A day before the official unveiling of the 10th-anniversary Galaxy smartphone series in San Francisco, nearly every detail about the newest Samsung products was leaked in an alleged mishap that even involved airing a TV commercial, various reports said on Wednesday.

The 30-second ad for the Galaxy S10 series aired on TV2, the largest commercial broadcaster in Norway.

Creating hype before a product launch by releasing teasers can often be part of a marketing strategy, but this is the first time Samsung has aired a prelaunch TV commercial for any of its smartphones -- whether accidentally or intentionally.

The features revealed in the ad were widely expected, including the “punch hole” display, ultrasonic fingerprint reader and triple-camera system.

A Samsung representative said the airing of the TV commercial “would not have been planned” and must have been an accident.

After the leak, employees within Samsung’s smartphone division received tighter confidentiality guidelines in connection with upcoming gadgets, according to some industry sources.

Even before the ad aired, details about the three S10 models had been made public about a week earlier on the website GSMArena, which cited an internal source within Samsung’s retail channel.

Based on the leaked information, it appears that Samsung is launching three models in its S10 series: the Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+.

It is the first time the company will have released a series with three models instead of two.

Samsung has said officially that its marketing strategy for the S10 series will involve diversifying its models -- providing models with different specs in a bid to offer better choices for customers purchasing new phones.

The Galaxy S10e is the smallest, featuring a 5.8-inch AMOLED HDR+ Infinity O display and a side power button. It seems to have been designed to go head to head with the iPhone XR.

The Galaxy S10, the most representative flagship model of the three, will have a 6.1-inch screen, while the Galaxy S10+ will have a 6.3-inch screen.

The two bigger models will feature in-display fingerprint-sensing technology, one of the most long-awaited functions in the smartphone industry. Once they are officially rolled out, the Galaxy S10 smartphones will be the world’s first to offer in-display fingerprint readers.

While the S10e provides 256 gigabytes of storage, the S10 provides 512 GB. The S10+ provides three storage options -- 128 GB, 512 GB and 1 terabyte -- and will be the first smartphone ever to offer such a massive amount. Accordingly, the S10+ will be equipped with a 4,100 milliamphere-hour battery, the most powerful smartphone battery ever.

Meanwhile, much of the attention ahead of the upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event, scheduled for Thursday at 4 a.m. South Korean time, was on the Galaxy Fold, Samsung’s first foldable smartphone.

The tech giant is expected to roll out 1 million of the foldables globally around May, according to some industry insiders. 

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)