Samsung’s Galaxy S10 is still several months away, but the flagship keeps appearing in leaks and reports, suggesting that the launch is indeed nearing. The latest story out of Korea says something we’ve come to suspect for a while now — that the Galaxy S10 will have the kind of design we’ve always dreamed about.
In previous weeks, we saw Samsung tease and announce an Infinity-O display that’s now believed to be the screen of the Galaxy S10: A display that extends from edge to edge, featuring only a tiny hole at the top for the selfie camera. Other leakers also mentioned the new screen design coming to the Galaxy S10 series.
Now, Korean site TheElec claims the phone will have a zero-bezel OLED screen, which means the phone won’t have top or bottom bezels. Instead, the phone would feature two holes at the top, one each for the camera lens and infrared sensor, while all other sensors typically found inside a top bezel would go under the screen.
Samsung Display is currently developing these screens using diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) lasers to drill holes in displays, the report says. Meanwhile, Samsung is creating a new user interface that would accommodate the holes. The status bar at the top of the phone would display information on the left and right side of the hole, including carrier name, cellular antenna signal, battery life, time, and more. A black border may hide the camera during video playback.
Manufacturing these screens is tricky enough that Samsung considered a backup plan which involves planting a tiny L-shaped notch on the top right or left side of the display housing the front camera and sensors. Samsung did introduce other Infinity displays at SDC18 last week, including Infinity-U and Infinity-V screens that have tiny notches at the top, even smaller than the OnePlus 6T’s top bezel.
The report also notes that Apple is “likely” to go for a zero-bezel display in the future, according to an industry observer. Apple does have a patent that details the kind of technology required to drill holes into a screen, but it seems unlikely that Apple will drop the notch. That’s because all of Apple’s new iPhones come with Face ID support or 3D facial recognition that’s powered by an array of components placed inside the notch.
