With only weeks to go ahead of the unveiling of Samsung’s new flagship smartphone, the rumour mill picked up pace as to the new innovations it will feature.

The device is important to Samsung as it looks to generate growth in a lacklustre market, where the appetite for expensive devices is muted and fierce competition in the mid-tier is hitting vendors’ profitability – with Samsung not immune to these woes. It will also come up against Huawei’s next-generation flagship, with the Chinese company currently carrying strong momentum in the mobile devices segment (against an unsettled backdrop in the networks segment).

Speculation has it that while the company is likely to offer a pair of high-end devices as usual (Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+), it will also offer a lower-spec sibling, tagged either Galaxy S10e or Galaxy S10 Lite. This would enable it to tackle spiralling prices for flagships by offering a more affordable variant, while still benefiting from the “halo” effect of the high-end devices.

Specifications
The high-end devices will feature in-display front-facing cameras (dual cameras for Galaxy S10+), something already been seen in a Samsung device (with Huawei’s Honor also following a similar path). With the number of rear cameras also steadily on the up, Samsung appears to have settled on a triple set-up for the higher-spec versions.

Mooted screen sizes are 5.8-inches (Galaxy S10e), 6.2-inches (Galaxy S10) and 6.44-inches (Galaxy S10+), with the biggest devices encroaching firmly on the territory of Samsung’s Galaxy Note line.

It has also been suggested the devices will feature Wi-Fi 6, the latest version of the technology, delivering a number of benefits for customers (as long as they have high-spec access points). Also anticipated are in-display fingerprint readers, removing the need for a separate fingerprint scanner, and wireless charging with “reverse” support, to enable the smartphone to charge other compatible devices.

As usual for Samsung, it will offer devices both using its own in-house Exynos processors or Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 855 chips.

Cost
As for the all important price, Gizmodo mooted a starting price of £669 for the base “budget” device; £799 for the entry-level Galaxy S10; and £899 for the base Galaxy S10+ – in each case, this is with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. The two flagship devices would feature bigger storage and RAM options, upping the price accordingly, with a Galaxy S10+ with 1TB of storage and 12GB of RAM topping the list at a pricey £1,399.

Some sites have suggested pricing in Euros which seem to be in line with this.

Online ordering is expected to begin on 21 February – the day after Samsung’s launch event – with device availability on 8 March.

It has also been mooted that a device called Samsung Galaxy S10 X will be the South Korean company’s first 5G smartphone, although it also seems that the commercial launch for this is not imminent. Likewise, Samsung is also expected to update on its anticipated folding smartphone (which has been tagged Galaxy X by observers), potentially with an eye toward potential commercial launch.