Samsung's Galaxy S10 Carries 'Beyond' Codename, In-Display Fingerprint Reader Likely
According to a new report coming out of South Korea, Samsung is planning something revolutionary for the Galaxy S10, which is being developed under the codename "Beyond". For reference, the Galaxy S8 held the codename "Dream", while the Galaxy S9 was codenamed "Star".
The Galaxy S10 will mark the 10th anniversary of Samsung's popular smartphone family, so the company is likely looking to pack in a lot of next-generation technology into the devices, much like Apple did with the iPhone X (which also marked the 10th anniversary of that product line in 2017).
It's rumored that the upcoming smartphone family will adopt an in-display fingerprint sensor, which was rumored for both the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S9 devices, but never came to fruition. However, a new design patent has been revealed that highlights a sensor embedded within the AMOLED display. In fact, the light-emitting capabilities of the AMOLED display is instrumental in recognizing a user's fingerprint.
It's possible that we might see this technology in the Galaxy Note 9, which should launch later this year, but it's more likely to make its debut in the Galaxy S10 (if at all). So far, only Vivo has launched a smartphone that incorporates an in-display fingerprint reader, although it is not widely available outside of China. It's also reported that the Galaxy S10 is not likely to feature a 3D sensing module for facial recognition, as seen on the iPhone X (Face ID).
With that being said, not much else is known at this time given that the Galaxy S10 is still nearly a year away. However, we can expect for the smartphones to continue using Samsung's own Exynos processors for most global markets, while adopting Qualcomm Snapdragon processors (perhaps the Snapdragon 855) for China and the United States.
The Snapdragon 855 will reportedly be built on new 7nm process technology, as opposed to the 10nm process used by the Snapdragon 845. The chip will reportedly feature a Snapdragon X24 LTE modem capable of [theoretical] 2 gigabits per second (Gbps) download speeds with support for 7x carrier aggregation (downlink) and 4x4 MIMO (up to five aggregated LTE carriers).