Samsung secretly 'confirms' foldable Galaxy Bloom and Galaxy S20 names
Samsung doesn't always hold big public events to unveil hot new smartphones during the Consumer Electronics Show, but in the last few years, the tech giant has made a habit of privately presenting unannounced mobile devices to an audience composed of various business partners at the glamorous and eclectic Las Vegas trade fair.
After demonstrating an advanced prototype of what ultimately materialized as the Galaxy Fold behind closed doors back in January 2019, Samsung reportedly did something similar earlier this week, revealing a number of interesting details about its fast-approaching sophomore foldable effort, as well as the company's next big "mainstream" thing.
Apparently, the overall size of the Galaxy Bloom handset, which has long been rumored to sport a smaller screen than the 7.3-inch Galaxy Fold, will strongly resemble the footprint of said makeup accessory in an attempt to make an otherwise unusual and quirky gadget design feel familiar and comfortable for its main target audience.
Although handset names are not often reflective of their quality or performance, it just so happens that both Samsung's second foldable smartphone and its next Galaxy S-series entry are carrying some pretty unconventional and interesting monikers, at least according to the latest gossip.
The Galaxy Bloom will "aggressively target women in their 20s"
Galaxy Bloom (left), Lancôme compact powder foundation (right)
Beyond the occasional pretty in pink version of certain flagship models, Samsung hasn't done much over the years to expressly cater to the (conventional) needs and preferences of female audiences. Of course, the same can be said about practically the entire modern mobile industry, but the world's largest smartphone vendor is apparently planning to change all that by taking inspiration from a highly unusual source for the vertically folding design of the Galaxy Bloom.
While mobile tech enthusiasts would probably be inclined to draw parallels between Samsung's upcoming foldable handset and Motorola's revived Razr or the dumb flip phones of yore, the company is actually reportedly going for a similar look to... a popular makeup item. Specifically, the compact powder foundation (no, I have no idea what that is either) from luxury perfume and cosmetics house Lancôme.
Speaking of rumors making the rounds for a long time, it's interesting to point out "Bloom" was circulated around the water cooler as the internal codename of the device. Codenames becoming official branding labels almost never happens, but then again, Galaxy Bloom sure has a nice (and feminine) ring to it, and we always expected the Galaxy Fold 2 to be something entirely different from this Motorola Razr-rivaling bad boy.
Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, and S20 Ultra names also "confirmed"
It was certainly logical to expect the Galaxy S11 lineup to come after last year's S10 family, but as originally speculated just a couple of weeks ago, Samsung is preparing a major branding leap to coincide with the spectacular upgrade from a 12 to a 108MP main rear-facing camera rocking state-of-the-art features like 100x digital "Space Zoom" and, yes, 8K video recording.
Leaked render of the regular S11, now expected to be called S20 Plus
While nothing is etched in stone yet, a Galaxy S20 moniker sure sounds like a good fit for what we initially presumed would be called the Galaxy S11e and sport a 6.2-inch curved display. The S20+ and S20 Ultra are tipped to measure 6.7 and 6.9 inches diagonally, although it remains unclear exactly what will make the largest model an "ultra" phone.
Unlike the Galaxy Bloom, which will probably pack a Snapdragon 855 processor to keep production costs down and launch at a sub-$1,000 price, the Galaxy S20 lineup should obviously adopt Qualcomm's latest and greatest flagship SoC, along with many other ultra-high-end specs. Interestingly, the Galaxy Bloom is expected to share the 8K video shooting capabilities with S20-series devices, as Samsung will try to accelerate the move to a new standard for high-res mobile and TV content.
Things that are NOT allowed: