S10 leaks: What we know about Samsung's next milestone phone

The Samsung Galaxy S9 (pic) is a great phone. How will its successor top that?

According to various leaks and smartphone renders swirling online, Samsung is on track to make its Galaxy flagship smartphone the first to feature a new "hole punch" style of selfie camera.

The last hurdle in the way of a bezel-less phone, the selfie camera has increasingly been integrated into a so-called notch at the top of the screen, a design adopted by Apple for its iPhone and by Google for the latest Pixel to a lukewarm response.

But the next wave of smartphones is set to be shaped by a new display technology that allows manufacturers to embed a small hole for the selfie camera inside the screen, making for a small black dot in the display.

While the hole punch approach for the selfie camera may take some getting used to, the fact that it allows for a smartphone without bezels on the top and bottom will likely ease any pain.

A photo tweeted last week shows phones with stunningly large screens with black dots in the top-right corners. Beyond the fancy front-facing camera, what else do we know?

Leaked information this week points to Samsung planning three – not just two – new phones in the S series: the S10, the S10+ and a flat version – speculated to be without the curved edges – which has been named by reliable leaker Ice Universe as the S10 Lite.

The S10 will have a 6.1in Super Amoled display and one front camera as well as three cameras on the back. Samsung's larger S10+ phone will feature a dual selfie camera, which will likely also mean a slightly largely black hole in an otherwise pristine Amoled screen.

This dual-lens feature, familiar from phones like the Google Pixel 3, brings the benefit of better selfie shots with a strong feeling of depth, as well as the option to fit more people into a group selfie with a wide-angle lens.

The S10 Lite will be smaller, at 5.8in and will only feature two back cameras, and is also rumoured to feature flat edges, instead of the usual curved screens on the S-series. The website Gizmodo reports that the new S10 generation will also be able to wirelessly charge other devices.

The S10 is also expected to have a fingerprint scanner under the screen. The storage capacities will vary from 128GB for the S10 Lite – but the S10 will also come in a 512GB version and the S10+ is even available with 1TB of storage – and will probably cost you a pretty penny too.

According to Gizmodo, the top-end version will cost a massive US$1,770 (RM7,400) in Britain.The website's source also said the phone is set to be formally unveiled on Feb 20, 2019, before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where last year's S9 flagships debuted. – dpa