The Galaxy S10 series of Android flagships may look nearly identical to the Galaxy S9 family launched earlier this year, with a number of Samsung employees presently advocating for that product design strategy, one known industry insider from China said earlier this weekend. The source who previously suggested being close to Samsung’s mobile component suppliers indicated Samsung still hasn’t made any firm decisions on the overall look of the Galaxy S10 series, though the line was previously alleged to avoid major visual changes compared to its predecessors which themselves are largely based on the aesthetic of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus introduced in early 2017.
The 18.5:9 Super AMOLED panels Samsung included into the last several generations of its flagships, advertising them as “Infinity Display” modules, remain the only commercially successful proof of a bezel-less mobile design working with a symmetrical screen, i.e. one that doesn’t feature a notch. The South Korean tech giant is hence expected to continue using such panels in its upcoming high-end offerings, meaning the company will likely be limited in regards to the number of significant design changes it can deliver in the near term. The Galaxy S9 line was a largely iterative upgrade over the Galaxy S8 and sold poorly, with a general lack of innovation it delivered being one of the most commonly cited criticisms against the series.
Even should the Galaxy S10 lineup end up being visually similar to the last two generations of Samsung’s flagships, it’s widely expected to debut a number of major additions, including an ultrasonic fingerprint reader embedded below the display panels of the upcoming devices, as well as a 3D front-camera setup capable of sensing depth. The next high-end series from Samsung is currently rumored to feature three models and should be introduced near the end of the first quarter of 2019, most likely at the next iteration of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.