Rumors suggest the Samsung Galaxy S21 won’t cost more than its predecessor, which means this year’s flagships may not get another price bump.
While plenty of phonemakers grandly reveal their new devices at Mobile World Congress in February every year, Samsung has managed to release its S-series phone before many other major flagships, and in so doing, set the tone for the year. This includes price, with the Samsung Galaxy S20 setting the precedent of a price bump for the phones to come in 2020. But given the rumors that its successor, the Galaxy S21, will cost the same, we may not pay more for this year’s phones. That makes some sort of sense: almost all of 2020’s top-tier phones saw a price bump, which was widely credited to the new chipsets and discrete modems to support 5G connectivity. To use Samsung as an example, the 2019 Galaxy S10’s launch price was $899 / £799 / AU$1,349, while the 2020 Galaxy S20 arrived with a starting pricetag of $999 / £899 / AU$1,499. Sure, the S20 improved the display’s refresh rate to 120hz, made some camera improvements (including expanding the telephoto capabilities to 30x digital zoom) and incrementally improved the specs with a new chipset, but 5G felt like the justification for the price bump.
