Samsung hopes to beat Apple to the punch with a possible August release of its next-gen Galaxy Note.
Typically introduced in September—around the same time as new iPhone—the Note 5 might instead arrive in mid-August, Reuters reported.
In the last few years, Samsung has revealed its newest Galaxy Note devices at the IFA trade show in early September, with Apple revealing new iPhones a week or two later. Sources told Reuters, however, that Samsung will push up the release,possibly in an attempt to recover from last year's financial losses.
Samsung declined to comment.
Samsung blamed its 39 percent net profit plunge in the January-to-March quarter on Apple's bigger iPhones, which thrived during the previous earnings period.
While smartphone sales did increase quarter over quarter—thanks to the Galaxy A Series and new high-end Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge (pictured)—the tablet and feature phone business is flagging.
Details of the rumored Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus were published this week by SamMobile, which tipped 5.7-inch Super AMOLED screens with 2,560-by-1,440-pixel resolution, available in black, gold, silver, and white.
The Note 5's flat display will be countered by the dual-edge curved screen on the S6 Edge Plus. Both phablets will reportedly feature glass backs, but may lack a removable battery and microSD card slot, SamMobile said.
Codenamed Project Noble, Samsung's next-gen Note is expected to feature an Exynos 7422 processor, with a chipset that combines a 64-bit octa-core CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, and Samsung's Shannon LTE modem.
The Note, or Project Zen, will feature a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor, 32GB of internal storage, a 16-megapixel camera with OIS and 4K video recording, a 5-megapixel rear camera, and a 3,000 mAh battery. Running Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box, SamMobile suggested a possible option to store RAW images.
The tech blog also tipped a fix for TouchWiz RAM issues affecting the original Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge phones.