Samsung Teases New Galaxy and ATIV Launch

Samsung has turned to Facebook to tease the launch of upcoming new products as part of the company’s Galaxy and ATIV line. The launch event, scheduled for June 20th, could potentially also be live streamed through Samsung Mobile’s YouTube channel as well as there was a URL to www.youtube.com/SamsungMobile.

So far, the company has been coy about the announcement and no additional information is given for the “Save the Date” invitation, though recent leaks from Samsung and the company’s partners may suggest a few different product options that could be launched at this event. Samsung had recently re-branded its product lines so that the Galaxy branding is used for all Android products while the ATIV product line is used for all Windows products, spanning Windows 8 and Windows Phone.

One potential for the event would be a dual-booting laptop or tablet that could run either Android or Windows, though that may be an unlikely potential as it wouldn’t be clear if the device belonged to the ATIV family or the Galaxy family. Samsung was recently visited by both Microsoft and Google prior to the commencement of Google I/O earlier this month so it remains to be seen what influences either software company are given to Samsung.

Given that Intel’s new Haswell core chips are starting to emerge, a possibility would be a slim Ultrabook. The photo appears to show a hinged device–perhaps even a hybrid–that bears the clamshell laptop form factor. This would definitely give the ATIV Smart PC and Smart PC Pro systems a much needed refresh to slim down the dimensions while adding more power and battery efficiency with Intel’s new Core series processors under the hood. Samsung’s also demoed a prototype panel with a high resolution display that, if used in this product, would give the ATIV line a boost against the MacBook Pro and Toshiba’s new KiraBook Ultrabook.

The event would be scheduled in advanced of Microsoft’s BUILD conference to debut Windows’ next features, so it’s likely Samsung won’t be talking Windows 8.1.

Another potential would a low-cost but powerful Intel Atom Android notebook. Intel’s definitely been hinting at that potential and how the company could help OEM manufacturers like Samsung to delivering a product around the $200 price point.

On the Galaxy line, we’ve also seen hints for a Galaxy Zoom or Galaxy S4 Zoom, a phone that would come with a digital camera offering optical zoom. The Galaxy S4 Zoom would offer similar capabilities to the Galaxy Camera, but with a more compact footprint and only 10X optical zoom versus the 20X zoom of the dedicated Galaxy Camera. The camera potential could be hinted by the lower right image, showing a ring that could be used to control the camera. The device was previously speculated to be much slimmer than the Galaxy Camera and could launch by July with AT&T being hinted as a carrier in the U.S. market.

More recently, it’s been rumored that Samsung would be using Intel’s Atom architecture in its larger Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 slate, a move away from the ARM processors that the Galaxy line had remained exclusive with in the past. This new tablet could be launched in London following Samsung’s recently more quiet announcement of the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 slate.

We’ll have to wait and see what Samsung does next month, but this looks like it will be another big “Premiere” event for 2013.