDroid.

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What’s expected to arrive in the U.S. however is the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. The upcoming phablet is expected to be announced during Samsung’s Unpacked event that’s scheduled to take place in New York City on Aug. 23.

We’ve already seen several leaks about Galaxy Note 8, but a new rumor has recently surfaced detailing an Emperor Edition sporting 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The Galaxy Note 8 Emperor Edition was first rumored on Weibo.

This Emperor Edition will apparently be announced alongside the regular version of the Note 8 during the Unpacked event. However, it will most likely be only available in Asian markets, according to Android Central. The U.S. might simply get a Note 8 model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.