Saturday, January 12, 2019

Samsung Galaxy X release date, price, rumors, leaks

Samsung Galaxy X release date, price, rumours, leaks, everything you need to know about the foldable smartphone

Samsung hopes to convince you to pay £1,000+ for an OLED display that folds-up like the pages of a paperback

Faced with increasingly tough competition from the likes of Huawei, Xiaomi, and OnePlus, Samsung is gearing up to unveil something entirely new in the form of a smartphone which has been nicknamed the Samsung Galaxy X.

After months of speculation, whispers and leaks, Samsung finally offered a brief glimpse at what it has planned for this next-generation flagship handset during its annual Developer Conference in San Francisco on November 7, 2018: a folding phone.

Speaking at the conference, Justin Denison, SVP of Mobile Product Marketing, produced a prototype of the Galaxy X from his pocket to rapturous applause from the crowd. Although the phone itself doesn't have an official name yet, the flexible display does.

Samsung is calling it the Infinity Flex Display.

The technology will not only be used for the so-called Galaxy X – or whatever it is called when it launches next year – mobile DJ Koh says the Infinity Flex Display will be used in a swathe of different devices, including more foldable tablets, and laptops.

Samsung clearly thinks its new technology will mark a massive change in the market.

Well, if you've cracked the engineering challenge of foldable screens – and it appears Samsung has – you might as well put them in everything. Folding 4K TVs, anyone?

Read on to find out everything we know about Samsung's folding smartphone so far.

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SAMSUNG GALAXY X FIRST LOOK

The foldable Galaxy X was unveiled at Samsung's Developer Conference held in the Moscone West convention centre in San Francisco on November 7, 2018.

Although we did technically get an early look at the smartphone in both its unfolded and folded forms, Justin Denison explained on stage "we've disguised some elements of the design but trust me, there's a device inside here and it is stunning."

That's good news because the Galaxy X didn't look particularly stylish when it was unveiled on-stage – with sharp, boxy corners and a chunky frame. It'll be interesting to see whether the finished article keeps the same design language used on the most recent Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Note handsets, including curved sides, centred rear-mounted camera and curved edges of the display.

Here's your first official look at the new handset in action.

SAMSUNG GALAXY X RELEASE DATE

Unfortunately, despite offering a fleeting glimpse at the pliable handset, no release date for the next-generation handset was revealed. However, Samsung SVP Denison did say "we'll be ready to start mass production in the coming months."

That tallies with the release date rumours leading up to the event – the Galaxy X won't launch until the first half of 2019. Samsung previously hinted its first foldable handset might be unveiled on-stage at CES 2019 in early January, or MWC 2019 in late February, two of the biggest technology expositions.

Well, it wasn't publicly shown at CES, though it did apparently get a private viewing, and we may not have to wait until MWC for our first look at the finished handset. That's because the latest leaks say that the Galaxy X will be unveiled on Wednesday 20 February 2019 at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked events in San Francisco and London. That's also the event where Samsung will launch its trio of Galaxy S10 smartphones, and perhaps its Galaxy Sport smartwatch, too.

But in terms of actually buying one? Immediately after the Unpacked reveal sounds a little optimistic. We're guessing a public release date of March/April 2018 at the earliest.

That gives you a bit of time to start saving because...

SAMSUNG GALAXY X PRICE

The Samsung Galaxy X is not going to be cheap. Samsung declined to confirm the final price tag for the Galaxy X when it showed off the somewhat-disguised handset. However, one thing is for certain – this is going to be a very expensive gadget.

According to a leaked report in the Korea Times, sources suggest this entirely-new category of folding handsets could mean paying a premium for the limited initial run of devices. As such, the Galaxy X priceis expected to be around the 2 million Korean won mark, which is about £1,365 – and that's beforetaxes.

Given the maxed-out Galaxy Note 9 already costs £1,099 ($1,249.99) – and that only has one screen – it would seem inevitable the next-generation folding smartphone will spiral even higher than that.

Californian technology firm Royole recently launched a folding phone, which sports a single, pliable OLED display – not the two that will be included on the Galaxy X, and that still topped £999 ($1,300).

So if you want the coolest smartphone of 2019, you'd better start saving for it.

SAMSUNG GALAXY X NAME

In absence of an official name for the folding phone, we're referring to it as the Samsung Galaxy X. Other names that have surfaced are the Samsung Galaxy F, the Samsung Galaxy Fold and the Samsung Rize.

While Samsung Galaxy Fold seems feasible from a literal point of view, it also seems a bit too literal for it to be the final name. But we could be wrong and then maybe the Samsung Galaxy S10 will actually be called the Samsung Galaxy Doesn't Fold when it get announced.

SAMSUNG GALAXY X SCREEN

Samsung Galaxy X has two OLED displays, although only one has the ability to fold.

The front of the Galaxy X sports a 4.5-inch screen, known as the Cover Display. According to the South Korean firm, this OLED display will work in a similar fashion to existing Samsung handsets. Based on the heavily-disguised prototype unveiled on-stage during the developer conference, the Galaxy X appears to have chunky bezels at the top and bottom of the handset.

If you're looking for more screen real estate than is available with the 4.5-inch Cover Display, opening up the handset reveals a second screen that's almost twice the size.

The foldable 7.3-inch Infinity Flex Display unfurls like the pages of a paperback to offer a bigger screen when playing games, watching movies, or running up to three applications side-by-side – a new feature that is called "multi active window".

Apps that are running on the smaller 4.6-inch cover display when users unfold the larger tablet display will appear on the bigger screen in the same state you left them.

Updated software will expand to take full advantage of the larger display. For example, news aggregate Flipboard expanded from a single column view on the 4.6-inch display, to three columns when viewed on the 7.3-inch screen. Developers will have to update their software to take advantage of the changing display sizes.

"We've been living in a world where the size of your screen can only be as large as the device itself," Samsung SVP Denison revealed to developers at the conference.

"Well, we've just added a new dimension. The Infinity Flex Display is the foundation for the smartphone of tomorrow."

He added that the phone can be folded “hundred of thousands of times” without getting damaged.

SAMSUNG GALAXY X SOFTWARE

How will the Galaxy X adapt to users swap between the Cover Display and the 7.3-inch folding tablet screen, and will applications move from one screen to the other seamlessly? That'll be just fine, Samsung has promised.

Samsung has overhauled its mobile OS ahead of the announcement of its foldable Galaxy X. Gone is TouchWiz – the Android skin designed by Samsung and used on its smartphone range since June 2010 – replaced instead with One UI.

"The Infinity Flex Display together with One UI delivers a new kind of mobile experience allowing users to do things they couldn’t do with an ordinary smartphone," Samsung said. "Users now have the best of both worlds: a compact smartphone that unfolds to reveal a larger immersive display for multitasking and viewing content. The app experience seamlessly transitions from the smaller display to the larger display as the device unfolds."

One UI will also enable the Samsung Galaxy X to run three apps simultaneously when in tablet mode, while the redesigned icons mean that "the rounded corner of our hardware is reflected in our software," according to Jee Won Lee, Senior Designer of UX Design at Samsung Mobile.

Following the announcement of the Galaxy X, Google confirmed plans to bake support for foldable displays into the Android operating system itself. Huawei, LG and Microsoft are all tipped to have a folding handset in the works.

In order to prevent the fragmentation of Android as each manufacturer designs and programs their own software solution for folding displays, Google has announced plans to build the functionality directly into the operating system itself.

Speaking during the Android Developer Summit in November, Google Vice President of Engineering Dave Burke said the company is “enhancing Android to take advantage of this new form factor with as little work as necessary.”

Google typically holds its annual developer conference, Google IO, in May. We'd bet our firstborn that the Mountain View-based company has plenty more about its optimisation for foldable handsets to share with software designers during IO 2019.

One UI will be tested on the Galaxy S9, S9+ and Note 9 in open beta, which should help to iron out any bugs before the launch of the Galaxy X.

You can read more about One UI and how to join the open beta – which is open to participants in the US, UK, India, China, South Korea, Germany, France, Spain and Poland – at Samsung's new One UI website.

SAMSUNG GALAXY X FEATURES

No features were shown off at the official Galaxy X debut in San Francisco.

