This may be the first real look at the Samsung Galaxy S10

Something to look forward to: Notoriously reliable leaker Evan Blass has revealed the Samsung Galaxy S10 in glorious detail. Surprising no one, it’s functionally bezel-less and has the Infinity-O hole punch that will likely take the notch’s role for 2019.

Above: unconfirmed render of the Galaxy S10 and S10 Lite. Below: Evan Blass' latest leak which is almost certain to be what the real-life Galaxy S10 will look like when finally launched come February. The hole punch goes on the upper right corner.

For the unaware, Blass leaks the next Galaxy S phone shortly before its launch at Mobile World Congress in February. He’s been dead right for the last few years, making this leak about the most reliable you can get. That being said, there are some interesting things going on in the picture below.

For one, there are no virtual buttons at the bottom of the phone, just three straight lines. This is something we’ve seen before from other manufacturers and third party apps where each line corresponds with a button, but most people have criticized that kind of interface for being clunky. It would be surprising to see the new Android 9 Pie button configuration not enabled by default. 

However, the phone has been substantially changed from any default settings: the background is not something Samsung would launch with, the app icons are arranged in what looks like a 5x7 grid, and the phone looking icon in the bottom left corner is different from Samsung’s One UI design. In One UI and Samsung’s recent icon releases, the phone logo has always been within a block shape.

Once the phone's tilt is corrected for, the aspect ratio of the phone seems to be about in-between the 18.5:9 the S9 had and the 19:9 the S10 is rumored to have, so it’s hard to draw a conclusion there. Intriguingly the case the phone seems to be in has gaps along the whole width of the bottom and the top – could it be the first phone with top and bottom-mounted stereo speakers? That’d be pretty awesome.

Examining the cases other leakers have put out yields a bit of a different story, however. In those leaks, there haven’t been openings for speakers at the top or bottom, just for the headphone jack and USB-C port. Samsung’s own cases for the S9 leave an opening for the speaker, while iPhone X cases tend to leave that opening at the bottom for the Home gesture which swipes from the bottom upwards.

Galaxy S10 Lite leaked cases have openings for the power button while the Bixby button and volume rockers have been covered, which suggests it will employ a side mounted fingerprint scanner to save on costs.

The S10 and S10+ cases have no openings for the side buttons or for the fingerprint scanner on the back, which is consistent with rumors that the S10 will be the first phone to feature Qualcomm’s newly announced “3D Sonic Sensor” for an under-screen fingerprint scanner.

Previous leaks show the S10 Lite coming with a flat 5.8” screen, the S10 with a curved 6.1” screen and the S10+ with a curved 6.4” screen; all of which will have holes for the camera. We’ll have to wait for the launch at Mobile World Congress in late February to see a confirmation and the real thing in the flesh.