Samsung Galaxy S10: Release Date, Specs, Rumours And Leaks

Damien McFerran 14/01/2019 – 5:45pm

Everything we know so far

The Samsung Galaxy S10 is going to be one of 2019's hottest handsets, and is sure to set the tone for the company's strategy in this year's smartphone war.

Samsung traditionally fires the first shot – it is expected to officially unveil the S10 next month – before its rival Apple returns fire with its iPhone announcement, which normally takes place later in the year.

Despite the fact that Samsung hasn't actually shown off anything official as yet, we already know an amazing amount about the upcoming S10 – and we're here to show exactly how much.

How Many Versions Of The Galaxy S10 Will There Be?

It is understood that Samsung will be releasing three versions of the S10, which is a change from the two it released last year – the S9 and the larger S9 Plus.

They will be the Galaxy S10 E, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 Plus.

The S10 E is the budget option, while the S10 is the 'standard' version. The S10 Plus has a larger screen and other bonuses.

It is also being reported that a fourth S10 variant will be made this year that has 5G support, but this could be exclusive to certain markets. The much-hyped folding Galaxy phone is not part of the S10 range.

What Does The Galaxy S10 Look Like?

The big news with the Galaxy S10 is the fact that its screen uses the 'Infinity-O' tech that many are now calling the 'Hole-Punch' design. Instead of using a notch, iPhone-style, the S10 has a hole in the top-left corner of the screen which houses the front-facing camera. This means that the majority of the phone's front is taken up by lovely, lovely screen – without the need for ugly notches or complicated sliding components.

In terms of design, we already know what the phones will look like as we've had leaks which relate to screen protectors and cases. It has the same signature rounded corners that the Galaxy range has been famous for over the past few years, but this time around the cameras on the back are arranged horizontally and not vertically, as they were on the S9.

Galaxy S10 Specs

It is understood that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 will be powering all three S10 variants, although there will be differences between them. It's also worth noting that, as has been the case in the past, Samsung will ship some S10s with its home-grown Exynos chip in certain markets. In fact, you could argue that the Exynos is the hardware to really get excited about.

The Exynos 9820 is the first Samsung system-on-chip that showcases a dedicated AI chip, an improved Neural Processing Unit for Artificial Intelligence. By giving the phone its own dedicated AI hardware, performance should be massively improved. And that's not all – Samsung promises that single-core performance is 20 percent better than the previous Exynos, while power efficiency is up 40 percent.

It is also believed that the S10 will be the first Samsung phone to use an in-screen fingerprint scanner, rather than a rear-mounted one. Sure, Samsung has been beaten to the punch by other firms, but its solution will apparently allow the user to place their finger anywhere on the screen to unlock it – and not just in a small designated area.

Galaxy S10 Camera

Samsung has, like the rest of the mobile industry, gone camera-crazy recently. The Galaxy A7 has three cameras on the back and the S10 is following suit. We've got a 12MP f/1.5-2.4 variable aperture lens with a super-wide angle 123-degree lens with 16MP sensor and f/1.9 aperture, as well as a 13MP f/2.4 aperture sensor. The top-range S10 Plus has a fourth lens, as well.

What does this all mean? Well, more lenses should – in theory – mean better photos, but given that Google's Pixel 3 and the Apple iPhone XR both take amazing shots, we're not sure it's always that simple. These lenses have to be put to good use – and have to have decent software – to really make a difference. We're tempted to suggest that by adding in more cameras, all Samsung is actually doing is boosting a metric it can use to claim gives its phones an advantage. We'll see if the company has any special tricks when the device actually launches.

Galaxy S10 Price

As you might expect, the prices for all three S10 variants will be different. It is rumoured that the 1TB version of the S10 Plus will cost as much as £1,400, which would put the device in the same bracket as the iPhone XS Max. However, at the lower end of the scale, we're told that the S10 E will 'only' cost £669.

• 5.8-inch Galaxy S10 "Lite" with 128GB of storage: £669
• 6.1-inch Galaxy S10 with 128GB of storage: £799
• 6.1-inch Galaxy S10 with 512GB of storage: £999
• 6.4-inch Galaxy S10 Plus with 128GB of storage: £899
• 6.4-inch Galaxy S10 Plus with 512GB of storage: £1,099
• 6.4-inch Galaxy S10 Plus with 1TB of storage: £1,399

When Will The Galaxy S10 Be Released?

Samsung is holding its annual 'Unpacked' keynote on February 20, 2019 in San Francisco and London and has already indicated in its promotional materials that the S10 will be the main topic of the event.

It is understood that pre-orders will open as soon as the keynote ends, and the release date will be Friday, March 8th.