Samsung is not — repeat not — making a Tesla-branded phablet. In what turned out to be something of a imaginative high concept, YouTuber Arun Maini last week posted a fictional render on Twitter of a Tesla-Samsung collaboration citing a Samsung Galaxy Note 10 car-themed special edition. We had been awaiting word of some new features to Samsung’s phablet, and were intrigued by the prospect of a Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Tesla Edition. But that is not to be — at least not at this time.
It didn’t help that the original imagined leaked image had surfaced on Chinese social media website Weibo, and seemed to show a promotional image of the Note 10 Tesla Edition, complete with a brushed metal back panel, red accents, Tesla logo, and a correspondingly red and metal-effect S Pen. From there, a legit-sounding rumor took on a life of its own.
The translated text in the Weibo post itself reads: “After Huawei Porsche and OPPO Lamborghini, Samsung will push the Tesla version of the phone! At present, the special version of Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 10 is exposed. This is the joint version of Tesla. The whole body is mainly gray, supplemented by red color scheme. There is a unique Tesla logo on the back of the phone, and there are joint information below.”
Samsung previously partnered with the Olympics to offer special versions of the Galaxy Note 8 and the Galaxy S7 Edge, and this would be the first time we would have seen Samsung pair with a car manufacturer to bring out a special edition of one its phones. We approached this unconfirmed report with caution but we noted that design of the Note 10 in the image does match previous renders and leaks of the device, including the long triple-lens array on the back side of the device.
And still, it wouldn’t be far fetched if Samsung did chose to partner with Tesla to deliver a special Note 10. Other phone companies have partnered with car manufacturers in the past, with Huawei working with Porsche, OnePlus partnering with McLaren, and even Oppo pairing up with Lamborghini. As such, it wouldn’t be odd for Samsung to create a car-themed special edition.
The Galaxy Note 10 is rumored to be revealed in a Samsung Unpacked event on August 7, but a collaboration with Tesla at this point is a pipe dream.
Updated on June 21: This story has been updated to clarify that the image referenced in the story was merely a high concept render posted by a YouTuber, and was meant as a theoretical concept of a collaboration between Samsung and Tesla on the Galaxy Note 10.
