Each year since Samsung’s first Galaxy S release, carriers have been privy to variations on the initial designs. This stayed true with the Galaxy S II and now it looks to be the same with the Galaxy S III.
For example, Bell Canada released the Galaxy S I9000 in 2010 and then in 2011 the I9100. These were the international variants of the Galaxy S and SII respecively.
Rogers released the Galaxy S Captivate (SGH-I896) in 2010, followed by the Galaxy S II LTE (SGH-i727R) in 2011.
TELUS released the Galaxy S Fascinate 3G+ (SGH-T959D) which was very similar to the T-Mobile-released Galaxy S Vibrant (SGH-T959). They went on to release the Samsung Galaxy S Fascinate 4G (SGH-T959P) a few months later, which coincided with T-Mobile’s Samsung Galaxy S Fascinate 4G (SGH-T959P). TELUS released the Galaxy S II X (SGH-T989D) in 2011 which coincided, again, with T-Mobile’s variant (SGH-T989). WIND Mobile recently released the Galaxy S 4G as well (SGH-T959W).
Why is this all important? Because recently Samsung Canada put up a generic support page for a phone with model number SGH-T959V, which coincides with the Galaxy S III variant that T-Mobile is expected to get. Considering the linear iteration over the years (SGH-T959, SGH-T989, SGH-T999) it’s all but certain that this model number, which has been spied a few times, will be a non-LTE variant of the Galaxy S III.
This year is likely to be a bit different for Canadian carriers, since the big three and their subsidiaries are going to focus on releasing a Galaxy S III with LTE capabilities. This means that either the LTE-capable carriers such as Rogers, TELUS and Bell will release the same model (easier) or LTE-capable handsets with slight variations (harder). The SGH-T999V entry on Samsung’s support page is likely for the HSPA+ version that will launch on WIND Mobile, Mobilicity, Videotron and SaskTel (among others).
While at this point it’s not known what form the Canadian Galaxy S III models will take, you can be sure that there will be at least two variants, none of which will be the international Exynos-powered I9300. We’re holding out hope that the SGH-T999V will be powered by the same quad-core Exynos chip. We’re not sure what the appended “V” means for this particular model, but we’re guessing it will hue fairly closely to the T-Mobile version.
Source: Samsung Canada
(Thanks Salem!)
