“The Samsung Galaxy S10 lineup is seeming to be the chaebol’s most ambitious flagship till date”
Leaks have indicated that Samsung is ready to make huge changes to its smartphone design philosophy with this year’s S10 range. A big reason for the same is the market’s heavy inclination towards providing full-screen fascia without resorting to the services of a notch. Renders of the upcoming Samsung phones have shown an innovative solution that has already been tried out on one of the company’s other handsets, the Galaxy A8s. However, this is not the only department where changes will be seen on the upcoming flagships. Based on all the leaks and rumours going around, we’ve created this comprehensive roundup of what you can expect from this year’s Galaxy S10 range.
Table of Contents
Four models or five?
Samsung, it seems, is planning to go big with the number of variants of its upcoming flagship. If leaks are to be believed, the brand is planning to introduce four models in the S10 lineup. The first one among them will be the Galaxy S10+, while the other two will be smaller Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 E (also rumoured to be the S10 Lite) models. As for the fourth one, it will be a 5G variant of the Plus variant, that might be called Galaxy S10 X 5G. And then there’s even talk about the foldable Galaxy smartphone being slated to be unveiled along with the S10 range, though that could also be launched as part of a new series altogether. Few details are known about the foldable smartphone at the moment.
Infinity-O display
One of the boldest decisions Samsung seems to have taken with the S10 range is going for the punch-hole display. Rumours about this decision had starting popping up last year itself, and since then, a few companies have already adopted this approach. In fact, Samsung’s very own Galaxy A8s was also released with a similar punch-hole panel. But the ultimate result of this innovation will be the Infinity-O display that will sit on the Galaxy S10 models. The top-right corner will be dedicated to the selfie camera, resulting in a hole in the display.
What’s worth noting is that the Galaxy S10+ is being tipped to feature dual front cameras for offering additional features. Whether they are meant for wide-angle selfies or better portrait selfies, or both is still unknown. But what matters is that the punch-hole will be a larger affair on the bigger phone.
In case you’re wondering about display sizes, the Galaxy S10+ is expected to ship with a 6.4-inch panel, while the regular S10 and the S10 E may come with 6.1-inch and 5.8-inch displays, respectively. As for the S10 X 5G, it’s expected to adopt a ginormous 6.71-inch panel. All these displays will of course be Super AMOLED in nature. The display dimensions of the foldable Galaxy handset are still unknown, and the same goes for the nature of its appearance.
Ultra-powerful internals
It’s a given that these phones will ship with top-of-the-line chipsets. The Snapdragon 855 SoC will be reserved for the US and other select markets, whereas the 8nm Exynos 9820 chipset will be used for models sold in the rest of the world, including India. The performance difference between the smartphones powered by these SoCs remains to be seen.
There’s no concrete leak regarding the RAM and storage options that these handsets will offer. We did have a leak a few days back, but we’d advise you take that with a grain of salt. As per that, the S10 E will be endowed with 4GB of RAM, whereas the regular S10 will be granted 4GB or 6GB of RAM. The S10+ might get 6GB and 8GB of RAM, while the S10 X 5G will supposedly ship with as much as 10GB or 12GB of RAM. The storage choices are expected to start at 128GB this time around, and might go all the way up to 1TB.
Multiple cameras
Having experimented with multiple rear cameras with its A series models last year, Samsung will definitely incorporate this approach with the S10 range of 2019. Rumours have indicated that the Galaxy S10 E and the S10 will come with dual rear cameras with 12MP + 13MP sensors, and single 8-megapixel front cameras. As for the S10+, it’s tipped to feature a triple-camera array on the back, with a 12MP + 13MP + 16MP setup. This camera module will offer support for regular, ultra-wide and telephoto shots. The S10 X 5G could very well go beyond that and offer as many as four rear cameras. It’s difficult to tell right now what the fourth sensor will be used for though. As for the dual front cameras on these two phones, they are rumoured to be 8MP and 5MP units.
With Google’s Night Sight (review) exhibiting stellar low-light photography results, Samsung definitely isn’t wanting to stay behind. It is reportedly developing a mode called Bright Night that will be deployed on the cameras of the S10 range. Just like Night Sight, this mode is expected to click bright photographs with a good level of details in dark conditions, without taking the aid of the flash.
In-display fingerprint readers
Samsung will be making the switch to in-display fingerprint scanners this year, which is a welcome move. This functionality will be present on all the devices, except the Galaxy S10 E, which will instead opt for a physical scanner that will sit on its power button.
One UI software
Samsung has already rolled out its new user interface for its current-gen devices, but the S10 handsets are supposed to have it preinstalled. This software will, of course, be based on Android 9.0 Pie, and will give a huge overhaul to the design elements of the interface. Features like Digital Wellbeing and more are also expected to be introduced by the new version of One UI.
Powerful batteries
Firstly, you can expect both fast charging and wireless charging to be present on all these phones. There is moreover, talk of the presence of reverse wireless charging functionality akin to the Huawei Mate 20 Pro (review). As for the battery capacity, the Galaxy S10 X 5G has supposedly been blessed with a massive 5,000mAh battery. The S10+ on the other hand, may get a 4000mAh cell, while the regular S10 and the S10 E might sip juice from 3,500mAh and 3,100mAh batteries, respectively.
Other design details
The flagships Galaxy handsets are known for their dust- and waterproofing capabilities, and the S10 range will apparently be upholding that reputation by offering IP68-grade protection. While the Bixby button is going nowhere, thankfully, same can also be said about the good ol’ headphone socket. There were wild rumours about the 3.5mm port having been yanked from this year’s phones, but recent leaks have indeed mentioned its presence.
Samsung Galaxy S10 launch date
It’s more than confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphones will be unveiled by the South Korean company at an event supposed to be held in San Francisco on February 20th. Their release in India is expected to take place during the month of March.
