Samsung's next flagship Galaxy S22 series appears set for a possible early February launch amidst reports that the handsets could become costlier than what some of the recents leaks had suggested.
Though we don't have any information about the price range of the three devices that Samsung is likely to bring as part of it's latest S-series, there were some leaks that indicated a $100 dollar price variance between the upcoming variants and its immediate predecessors in the Galaxy S21 line-up.
A recent report published on Korea Times suggest that prices of the upcoming range of smartphones could end up higher due to the shortage of chipsets. Though they stick with the $100 dollar variation referenced by the leaker, the story claims that Samsung may not have an option but to hike the prices of at least some of its variants in the upcoming launch.
Not only the semiconductors, the prices of several key components on handsets had increased by up to 40% with the cost of power management chips and image sensor chips moving up by as much as 15%.
While a price hike may be unavoidable in the current situation, what Samsung needs to keep in mind is the increased competition from Chinese flagship models such as the Xiaomi 12 series, the OnePlus 10 Pro and a few others that are in the field.
Of course, Samsung would be aware of the dangers of such a steep hike, and leave out the base variant from it through some last ditch design tweaks. For example, we have heard that the Galaxy S22 may revert to a plastic rear panel instead of the glass one that was earlier suggested.
Samsung will be launching three handsets - the Galaxy S22, the Galaxy S22 Plus and the Galaxy S22 Ultra. As of now, all three would be sporting the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, but given the price consciousness in markets such as India, we won't be surprised to see a shift to the Exynos 2200 chipset.
In fact, there have been rumors that Samsung may go official with its Exynos 2200 chipset alongside the Galaxy S22 series launch and that the in-house processor may power at least one handset from the upcoming line-up even in Europe.
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