In just over a week from now, Samsung will be unveiling the Galaxy S10 series at an Unpacked event. Instead of launching the phones at MWC 2019 in Barcelona, Samsung has decided to launch them ahead of the yearly mobile conference at a separate Unpacked event which will be held in San Francisco.
Thanks to leaks and rumors, almost everything about the Galaxy S10 is known at this point. In case you missed all the leaks, read our Galaxy S10 rumor roundup below to know almost everything about the hottest Android phone of the year ahead of its release.
Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10+, and Galaxy S10e
Following Apple’s footsteps, Samsung is also going to expand its Galaxy S10 lineup this year with the introduction of a cheaper variant, the Galaxy S10e.
With smartphone sales slowing down and consumers holding on to their device for a longer period of time, Samsung is hoping that a cheaper Galaxy S10 variant minus some bells and whistles will help ensure that the sales of its S10 series do not disappoint.
The Galaxy S1oe, in a nutshell, is a Galaxy S9 with upgraded chipset and camera. It is not going to come with other bells and whistles that Samsung is going to debut on the Galaxy S10 and S10+.
In-display fingerprint scanner, Infinity-O Display
Apart from the usual set of yearly upgrades like an improved display and faster chipset, the Galaxy S10 and S10+ are going to be defined by three major changes: the switch to an in-display fingerprint scanner, an Infinity-O display, and massive batteries.
Keeping in line with the industry trend, Samsung is going to switch to an in-display fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S10 and S10+. Unlike other companies though, Samsung is going to use the third-generation ultrasonic sensor from Qualcomm which will be faster than the in-display sensor technology used by the likes of Vivo and OnePlus on their devices.
In-display fingerprint sensors still have not matured enough to offer the same level of accuracy and unlock speeds as traditional fingerprint scanners so any improvement in this regard counts.
The second and arguably the biggest highlight of the Galaxy S10 series this year will be its Infinity-O display. Samsung debuted its Infinity display with the Galaxy S8 in 2017 and this year, it is building on that with its Infinity-O display. In a nutshell, Infinity-O OLED panels have a punch-hole for the selfie camera. This allows Samsung to reduce the bezels further on its devices while also not going for a notched display design to accommodate the selfie camera.
We have already seen the likes of Honor and Huawei release smartphones with a punch-hole display so Samsung is not really going to be the first to the market with this.
Bigger Batteries, Faster Charging, Reverse Wireless Charging
The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S9 series were not really known for their battery life. They offered average battery life at best which was enough to somehow get through a day of moderate use. In the meanwhile, the competition leapfrogged Samsung and launched devices with massive 4,000mAh batteries to offer excellent all-day battery life. Samsung itself did something similar with the Galaxy Note 9 by equipping it with a 4,000mAh battery and it is taking the same path for the Galaxy S10 series.
The smaller Galaxy S10 is going to come with a 3,500mAh battery while the bigger Galaxy S10+ is rumored to come with a 4,000mAh battery. Coupled with a more efficient 7nm Snapdragon 855 chipset, these phones are easily going to make it through a day of heavy use. Or as Samsung highlighted with the Galaxy Note 9 last year, offer “all-day” battery life.
What’s even better is that Samsung is finally going to offer faster charging speeds on the Galaxy S10 and S10+ as well. While Samsung has continued to offer 15W fast charging across its flagship devices since the last few years, OnePlus, Huawei, Honor, Oppo, and Vivo have all started offering charging speeds of as much as 50W capable of charging their devices to more than 50 percent in just 30 minutes.
There are rumors of Samsung offering 22.5W fast charging on the Galaxy S10 series, though this is yet to be confirmed.
Samsung is also going to take a cue from Huawei’s Mate 20 Pro and offer reverse wireless charging on the Galaxy S10. The handsets will feature 9W reverse wireless charging which will make it faster than the 5W reverse wireless charging offered by the Mate 20 Pro.
Given the relatively small battery capacities of the phones, the reverse wireless charging feature on the Galaxy S10 will come in handy to charge the Galaxy buds — Samsung’s rumored AirPods competitor — which will likely be unveiled alongside the handsets on February 20.
Triple-Camera Setup
Another highlight of the Galaxy S10 series this year is going to be the triple-camera setup at the rear. Taking a cue from Huawei’s book, Samsung will offer a super-wide angle lens in addition to a telephoto lens and a regular wide-angle shooter on the Galaxy S10 and S10+.
With camera sensors not really improving much in recent years, Samsung will have to rely on its improved post-processing to further improve image quality on the Galaxy S10 series this year. To keep up with the trend, Samsung will also offer Bright Night mode, its own take on Google’s Night Sight mode. In this mode, the phone will quickly take multiple photos of varying exposure and merge them into one to offer a resulting image with more details and clarity than what would otherwise be possible.
At the front, Samsung will be sticking to a single selfie camera on the Galaxy S10 and offer a dual-camera setup on the Galaxy S10+. It is unclear if the secondary sensor accompanying the selfie shooter on the Galaxy S10+ is a depth sensor or a super-wide angle lens like the one found on the Pixel 3 series.
Faster Chipset, Better Display, More Storage, Better Connectivity
The Galaxy S10 series is also going to come with the usual yearly upgrades. This includes the switch to a more efficient and powerful 7nm Snapdragon 855 chipset and a more efficient and brighter OLED display. The European and international variants of the Galaxy S10 will be powered by Samsung’s own 8nm Exynos 9820 chipset.
Similar to the Galaxy Note 9, Samsung is going to bump the base storage and RAM on the Galaxy S10 and S10+. Both devices will ship with 6GB RAM and 128GB of base storage, with the company also offering higher storage variants.
The Galaxy S10e will come with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage to keep its price in check. Samsung will also offer a special ceramic edition of the Galaxy S10+ featuring 1TB storage and 12GB RAM. This variant will likely see a limited launch due to its exorbitant price and low demand.
Impressively, the Galaxy S10 series will continue to sport a headphone jack. And in typical Samsung fashion, the handsets will push the bar ahead in terms of network performance and connectivity by offering Wi-Fi 6 and 1.2Gbps+ LTE support. Samsung also plans on launching a 5G variant of the Galaxy S10 a month or two down the line.
What do you think about the Galaxy S10 series based on all the leaks? Do you plan on buying one? Or are you satisfied with your current phone and not looking for an upgrade?