However, Samsung mobile chief DJ Koh said previously revealed the long-awaited folding flagship will offer similar functionality to a tablet when the screen is unfurled, while the folding mechanism would allow the handset to be packed away to a portable and pocketable size.

In an interview with CNET, Koh talked about his ambitions for the new flagship phone, stressing that the foldability of the Galaxy X will not just be a gimmick, but will instead offer delicious new features and experiences for users.

Increasing the amount of screen real estate available on a smartphone is important, according to the Samsung chief. When the company first launched its Galaxy Note series back in October 2011, the 5.3-inch display was widely mocked for its size.

However, DJ Koh notes, after eight generations of the phablet, large-screen devices are now ubiquitous – with rival iPhone XS Max now offering a 6.5-inch display and Google Pixel 3 XL sporting a 6.3-inch screen.

"Possibly when we start selling the foldable phone, it may be a niche market, but definitely, it will expand," Koh said. "I'm positive that we do need a foldable phone."

"When we deliver a foldable phone, it has to be really meaningful to our customer," Koh revealed after the Galaxy A9 launch keynote earlier this year. "If the user experience is not up to my standard, I don't want to deliver those kind of products."

Interestingly, Samsung patents suggest Galaxy X will be compatible with its S Pen digital stylus – either the current Note one, or a new variant. That fits with rumours we've heard that the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note lines could merge next year.

Other features that could be included, although we have no concrete idea, are all the ones mooted for the other 2019 Galaxy – the Samsung S10. So there might be 5G connectivity and an in-screen fingerprint reader... or there might not.

Given the amount of innovation already in the Galaxy X around its screen, Samsung might very well to keep the rest of the feature set more established.

That also goes for waterproofing: Samsung has mastered this on its other Galaxy phones, but getting it on a foldable display might prove tricky. One other thing that we hopefully will see is wireless charging, as once you've had that, it's hard to go back.

SAMSUNG GALAXY X BATTERY LIFE

The latest reports say that the Samsung Galaxy X will pack two 3,100mAh batteries, bringing the total capacity to 6,200mAh. That figure is more or less in line with an earlier report out of South Koreawhich said that the handset would have two batteries offering a combined capacity of around 6,000mAh.

That's a massive amount of battery capacity – the Note 9 and the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus batteries are 4,000mAH and 3,500mAh respectively – but of course the Galaxy X has a massive amount of screen real estate to power.

So in terms of battery life that 6,200mAh number doesn't tell us a great deal. That will depend on how well Samsung manages to optimise the hardware and software for power usage (that's still a work in progress, apparently) and, of course, how often the phone user actually uses the full folded-out screen rather than the smaller screen on the outside of the handset.

Battery life will also be affected by the phone's connectivity: a 5G handset is going to be much more power-hungry than a 4G one, and we don't have confirmation on which of the Gs the Galaxy X will be packing.

SAMSUNG GALAXY X SPECS – RAM, STORAGE, AND CAMERA

With production already underway, the Galaxy X is tipped to be using the successor to the Snapdragon 845 to power everything. Saying that, this is a completely new design, so maybe Samsung will opt for something custom-made.

The question here is whether Samsung will go all out to add bells and whistles to its most innovative phone, or whether it has decided screen innovation is sufficient, and that buyers will be able to live with a more basic (though still high-powered) spec.

If it is charging well over £1,000 ($1,000) for the smartphone, you'd hope it was going down the bells and whistles route, though.

In terms of RAM, we might see 4GB-6GB installed, and the usual 64GB and 128GB storage options, although 256GB must be a possibility, assuming it can be made to fit. That lines up with the rumours we've been hearing for the other Samsung phones due to launch in 2019.

One component that could suffer is the camera – cramming the tech into a flexible or folding phone isn't going to be easy. Considering Samsung makes some of the best smartphone cameras in the business, though, we're hoping it can figure something out here.

We're looking forward to seeing more of Samsung's folding screen tech and we have a feeling that Huawei already has a response planned...

Samsung Galaxy S10 release date, price, features, leaks, rumors

It might not fold, but it sounds like there's still a lot to look forward to with the Galaxy S10 E, S10 and Galaxy S10 Plus

The Samsung Galaxy S10 range, which has a really cool codename inside the company, will be launched on Wednesday February 20, 2019. Samsung mobile chief DJ Koh has promised the forthcoming Galaxy S10 will feature "very significant" design changes and “amazing” colours, so it sounds like we could be looking at something truly special for the iteration of the Galaxy S line-up.

