Samsung Galaxy S10 Tipped to Sport Qualcomm's Ultrasonic Fingerprint Scanner, W2019 Flip-Phone Said to Sport Snapdragon 845 SoC

Samsung is all set to celebrate its decade anniversary of its 'Galaxy S' series next year with the launch of the Galaxy S10. Reports of the device sporting an in-display fingerprint scanner have been doing the rounds, and now a new report seems to corroborate the same. The report states that the Galaxy S10 will sport an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, which is more advanced than the optical fingerprint scanner used in many current devices.

An ETNews report out of South Korea suggests that Samsung will integrate Qualcomm's third-generation ultrasonic fingerprint scanner into the Galaxy S10. The first-gen scanner was unveiled in 2015, and the second-gen was unveiled in June last year. The third-gen ultrasonic fingerprint scanner has reportedly impressed Samsung, and is going to be integrated into the Galaxy S10 next year. The company has reportedly roped in Taiwanese manufacturers General Interface Solutions (GIS), and O-Film to produce these sensors. Unlike optical sensors, the ultrasonic sensor sticks to the back of the display panel. Optical sensors are reported to affect image quality on the display, and are also vulnerable to lighting and other outside influences. Ultrasonic sensors also take a 3D image of the fingertips, taking into account ridges and pores, making it more accurate than the optical sensor.

A previous report suggested that two most premium variant will have the in-display fingerprint sensor, while the other third variant may sport a rear-mounted fingerprint solution. There is said to be a 5.8-inch model in the Galaxy S10 lineup with a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, the two other models in the new family with 6.1- and 6.4-inch display sizes are claimed to feature ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensors.

A separate report from XDA Developers suggests that Samsung's upcoming flip phone called the W2019 may be powered by the Snapdragon 845 SoC. The publication derived this information by digging into the kernel source code of the Galaxy S9's Snapdragon variant. The report states that it found references to the codename 'lykan', and found two files with the name- 'sdm845-sec-lykanlte-chn-r00.dtb' and 'sdm845-sec-lykanlte-chn-r01.dtb' - and these both point towards the next flip phone being powered by the Snapdragon 845 chip.

As per the report, the Samsung W2019 flip phone is said to be in the works under the project name 'Lykan', lending more weight that is indeed the flip phone that has been referenced in the source code. This also falls in line with Samsung's tradition of integrating the flagship SoC into its flip phone variant since 2016. It launched its first flip phone in November 2016 with the Snapdragon 820, and the W2018 was launched in December last year powered by the Snapdragon 835 processor. So, it only seems fair that the next W2019 variant be powered by the latest and greatest Snapdragon processor.

There's no other information on the flip phone yet, and we expect it to be launched in the coming months. The smartphone has so far been launched only in the Chinese market, and it remains to be seen whether the company looks to break that trend or not.