The Samsung Galaxy S10 could be one of the most important smartphones Samsung has ever made. Having virtually no bezels, a fingerprint scanner and front-facing cameras under the display, and three cameras on the back — not to mention the rumored gradient color options — the Galaxy S10 is shaping up as a (potentially) awesome device. If rumors are to be believed, anyway.
Recent leaks indicate that all of the aforementioned features and more are coming to Samsung's next flagship, but there still are many questions left. How are the under-display cameras going to work? Are there going to be holes in the screen instead of a notch? What about the iris scanner and the earpiece? And, of course, what is it the phone itself going to look like?
In an attempt to paint a clearer picture of what to expect from the Samsung Galaxy S10 in terms of design and features, we dug deep in the well of rumors and information currently available about the upcoming flagship. In our research, we took into consideration not only the rumors currently circulating in the media but also a number of intriguing patents that could potentially shed more light on how the rumored under-display camera of the Galaxy S10 may work. Suffice to say, we stumbled on some very interesting stuff that makes us even more excited about Samsung's upcoming flagship.
Going from everything we've learned, we decided to create a series of conceptual renders of the Samsung Galaxy S10 that attempt to visualize and explain how the different features of the phone will work together. Without further ado, here they are.
Samsung has been adamantly anti-notch for quite some time now but at its developer conference earlier this month, the company revealed a series of notched displays that will most likely be coming to Samsung-branded devices in 2019 and beyond. These feature three distinctive styles of notch — V-shaped, U-shaped, and O-shaped — but what's got us interested the most is the fourth type of display, which is simply called "New Infinity" and has no notch. It was shown prominently on-screen during the presentation but wasn't addressed in any meaningful way on stage.
We can't say for sure whether the "New Infinity" tech will be ready for prime time for the Galaxy S10, but it clearly is Samsung's ultimate goal for mobile display technology. The Infinity V, U, and O are likely coming to Samsung's mid-range lineups, but we feel like the Galaxy S10 won't have a notch in the traditional sense. After all, Samsung spent so much effort lampooning Apple and Google, it would be quite strange to launch a milestone device like the S10 with a notch.
If current rumors are any indication, the Samsung Galaxy S10 will have many under-display sensors, including a fingerprint reader, one or more front-facing cameras, earpiece, and possibly an iris scanner. This sounds cool and all, but it actually raises more questions than it answers. For one, may people are worried that these under-display cameras will actually manifest as cut-outs in the display. Understandably so, with all the notch hate going around, people wouldn't want holes in their screens (although this would arguably be a better solution than the notch, purely in terms of providing a bigger display area).
The OnePlus 6T already has a camera under its display
But what if there didn't have to be holes? What if the cameras, along with other sensors, could be perfectly hidden under the screen, with content displaying on top as if there were nothing beneath? Well, this is entirely possible and we need look no further than the recent OnePlus 6T which uses a Samsung-made display and has an optical fingerprint scanner beneath. Unlike other phones with in-display fingerprint readers, which utilize only an image sensor under the screen, the OnePlus 6T actually has a tiny lens looking at your finger through a hole under the display that is almost invisible from the outside. Yet, despite this, content can be displayed normally over the cutout beneath the screen.
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OnePlus 6T's in-display fingerprint scanner has a lens and an image sensor. On the right, you can see what the screen looks like with the camera removed. Turning on the phone with the scanner detached still produces a bright enough picture that almost completely hides the aperture under the screen.
Having a camera under the display is possible with OLED. Due to the technology's nature, specifically the fact it doesn't require a backlight, OLED displays can be transparent, yet still show images visible to our eyes. This is because OLED panels can emit visible light on their own, without the need for a separate light source behind them.
The future of the selfie camera is under the display
This technology could potentially allow Samsung to not only hide the fingerprint reader and front-facing camera(s) beneath the screen, but also the iris scanner, without compromising the integrity of the display with notches or cut-outs.
While doing research, we also stumbled on an interesting patent from way back in 2005, describing how this could be achieved with the then-emerging OLED display technology. The patent was filed for by technology designer and engineer David Hartkop, and though it didn't make it through the litigation process, it was published and has since been referenced by the majority of big mobile tech companies. Over the 13 years since it was published, the patent was referenced and cited by the likes of Apple, LG, Samsung, and many others, including Google, Sony, Essential, and Kodak. Samsung most recently cited Hartkop's idea in a 2015 patent for — you guessed it — a device with a camera (and other sensors) under its display.
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This patent for a camera hidden behind an OLED display has been referenced by many tech companies over the years, including Samsung, Apple, and LG