That makes sense given that the next flagship Galaxy S handset will mark the tenth anniversary of the wildly-successful smartphone range. As always with serious changes to the design of a flagship handset, expect to see a serious increase in price.

Of course, we don't expect the Samsung Galaxy S10 to be anything too revolutionary. After all, that honour is being reserved for the so-called Galaxy X, which will ship with two displays – including a 7.3-inch foldable OLED display that unfurls like the inside pages of a paperback to offer an optional tablet-like experience.

So, what do we really know about the next instalment of the hugely-popular Galaxy S range? Read on to find out.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S10 RELEASE DATE

The Galaxy S10 will be launched at an event on February 20, 2019. We know that because Samsung UK has sent out invites (with a '10' on them!) to a Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event in London at 7pm GMT. There will also be an event in San Francisco on the same day, that's 1am PT at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.

That's a little earlier than usual – after all, the Galaxy S9was launched at MWC on February 25, 2018 while the Galaxy S8 was unveiled in New York on March 29, 2017. However, it's worth noting the latter was an exception caused by the delays to the Galaxy S8 following the fallout from the overheating battery issue that did for the Galaxy Note 7. Until then, Samsung has used Mobile World Congress tradeshow to unveil its new flagship Galaxy S handset every year since the S5.

According to a report on Gizmodo, the latest Galaxy hardware will be available to pre-order as soon as the keynote finishes, with an official Samsung Galaxy S10 release date pegged for Friday March 8, 2019.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S10 NAME

Ever since the first Samsung Galaxy S saw the light of day in 2010, Samsung has stuck to an easy-to-understand naming convention, increasing numerically each year from Galaxy S2 to the S9, where we are now.

So the natural step for the 2019 Galaxy S would be Galaxy S10, right? Wrong. According to the latest hints from inside the company, as reported by The Investor, mobile chief DJ Koh said: "Although Samsung will stick to Galaxy, we have been thinking about whether we need to maintain the S moniker or the numbering system."

Best bets on the name should Samsung decide to drop the S10 from the brand name? Well, some sources claim an iPhone-alike Galaxy X name is on the cards, although that’s also the rumoured name for Samsung’s upcoming foldable phone.

One idea is that future phones will all be named the Galaxy X with the year of release afterwards, but that would get very confusing very fast. Samsung will probably wait until the last possible moment to let us know the new name, but if it's the end of the line for the Galaxy S moniker, it certainly had a good run.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S10 RANGE

Everything we've heard so far has indicated that the Samsung Galaxy S10 range will feature at least three models, codenamed "Beyond 0", "Beyond 1", and "Beyond 2".

Certification documents recently issued by the Chinese CMIIT government body confirms the administrative agency inspected three separate smartphones built by Samsung. These handsets appear to have all the hallmarks of the upcoming S10.

The model numbers are listed as SM-G9700, SM-G9730 and SM-G9750, which seem to the logical follow-up to the model numbers of the Galaxy S9 models, which were SM-G9600 and SM-G9650.

Based on the details included in the CMIIT reports, we're expecting the three versions of the Galaxy S10 to breakdown as follows –

"Beyond 0": Entry-level S10 E with 5.8-inch display, single rear-facing camera and LTE
"Beyond 1": Galaxy S10 with 6.2-inch display, dual rear-facing camera system, LTE
"Beyond 2": Galaxy S10 Plus with 6.44-inch display and all-new triple camera set-up
It's also been suggested the 5G version of Beyond 2 will have a 6.66-inch (!) display

The latter will be available in LTE and 5G compatible versions, the documents reveal.

As well as screen size and type, how the different S10 phones are specced internally also varies, with some S10 features (see below for details) exclusive to the top tiers.

A new report from GF Securities claims the maxed-out Galaxy S10 will ship with a staggering 12GB of RAM and a gargantuan 1TB of internal storage. That's more than most laptops even manage to offer.

This mammoth jump up in RAM will make for superfast image and video editing, still and video shooting, and gaming like never before.

