Samsung Galaxy S10: Rumours | Specifications | Pricing

After playing it relatively safe with the Galaxy S9, Samsung seems to be swinging for the fences with the groundbreaking design of the Galaxy S10.

Alongside Apple, Samsung is arguably the biggest name in the smartphone business. Its Galaxy S handsets go toe-to-toe with the latest iPhones, outperforming practically all other Android smartphones in terms of both popularity and features.

Like Apple, Samsung iterates on its Galaxy S line each and every year. Sleeker designs, improved performance and even-steeper price tags are typically the order of the day, but for the Galaxy S10 line, Samsung appears to have loftier ambitions in mind.

Design

• More screen space thanks to an under-screen fingerprint sensor and front-facing camera.
• New cheaper model will not feature an Infinity display.

• Read more on the Samsung Galaxy S10's design

  

  Photo: Samsung Galaxy S9+

  Samsung has historically offered two models for each iteration of its Galaxy S line. There's the standard model and then there's the Plus (+) model that typically includes a larger screen, more RAM, a better camera and other enthusiast enhancements.

  This trend looks set to continue with the Galaxy S10. According to Korean news outlet The Investor, the fingerprint reader will be integrated into the phone's display instead of taking up as a separate component. It will reportedly use an ultrasonic sensor as opposed to a typical optical sensor, allowing it to detect and process your fingerprint with greater accuracy, too. Though more expensive, ultrasonic sensors are able to register fingerprints even when dust, sweat and other environmental factors are present.

  The front-facing camera is also reported to have a new home beneath the Galaxy S10's screen. At a developer conference in October 2018, Samsung revealed a new technology called Under Panel Sensor (UPS). This technology allows for the placement of a camera sensor behind the screen, enabling a true all-screen design without the need for an unsightly "notch".

  Great news! Samsung established the direction of mobile phone design in 2019!
  On October 18th, Samsung Display invited about 20 customers to hold the "2018 Samsung OLED Forum" at the Shenzhen Marriott Hotel in China. At the meeting, Samsung showed a PPT pic.twitter.com/sYu0ORTd6V

  — Ice universe (@UniverseIce) October 19, 2018

  However, we've seen a range of rumours around exactly what Samsung will do with that front-facing camera, from notch-free designs, to a shift from a "notch" to a "hole" design, with a single gap or possible double gap to incorporate the camera. That's the model that Samsung has adopted for its new Samsung Galaxy A8s, which features a laser-drilled hole in what Samsung calls its "Infinity-O" display.

  

  There's also talk of Samsung possibly taking cues from the likes of Apple and ditching the 3.5mm headphone jack for the Galaxy S10. This would require users to switch to wireless Bluetooth headphones or a pair that connects over USB-C instead. Again, we can look to the Samsung Galaxy A8s, Samsung's first phone to ditch the headphone jack for an early example of what that might look like.

  That's not the only change on the audio front, either. Korean site etnews reports that Samsung may be planning to incorporate a new form of audio transmission into the Galaxy S10. Rather than using a traditional speaker, Samsung has developed a technology that transmits sounds by vibrating the display panel itself. When you press your ear against the panel, the vibrations register within your ear as sound, delivering audio that only you can hear.

  Along with all this new hardware, Samsung is expected to introduce an entirely new model to its Galaxy S10 line. Aimed at the more budget-conscious smartphone user, this model will cost less than the standard Galaxy S10 but lack a few of the higher-end features such as the edge-to-edge Infinity display and the in-screen fingerprint reader.

  Fancy hardware isn't all the Samsung Galaxy S10 is set to offer, either. It's pretty much a given that all models of the S10 will ship with Android 9.0 "Pie", the latest version of the Android operating system.

  The fine folks over at XDA Developers got their hands on an early build of Samsung's Android 9.0 user interface and have an in-depth breakdown of it available if you're keen on seeing it in action, but the key takeaways are that it doesn't stray too far from the stock Android 9 experience. Built-in apps have been redesigned to match the Android Pie aesthetic and gesture functionality has been expanded to allow for a greater range of swiping and motion controls.

