Newly surfaced information now appears to confirm at least some of the rumors surrounding Samsung’s next premium flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S10, according to details provided to Bloomberg by an unnamed source said to be familiar with the devices. Most notably, the source claims that the company is currently in talks with Verizon regarding the inclusion of 5G wireless connectivity on the carriers network. The implication is that one of the three purported Samsung Galaxy S10 handsets will support next-generation mobile networking and be presented first through that service provider. Unsurprisingly, the source claims each will run Android 9 Pie out of the box. But another big change that might show up in at least one of the phablets is the removal of the 3.5mm headphone port. There’s no indication as to which of the three might include support for those radio bands or see the removal of the headphone jack.
In the meantime, there will reportedly be at least two standard flagships in the group, following Samsung’s tradition of including a standard and ‘Plus’ variant. The overall size and shape of the smaller Galaxy S10 are said to be approximately the same as this year’s Galaxy S9 model at 5.8-inches. That will also incorporate a new design to enable a considerable reduction to top and bottom bezels. The larger configuration will be sold as well and both will feature three primary cameras with a single front shooter that’s visible but moved underneath the display panel. The fingerprint scanner will also be placed under the panel, the sources claim. Simultaneously, the company is said to be working to release a less expensive model that drops the curved edge display technology and uses a more standard fingerprint scanner in order to cut costs.
The purpose of including a budget model as well as more traditional ones is to help stave off encroaching Chinese companies and gain a stronger footing against long-time rival Apple, according to the industry insider. Samsung has predominantly remained ahead of the latter company in sales but Apple periodically catches up with the launch of new devices. Meanwhile, companies such as Huawei and Oppo are said to be causing trouble for Samsung because they offer a similar performance at a significantly lower price point.
Background: Samsung’s last flagship only just launched in March but rumors and leaks have already been running rampant about the next generation of the series for several weeks. While most of what’s included in this latest batch has already been rumored in prior speculation, there is at least one discrepancy between those. An earlier alleged GF Securities leak via Chinese social media network Weibo included images which seemed to show four total variants rather than three. The images showed that each would have a different RAM capacity, likely associated with cost. Those included a 4GB version that would presumably be used in the budget-friendly Galaxy S10, in addition to configurations with 6GB, 8GB, and 12GB. It’s possible that the source behind the newest information is mistaken and that both the device without a headphone jack and the one with 5G support will be completely separate but it isn’t clear what other differences might exist between them.
Impact: The differences between leaks from various sources, however, don’t necessarily mean much. It isn’t unusual for details about phones that are still in development to come forward with minor deviations while most of the commonly shared information among those bears out. What’s more, the handsets aren’t expected to launch until some time near the beginning of 2019, following Samsung’s long-established timeline for new device launches. Samsung’s mobile head DJ Koh has also previously said that the Galaxy S10 will bring a lot of change to the Korean tech giant’s flagship family. So it won’t likely be more of the same from Samsung, regardless of how accurate the rumors turn out to be.