This is likely a way to enable high-speed processing of the huge amounts of data that 5G will make the handset capable of receiving. On top of this, the 12GB of RAM could also be a way to future-proof the handset. This will allow it to be used in a headset for high-intensity virtual and augmented reality experiences.

Interestingly, the latest rumours suggest the S10+ (or Plus) will feature a 6.44-inch screen, which is actually bigger than that on the Note 9 phablet.

In order to make a handset with a pocket-busting display like that useable in day-to-day life, Samsung has engineered a new all-screen design. The company unveiled the new display technology amid a slew of new screen types – dubbed Infinity-U, Infinity-V, Infinity-O, and New Infinity – during its annual developer conference in San Francisco in November.

The first two sport small notches where the front-facing camera is still embedded in a solid bezel – much like the OnePlus 6T. The letters in the name refer to the shape of the bezel cut-out that holds the selfie camera and other sensors. For example, the Infinity V has flat sides and a sharp point in the notch, whereas the Infinity-U is all soft curves, like the shape of the letter "U".

Meanwhile, the Infinity–O has a small, floating pinhole at the top of the screen for the camera and the New Infinity has nothing at all. Previous rumours had hinted that Samsung had found a way to completely hide the sensors and camera lens behind the OLED display for a truly all-screen device.

Samsung offered a very early glimpse at the upcoming hardware during the annual Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit in early December. But while the finished article is widely-tipped to sport an Infinity-O style display, with its small circular cut-out for the front-facing camera lens – the only break in an otherwise all-screen design, that's not quite what we saw with the prototype device.

Instead, we got an egregious, sweeping notch that dominates the top right-hand corner of the smartphone display. And this from the company that publicly mocked Google Pixel 3 for its notch design. Oh, Icarus.

Thankfully, this is not guaranteed to be the final design. In fact, Samsung Senior Vice President Justin Denison told TechRadar: "You should think of that device as a sample device. Not necessarily indicative of what the final device will look like, its size, shape, or even the UI treatment."

With any luck, the rumours are accurate and Samsung is able to make a slick, edge-to-edge smartphone with a small cut-out for the selfie camera – and it will not have to resort to shipping a handset with this odd, asymmetrical notch.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S10 5G CONNECTIVITY

According to a reliable tipster, the Samsung Galaxy S10 will let you tear across the web and through your apps faster than ever, because it's set to be one if not the first super-fast 5G smartphones.

Weibo user 'Ice Universe', who has a good track record when it comes to leaking sensitive Samsung tidbits, has revealed that the Galaxy S10 will come with the next-gen 5G technology on board.

Samsung has confirmed plans to launch a 5G-compatible handset in 2019 – however, it's unclear whether this will be the Galaxy S10, or another handset.

Earlier this week, the South Korean technology firm confirmed plans to partner with mobile carrier Verizon in the United States in order to bring the as-yet unknown 5G-compatible device to market sometime in the first half of next year.

However, if the aforementioned CMIIT government agency certification documents are anything to go by, Samsung will sell a separate version of the Galaxy S10 Plus that boasts the superfast network technology.

Whether 5G technology will be up and running in your part of the world by next year is another matter. However, a select number of UK, US and Chinese cities are scheduled to have it by the start of 2019, but it won't be ubiquitous for a while.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S10 SPECS

Ice Universe has also revealed the Samsung Galaxy S10 screen is rumoured to "exceed 600 ppi". That would be an improvement on the display in the Galaxy S9, which has a resolution of 570 pixels-per-inch.

Powering everything could be the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, if leaker Roland Quandt is to be believed. This will bring the expected improved performance and better efficiency over Qualcomm's current chipset, the same sort of upgrade we get every year from Qualcomm's latest chip.

Samsung Galaxy S10 will include the company's own Exynos chip in certain markets, as it did for the S9 in Europe with the Exynos 9810 this year.

The all-new system-on-a-chip from Samsung boasts an improved Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that handles on-device Artificial Intelligence (AI) processes, as well as an improved LTE modem capable of downlink speeds of up to 2.0 Gbps.

Exynos 9820 is the first Samsung system-on-chip that sports a dedicated AI chip, following closely in the footsteps of Huawei’s Kirin 980 and Apple’s A12 Bionic.

