We’re starting to see rumors surrounding Samsung’s next-generation Galaxy S10 flagship phone emerge much earlier than expected, and the reasons for that is fairly obvious: no one seems to be happy with Samsung’s 2018 flagship smartphone lineup. From industry watchers and analysts to end users, people appear to have dismissed the current-generation Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ as boring, iterative updates compared to last year’s models. We still say they’re among the best Android phones you can buy right now, but consumers speak with their wallets. Sales of Samsung’s new flagship phones are believed to be falling well short of expectations. The fact that the Galaxy S9 and S9+ both received price drops just one month after release is damning evidence that suggests sales are indeed much lower than Samsung and carriers had hoped.
That brings us to the upcoming Galaxy Note 9, but unfortunately we have more bad news on that front. Just as the S9 and S9+ look almost exactly like the Galaxy S8 and S8+, the Note 9 is expected to look just like the Galaxy Note 8, but with the S9’s specs upgrades. Long story short, it’s not expected to have any special features that might get Samsung fans excited.
So that brings us to Samsung’s Galaxy S10, which is expected to be released sometime in the first quarter of 2019. If you’re a Samsung fan in search of excitement, think of 2018 as a gap year because excitement is seemingly set to return next year.
Just yesterday we finally saw the rumor we had all been waiting for. According to a report from a solid source, Samsung’s upcoming new Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ smartphones will feature optical fingerprint sensors that are integrated into their displays. That’s right, no more annoying fingerprint sensor on the backs of the phones. Samsung has reportedly been trying to work out manufacturing issues that had prevented it from using fingerprint on display (FOD) technology in its earlier smartphones, and the company has apparently managed to overcome any barriers.
Keeping the focus on the Galaxy S10’s display, a new rumor has emerged from another source with a very good track record. Twitter and Weibo leaker Ice universe often reveals unannounced plans surrounding smartphones from Samsung and Apple, and he just offered up another juicy piece of info on next year’s Galaxy S10. According to information he received, the Galaxy S10 will feature the highest-resolution display we’ve ever seen on a Samsung smartphone.
“Rumored that the screen resolution of the Galaxy S10 will exceed 600PPI,” Ice universe said in a tweet. Unfortunately, he didn’t offer any followup information, so this is all we have to go on.
Now, it’s possible this means the Galaxy S10 will feature the same overall display resolution as the Galaxy S9, but it’ll pack all of those pixels into a smaller screen size. The current-generation Galaxy S9 features WQHD+ resolution and a pixel density of 570 ppi. The same 2960×1440 pixels could be squeezed into a slightly smaller screen to bump the pixel density over 600 ppi. Alternatively, the Galaxy S10 could feature the same sized screen or a larger display that bumps the resolution up to 4K, but that would push the phone’s pixel density way past 600 ppi.
We’ll have to wait for more details but if we consider Ice universe’s track record and treat this info as accurate, we can expect to see the most stunning smartphone display Samsung has ever made next year when the company unveils its new Galaxy S10.
