What’s the Samsung Deft? Trademark sparks questions as mysterious smartphone surfaces in India

Samsung has marched into the USPTO with a new trademark filing on hand, and this one is a bit odd. They’ve registered for the character mark “Deft,” and have it listed under one category and one category alone: mobile phones and smartphones.

As with any trademark there’s very little to go on in terms of information about the device that might eventually don this name. A quick look on Google reveals Samsung once sponsored a popular Korean eSports player by the name of Deft as part of their League of Legends team. Could they be making a phone in the champion’s honor? Possibly.

But the reality is we don’t know what this phone could be. Heck, there’s a chance it might not even be an Android phone — Samsung usually includes the character mark “Galaxy” for phones that fall under that banner. It could be possible that this is a Tizen-based smartphone, though considering Samsung has yet to successfully launch the Samsung Z it’d be strange to see them producing another device.

The timing of this revelation is interesting as another mystery Samsung device has made its way to the forefront. Samsung was caught importing an unidentified smartphone into India by the model number of “SM-G430,” which has since been confirmed as running Android 4.4.4 KitKat,  having a 5.5-inch 1080p display and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 chipset.

That the SM-G430 and this “Samsung Deft” are one in the same is anyone’s guess, but Samsung is known for having a lot of gears moving at the same time, and that couldn’t be any more true as we head into 2015. Let’s hope there’s more to be learned with CES looming.