Separating the AI functionality from the main CPU should speed-up a whole slew of everyday smartphone tasks, like opening applications, playing resource-intensive video games, and taking photographs and videos.

According to Samsung, single-core performance is 20% improved than the previous generation Exynos chipset. Meanwhile, power efficiency is 40% improved, which should significantly boost battery life in any handsets powered by the Exynos 9820.

Like its predecessor, the next-generation Exynos boasts a security chip tasked with storing and managing personal and biometric data, including facial maps and fingerprint scans, in an isolated portion of the system. This should reduce the risk of attacks from cybercriminals.

Samsung is leveraging its NPU to improve images and videos shot on smartphones powered by the Exynos 9820. The dedicated coprocessor will uplift results in a similar manner to the Pixel Visual Core in the latest Google Pixel handsets.

According to Samsung, the Exynos 9820’s advanced image signal processor (ISP) supports up to five sensors – hinting at its ambitions to include a slew of camera lens into its upcoming smartphones and tablets. The improved silicon will also improve the speed of the autofocus

When it comes to video capture, the Exynos 9820 is capable of something truly special. The new chipset supports encoding and decoding of 8K videos at 30fps.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S10 FEATURES

Despite months of increasingly credible leaks, we never did see an in-screen fingerprint reader on the Galaxy S9, and while there were rumours the technology was being tested for inclusion on the Note 9, those whispers turned out to be false.

However, Samsung now appears to finally be ready to launch its hotly-anticipated in-screen fingerprint reader with the Galaxy S10 range. The South Korean company is purportedly working closely with Qualcomm, which recently unveiled a new ultrasonic scanner system, which can read and authenticate fingerprints through a glass display, on-stage during its annual Technology Summit.

The component – which tallies perfectly with the long-rumoured feature headed to the next entry in the Galaxy S series – will begin shipping in mobile devices in the first half of 2019, Qualcomm announced.

Qualcomm has branded its innovative new fingerprint scanner "3D Sonic Sensor". Unlike traditional optical sensors, the ultrasonic variant from Qualcomm does not compare the print against a two-dimensional pattern previously stored.

Instead, Qualcomm's all-new 3D Sonic Sensor creates a three-dimensional mould of the fingertip by bouncing soundwaves off the skin through the display. According to Qualcomm, the sensor can capture a breathtaking amount of detail – down to the individual ridges and pores. This makes it far more accurate than optical sensors that compare the pattern of the fingerprint.

Of course, the security community has yet to perform real-world tests to push the sensor to its limits, so it's difficult to judge whether the 3D Sonic Sensor is a genuine leap forward in security for mobile devices.

However, from a technology perspective alone, it seems like the new Qualcomm component should eradicate the possibility of fooling a smartphone fingerprint sensor with an accurate image of the print.

According to months of whispers from the supply chain, Samsung will include an ultrasonic sensor with its next-generation flagship smartphone. The security benefits of the new system could be a strong differentiator compared to rival handsets likes the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and OnePlus 6T, which favour optical sensors.

According to recent patents, Samsung will couple this 3D Sonic Sensor system with technology that allows phone owners to place their fingertip anywhere on the screen to verify their identity.

This is a dramatically different approach from rival devices, like the OnePlus 6T and Huawei Mate 20 Pro, which use a small portion of the screen to scan fingerprints, typically the same size as the physical sensors found on other smartphone models.

According to the patent, the fullscreen in-display fingerprint scanner would use a secondary, low-power processor to work. The new independent silicon ramps up the brightness of the screen as soon as it detects contact and scans the print pressed against the glass three times for security.

This would make the sensor more accurate than current in-display sensors – not to mention easier to use.

Like the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, the Galaxy S10 series is widely-tipped to be able to wirelessly charge other devices by placing them on the back of the handset.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S10 CAMERAS

Samsung always likes to focus on cameras, and with Huawei upping the ante with a triple-lens camera on the back on the Huawei P20 Pro, Samsung will want to respond. More lenses? More aperture settings? Better low light performance?

It all looks like it could be on the cards for 2019.

