Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus leak strongly suggests in-screen fingerprint scanner

Techradar:

You don’t have to wait for the Galaxy S10 launch event to see Samsung’s new phones for 2019 in the wild.

One week early, a new video leak surfaced today, showing the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus with a screen protector. The video was leaked by Mobile Fun.

Sure, we’ve seen Galaxy S10 screen protectors and cases before, but the phone is allegedly present with this screen protector, and the video shows the screen actually turning on.

In the video, we can see there are holes in the screen protector. One portion is cut out to let the front-facing cameras poke through.

The biggest news from this Galaxy S10 Plus leak is the other hole, which appears in the lower portion of the screen protector. This circular hole backs up rumors that the Galaxy S10 Plus is getting an in-screen fingerprint sensor underneath the glass.

Samsung works closely with Qualcomm on the chipset used inside many of its smartphones, and Qualcomm is now touting its ultrasonic fingerprint sensor technology as part of the Snapdragon 855 chipset.

The Samsung Galaxy S10 line may be the first to get the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, with other phones to follow at MWC 2019.

Cause for skepticism

There are a few reasons to be skeptical, though. While the display does turn on in the video, there is no on-screen indication that a fingerprint scanner is underneath the screen.

The last few generations of Samsung's flagship phones have had their fingerprint scanners on the back of the phone, and the video doesn't rule out the possibility that there's still a scanner around back.

There’s also no telling how necessary the screen protector cutout will be, the OnePlus 6T, for example, still works through a screen protector, but it does use different optical technology.

What else to expect from the Galaxy S10 Plus

This leak does seem to line up with some other rumors we've encountered for the Galaxy S10 Plus.

The dual front-facing cameras are believed to complement up to four more camera sensors on the rear of the phone (though one on each side might be a depth-focused, Time of Flight sensor). 

As the S10 Plus is also expected to included the new Snapdragon 855 chipset, it would make sense for it to include Qualcomm's in-screen fingerprint scanning technology. Though, that does leave the question of what tech will be used in the S10 Plus variants that are built around Samsung's own Exynos chipset.

With all of that, there's even rumor that the S10 Plus will included options for 12GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. 

Everyday there’s a new Samsung Galaxy S10 leak, so expect to see more of the Plus and the Samsung Galaxy S10e between now and February 20.

• Find the best Samsung Galaxy S10 deals here when the phone launches

from TechRadar: Photography & video capture news http://bit.ly/2SQ6fdk
via IFTTT