Camera

• Triple-array camera for the S10+.
• 3D camera for facial recognition.

• Read more on the Samsung Galaxy S10's camera

  

  Photo: Samsung Galaxy Note9

  Competition in the smartphone camera space has increased dramatically over the last few years, with companies like Huawei and Google delivering multi-lens cameras capable of truly extraordinary photography. Samsung hasn't always led the pack in this regard, but that could change if the rumours around the Galaxy S10's camera tech prove true.

  In a recent report, Korean media outlet The Bell stated that the Galaxy S10+ will pack a whopping five cameras in total. Citing sources from within the smartphone manufacturing industry, the outlet says three of these cameras will sit at the rear, enabling high-quality traditional photography via a 12MP wide-angle lens, a 12MP telephoto lens and a new 16MP ultra-wide lens. That ultra-wide lens will reportedly sport a 120-degree field-of-view.

  Around the front, meanwhile, there'll be a dual-lens camera array combining a standard 16MP sensor with an 8MP depth sensor.

  Fewer details have emerged regarding the cameras on the base Samsung Galaxy S10 and the new lower-cost model. From the same report by The Bell, industry sources claim that the Galaxy S10 will feature a triple-lens camera array on the back but only a single-lens array on the front. The lower-cost model will pack a dual-lens array on the back and a single-lens array on the front. No word yet on the megapixel count for either handset, though.

  In a separate report, The Bell points to Israeli camera company Mantis Vision and its partnership with Samsung. Sources from the industry have told The Bell that Mantis Vision is working on a 3D camera for the Samsung Galaxy S10, one likely influenced by the camera technology incorporated in the Apple iPhone X.

  3D cameras, as the name suggests, are able to identify three-dimensional objects and track them in real space. They have become increasingly important in the virtual reality and augmented reality markets as well as automated industries like self-driving cars and autonomous drones. In the iPhone X and its successors, meanwhile, the 3D camera allows for more accurate and reliable facial recognition via the FaceID feature.

  Given the popularity of FaceID, it's not surprising that Samsung would be looking into similar technology for the Galaxy S10.

  Cameras also need smart processors with the growth of AI-driven photography seen in many of Samsung's competitors, as well as the Samsung Galaxy Note9, and the new image signal processor in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 said to power the Galaxy S10 should give it further camera power to play with.

Performance

• Snapdragon 855 or Exynos 9820 promises enhanced performance in AI tasks.
• 5G connectivity may be an option.

• Read more on Samsung Galaxy S10's performance

  

  Photo: Samsung Galaxy S9+

  Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 processor lies at the heart of most premium Android smartphones currently on the market, thanks in large part to its top-notch performance. It's no surprise, then, that the Samsung Galaxy S10 is heavily rumoured to feature the 845's impending successor, the Snapdragon 855 (also referred to as the Snapdragon 8150). According to PhoneArena, the new 7nm chip will power all variants of the Galaxy S10, though it's almost certain that Aussie handsets will feature a the Exynos 9820 processor instead since that's the approach Samsung has taken in the past.

  Qualcomm has announced the feature set of the impressive Snapdragon 855 that's likely to power the Galaxy S10 range. Its headline feature will be the inclusion of multi-gigabit 5G connectivity via Qualcomm's X50 modem.

  In another bout of clever sleuthing, XDA Developers discovered references to a 5G variant of the Samsung Galaxy S10+ in the files of Samsung's Android 9 software.

  Since the Snapdragon 855 chipset packs a 5G-capable modem, this seems plausible, though other reports claim that we won't see a 5G Samsung handset until the company releases its foldable smartphones later in 2019.

  Qualcomm's claim is that the Snapdragon 855 is up to 45% more powerful than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 it replaces, while adding new features such as its 4th generation multi-core Qualcomm AI Engine, said to be up to 3x faster than the already impressive 845 at working on AI tasks. An all-new image signal processor should beef up camera performance as well. Qualcomm's also promising something it calls "Snapdragon Elite Gaming Experience", an improved HDR-ready gaming feature that's said to boost framerates and improve audio quality. We'll have to wait and see how Android games developers use those features, and how they adapt to existing Android titles as well.

