Samsung to Unveil New Smartphones at Galaxy Unpacked Event on January 14

Samsung has sent out media invites to its Galaxy Unpacked event on Thursday, January 14, when the company is expected to officially announce its new Galaxy S21 lineup.

Samsung is expected to unveil three new smartphones at the event: The Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra. The successors to last year's Galaxy S20 series will come in familiar 6.2 to 6.8-inch size options, with the S21 and S21 Plus said to be similar except for size, and the S21 Ultra offering a more premium device featuring better specs and cameras, and support for Samsung's S-Pen stylus.

According to rumors, the S21 and 21 Plus have a flat display with a centered hole-punch camera and minimal front bezels, while the rear camera is a triple camera setup arranged vertically, consisting of a 12MP main sensor, a 12MP ultra wide, and a 64MP telephoto lens.

Meanwhile, the S21 Ultra has a larger curved screen and a quad-lens camera system featuring a single periscope lens with 10MP 10x super-telephoto zoom, alongside a 108MP main sensor, a 12MP ultra wide, and a 10MP 3x telephoto camera. It also has a laser autofocus system that replaces the time-of-flight sensor found in the S20 Ultra.

Samsung is rumored to use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 and Exynos 2100 chips in its new smartphones depending on the region. Like their predecessors, all the devices will offer 120Hz and 60Hz refresh rates as well as 5G connectivity.

When it became clear that the iPhone 12 lineup and other iPhone models wouldn't ship with a power adapter and headphones, Samsung mocked Apple on its social channels by pointing out that the Samsung Galaxy smartphones continue to ship with a power adapter. However, recent reports have said that Samsung may also remove the power adapter and headphones from its smartphones beginning with the Galaxy S21 lineup.

Samsung's iPhone 12 rivals are expected to come in at a cheaper price point than last year's S20 family – WinFuture cites prices of 849 euros (about $1,043 USD) for the S21 and 1,049 euros (about $1,290 USD) for the S21 Plus. The phones should be available to buy a couple of weeks after the Samsung Unpacked event.

We'll have coverage of the event as it is interesting to take a look at what new features Apple's competitors are unveiling to compete with the iPhone.