Not to keep beating a dead horse, but we have every indication that Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ smartphones have been quite disappointing thus far. The phones themselves are fantastic, as anyone who has one will confirm. We also sang them high praise in our in-depth Galaxy S9 review. The design is sleek, albeit familiar, but the performance is outstanding and the camera is one of the best we’ve ever seen. Samsung has undoubtedly sold plenty of Galaxy S9 and S9+ phones since they were released, but sales seemingly haven’t lived up to the company’s expectations or to analysts’ expectations. We’ve seen numerous reports that sales have been disappointing so far, but all the evidence we needed to see was the fact that major wireless carriers in the United States slashed Galaxy S9 and S9+ prices just one month after the phones were released. Ouch.
Attention had initially turned to the Galaxy Note 9 expected to launch this coming August in the hopes that it might have some exciting new features to offer. Sadly, those hopes may have been extinguished last week. The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ feature designs that are nearly identical to their predecessors, and the Note 9 is expected to follow suit. Some reports suggested the phone might include at least one novel new feature to compensate for its familiar design, but then we learned last week from a solid source that won’t be the case. It’s certainly disappointing for Samsung fans, but we have some good news: A new report suggests the hotly anticipated new Galaxy S10 will include the exciting new feature everyone has been waiting for.
Sorry, Samsung fans, but it appears as though the upcoming Galaxy Note 9 will not include in in-display fingerprint sensor. A number of rumors over the past few months suggested it might, but a reliable source said last week that Samsung simply couldn’t pull it off. As a result, it’s looking more and more like we can expect the Note 9 to be to last year’s Galaxy Note 8 what the S9 and S9+ are to the Galaxy S8 and S8+. In a nutshell, they’re iterative updates that look almost exactly like their predecessors, just like Apple used to do with its “S” model iPhones.
The news is certainly a let down to people who had been eagerly anticipating the Galaxy Note 9. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, however. According to a new report from South Korea’s Chosun Economy, the upcoming Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ will include this exciting new feature.
Samsung’s current flagship phones feature an Infinity display design, where the screen takes up most of the front of the phones. In order to achieve this design, Samsung had to eliminate the home button and move the phones’ fingerprint sensors to the back. Beginning with the Galaxy S10, however, the fingerprint sensor will be built into the display itself. This technology is commonly referred to as FOD, or “fingerprint on display,” and we’ve seen the tech pop up on a few phones before. If this report pans out, however, the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ will be the first widely available phones from a big-name vendor to include new ultrasonic fingerprint sensors in their displays.
Now, for the bad news: we’ll remind you that the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ likely won’t be released until nearly a year from now. The Galaxy S9 and S9+ were released in March of this year, and it’s likely that they Galaxy S10 and S10+ will hit store shelves around the same time in 2019.