  Samsung itself has dropped hints at other hardware likely to appear in the Galaxy S10. In July 2018, the company announced it had successfully built the first 10nm memory chip to feature 8GB of LPDDR5 DRAM. LPDDR5 RAM is designed specifically for low-power mobile devices such as smartphones and though Samsung has not made any official confirmation, it is highly likely that at least one model of the Galaxy S10 will include 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM.

  Also on the storage front, rumours point to the inclusion of UFS 3.0 storage in the Samsung Galaxy S10. UFS, or Universal Flash Storage, is the standard that specifies the speed and bandwidth of data storage for the flash memory included in digital cameras, portable gaming systems and of course, mobile phones. UFS 3.0 introduces a range of benefits over its predecessor, including reduced power consumption, higher transfer speeds and increased reliability. If incorporated into the Galaxy S10, this could lead to significantly faster performance in data-heavy tasks like high-resolution video recording.

  Samsung will mass-produce LPDDR5 and UFS3.0 chips in the second half of the year, and I look forward to the Galaxy S10.

  — Ice universe (@UniverseIce) June 14, 2018

Battery life

• No details yet, but 3,000mAh to 4,000mAh seems likely.
• Wireless charging all but certain, but how fast?.

• Read more on the Samsung Galaxy S10's battery life

  For all the rumours surrounding the Samsung Galaxy S10, we don't yet have any solid information regarding its battery. Samsung typically delivers impressive battery life from its handsets, especially the Plus models, so we expect this to continue with the Galaxy S10. Battery capacities in the region of 3,000mAh to 4,000mAh seem highly likely.

  Samsung has long supported wireless charging using both the PMA and Qi standards, and that's likely to continue with the Samsung Galaxy S10. What we've seen from competitor phones is wireless charging at faster rates, and that's something Samsung isn't likely to ignore either. It's feasible that the Galaxy S10 may feature even more rapid wireless charging to compliment its fixed wire charging speeds.

Early outlook

• Exciting features and a broader range of handsets bode very well for the Samsung Galaxy S10.

• Read our early Samsung Galaxy S10 verdict

  In contrast to the fairly by-the-books design of the Galaxy S9, the Samsung Galaxy S10 looks to be an impressive step forward for the Korean smartphone manufacturer. The triple-lens camera array in the S10+ is a smart move that will allow the company to compete with the likes of Google and Huawei, while the addition of a cheaper and slightly less-powerful model gives a whole new breed of smartphone user a chance to join the Samsung family.

  Presuming the rumours are true, it's also great to see Samsung taking a few more risks in its design approach. Integrating the fingerprint reader and front-facing camera within the screen could considerably change the way we interact with our smartphones, as could replacing traditional speakers with the sci-fi-esque vibration technology.

  At any rate, early rumours have us more interested in the Samsung Galaxy S10 than we've been for a Galaxy launch in quite some time.

Pricing and availability

• The Samsung Galaxy S10 could debut as early as CES 2019, and certainly by MWC 2019.
• Pricing will likely hover around $1,000 for the new cheaper model, $1,200+ for the standard Galaxy S10 and $1,500+ for the Samsung Galaxy S10+.

So when will we see the Samsung Galaxy S10 debut? It's something of an open question, thanks largely to Samsung's reveal of its foldable phone prototypes at its Samsung Developer conference.

Foldable phones are likely to be a hot item in 2019, but that creates a problem for Samsung with its more regular Galaxy S10. Some rumours suggest that this may lead Samsung to speed the Galaxy S10 to market by announcing it at CES 2019, rather than its more traditional launch window around Mobile World Congress.

Releasing the Galaxy S10 at CES would free Samsung up to show off, if not launch its foldable Galaxy X/F phone at MWC, or possibly later in the year.