Leaked Images of Samsung’s Newest High-End Flip Smartphone Have Surfaced

Rumor has it that Samsung is working on yet another high-end clamshell smartphone. And while there has been a surprising lack of leaked images or specs over the past few months, that all changed yesterday when live images of the rumored device surfaced on the internet.

With the release of a clamshell smartphone, Samsung seems to be betting on the fact that nostalgic people will buy them. The new flip smartphone, which was revealed to be codenamed “Veyron” during early rumors, is the successor to the SM-W2016 clamshell phone that was released last year in China, according to Android Authority.

The Veyron, which carries the model number SM-W2017, is likely to be outfitted with a 4.2-inch screen with a display resolution of 1080 x 1920. While its internal specs aren’t confirmed, it’ll probably carry a Snapdragon 820 chipset, a quad-core CPU, 4-gigabytes of RAM and 64-gigabytes of internal storage. It’s theorized that the Veyron will be equipped with a 12-megapixel rear camera, as well as a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. A 2,000-mAh battery and a fingerprint scanner should round out the device’s hardware, at least according to PhoneArena.

Unlike the rest of the world, flip phones are still relatively popular in many Asian markets. In fact, Samsung has been releasing clamshell devices in China over the past few years — just recently, the Korean-based company rolled out its Galaxy Folder 2. The difference, however, is that the Veyron is reportedly going to be a high-end device with specs closer to most modern flagships. That’s a lot unlike the entry-level clamshell phones that dominate the Chinese market. Samsung already started this trend with the release of its SM-W2016, which GSM Arena called “a flip phone with near S6 power.”

Currently, there’s no word on the Veyron’s availability outside of Asian markets — it’s actually pretty likely that the flip smartphone won’t ever hit European or North American markets. But there’s still the possibility that Samsung will aim for a wider release, and it would be very interesting to see how a clamshell phone fares in Europe and the US.