While the new Samsung Galaxy A7 has the company's first triple lens camera, Samsung looks set to enhance the specs for the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 Plus.

According to the latest leaked S10 camera specs, the shooter on the flagship Galaxy range will include the same 12MP f/1.5-2.4 variable aperture lens that debuted on the Galaxy S9 paired with a super-wide angle 123-degree lens with 16MP sensor and f/1.9 aperture. Finally, Samsung will also purportedly include a 13MP f/2.4 aperture sensor.

These rumours of extra cameras are also seemingly backed up by phone industry analysts, with KBI Securities is claiming. Kim Dong-won says that Samsung plans to "reinvigorate" its business by adding a triple lens camera to the Galaxy S10.

As for other features, it's tricky to know what else Samsung could add to the existing S9 formula. We know that a foldable Samsung phone is in the works, but this is likely to be separate to the main Galaxy S line, with the foldable securely lodged in the top 5 foldable phones to expect in 2019.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S10 PRICE

Samsung has steadily increased the price of its flagship Galaxy S handset each year and – barring a massive economic downturn or sudden consumer demand for ridiculously expensive new technology – we expect this year to be no different in that respect.

The rising price tag of the Galaxy S series could explain why the South Korean company has decided to add its new "Beyond 0" lower-cost variant.

According to a reliable source speaking to Gizmodo, the following Galaxy S10 prices have now been confirmed by Samsung:

5.8-inch Galaxy S10 "Lite" with 128GB of storage: £669
6.1-inch Galaxy S10 with 128GB of storage: £799
6.1-inch Galaxy S10 with 512GB of storage: £999
6.4-inch Galaxy S10 Plus with 128GB of storage: £899
6.4-inch Galaxy S10 Plus with 512GB of storage: £1,099
6.4-inch Galaxy S10 Plus with 1TB of storage: £1,399

For comparison, the entry-level Galaxy S8 was released with a price tag of £639 ($725), while the Samsung Galaxy S9 sold for £739 ($720) at launch.

Given the introduction of a lower-end model and the improvements and tweaks purportedly planned for the Galaxy S10, the £60 increase on the previous model seems to make a lot of sense.

But what about prices on the other side of the pond? Unfortunately, a straight currency conversion doesn't offer many clues as history tells us that Samsung prices its handsets very differently on either side of the Atlantic.

For example, the Samsung Galaxy S9 launched at £739 in the UK, which equates to a whopping £935 when converted. That's not even close to the US price for the Galaxy S9, which launched with a $720 price tag in March 2017.

However, that's not to say that we can't read something into the leaked UK pricing. We can look at the percentage increase from UK pricing for the Galaxy S9 to the leaked Galaxy S10 prices and apply the same increase to the US Galaxy S9 launch prices. That should offer a better clue as to what Samsung might charge in the US.

For the Galaxy S10, the leaked UK launch price has increased by 8.12% over the Galaxy S9 launch price. For the Galaxy S10 Plus, the leaked UK launch price has increased by 3.45% over the Galaxy S9 Plus launch price.

Apply those price increases to the US launch prices of the S9 and S9 Plus, $720 and $840 respectively, and you'll get the best possible indication as to what you might be paying for the entry-level Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus when they launch next February.

Based on this calculation, Samsung Galaxy S10 will start at $779 and the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus will start at $869.

As for the rumoured £1,399 price tag of the maxed-out Galaxy S9 Plus, this tallies with earlier reports on the handset. According to a report from South Korean news site The Bell published earlier this year, "in order to realise 5G communication" in the Galaxy S10 an extra "4 ~ 5 more antennas are needed than 4G".

It concludes: "the price of the series can be the most expensive."

A lot can change between now and then in terms of supply costs and global markets. We'll see whether we were right next year.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S10 CONCEPTS

A Galaxy S10 concept by designer Jonas Daehnert

While we wait to see what the final Galaxy S10 design looks like, graphic designers have been creating their own renders based on the various S10 leaks.

Recently, this rather tasty depiction of the Samsung Galaxy S10 was released by DBSDesinging, which shows a luxe all-screen smartphone with a triple rear camera.

The above render by freelance designer Jonas Daehnert shows the S10 with a transparent backplate, triple lens camera and in-screen fingerprint reader.

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