Samsung Galaxy S10 5G: It's more than just 5G

The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G is finally available in the U.S. This key smartphone release from the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturer truly fires the starting gun for 5G. Although it’s clearly the talking headline, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G has a lot more in store than just faster data speeds.

Let’s explore what the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G has to offer and its implications for the mobile industry this year.

Hands-on: Samsung’s Galaxy S10 set a new bar

Under the hood of the Galaxy S10 5G

The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G is the chunkiest version in the Galaxy S10 range. For starters, it has a bigger display, a whopping 6.7-inch panel here and a total weight of 198g. That’s 40g heavier than the regular S10 model and it’s clearly a lot bigger in the hand too. Overall we’re looking at somewhere around Galaxy Note 9 size. The phone is also a tad thicker too, although only by 0.14mm. That’s a relief to those who may have feared that 5G was going to lead to incredibly thick smartphones.

Fortunately, most of the key specifications are the same. There’s a cutting edge Snapdragon 855 or Exynos 9820 processor onboard for blazing fast performance. However, to make the phone 5G ready Samsung also included Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X50 modem. The phone also keeps the in-display fingerprint sensor, Wi-Fi 6 support, and fast wireless charging. Clearly, the Galaxy S10 5G is designed to retail as a fully fledged flagship and not a compromised early adopter model.

The Galaxy S10 5G isn’t going to be everything to all consumers through. According to Samsung’s spec sheet, the 5G model will come with a couple of memory options — 256GB and 512GB. That’s a lot, but the 1TB configuration won’t be making an appearance. The phone is also missing a microSD card slot, which could be a deal breaker for those who like portable, swappable storage.

Despite those compromises, Samsung has included another intriguing first in the Galaxy S10 5G — 3D depth-sensing cameras.

What is a 3D depth camera?

A 3D depth camera basically does what it says – it measures the distance from the camera to an object in its field of view. This is accomplished by quickly illuminating the scene with a controlled light source, such as infrared, and measuring the time and/or luminosity of backscattered light. Samsung’s implementation appears to use two sensors, suggesting that stereo vision also plays a part in calculating this distance.

Dedicated 3D depth sensing cameras aren’t new, they’ve already appeared in the Lenovo Phab2 Pro and the ASUS Zenfone AR. The LG G8 ThinQ also features a time-of-flight sensor. These phones, and many others, support Google’s ARCore to bring augmented reality applications to the masses.

Samsung lists the resolution of these cameras as hQVGA. That’s 240 x 160 pixels or just 0.0384 megapixels. Certainly not good enough to take a nice looking picture with, but that misses the point. That is enough resolution to obtain plenty of depth information about whatever the camera is pointing at.

Importantly, the Galaxy S10 5G includes these 3D depth cameras on both the front and the back. On the front, this technology will probably most likely be used to produce high quality, highly accurate software bokeh for portrait pictures. Due to its limited resolution, this camera is unlikely to be suitable for face mapping and biometric security.

On the back, Samsung specifically mentions improvements for its Video Live Focus (adjustable background blur) and Quick Measure, presumably a bit like Apple’s Measure app. But what’s more exciting is the possibility of real-time augmented reality mapping in your environment. You’ve probably seen those demos showcasing how new furniture might fit in your living room or what it would look like if you painted your walls a new color. The Galaxy S10 5G’s 3D cameras can support those type of applications and many more. 3D mapping also has interesting implications for virtual reality too, something that Samsung keenly supports with its Gear VR headsets.

In terms of empowering new consumer use cases, the inclusion of 3D depth mapping cameras could be more revolutionary than support for 5G.

About those new 5G bits

The move to 5G has necessitated a few compromises on Samsung’s part. The extra large size of the phone is one, as the company needs to find extra room for the mmWave antennas and modem. More so, the extra size is likely also necessary to accommodate the larger 4,500mAh battery. Usually, we’d expect multi-day battery life from a cell that large, but 5G is estimated to consume a fair bit more power. This huge battery is likely needed to keep screen-on time comparable with existing consumer expectations. Although we’ll reserve our judgment until we’ve spent meaningful hands-on time with the Galaxy S10 5G.

5G is a complex specification, and the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G support the Non-Standalone part of that specification, as is expected from first-wave 5G smartphones. So, although the phone supports early 5G NSA networks, it isn’t future-proofed against the 5G SA networks that could arrive as early as 2021 or 2022. We’ll have to wait until the Snapdragon X55 modem appears in devices at the end of 2019 before we talk about future-proofed Standalone support.

Samsung’s Galaxy S10 5G spec sheet lists sub-6GHz support, in addition to mmWave. This will be important when this phone heads to regions like Europe and parts of Asia, where mmWave technology isn’t being adopted as quickly as in the U.S. On the mmWave side, the phone supports 28GHz and 39GHz spectrum. You’ll want to keep an eye out on those frequencies when the phone gets around to a more global launch.

Verizon currently holds the lion’s share of 28GHz bands in the U.S. and almost half of the available 39GHz band too. So it’s perhaps not surprising that the carrier is first to partner up with Samsung. Both T-Mobile and Sprint have a small amount of 28GHz, while AT&T is more reliant on 39GHz. Fortunately, the Galaxy S10 5G will work with all those carriers. Although the specs suggest that the upcoming 24GHz spectrum auction in the U.S. isn’t as important, at least as far as the Galaxy S10 5G is concerned.

Read more:

• AT&T 5G roadmap
• Sprint 5G roadmap
• T-Mobile 5G roadmap
• Verizon 5G roadmap

When and where can I get my hands on the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G?

In the U.S., the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G is exclusive to Verizon initially. The device is now available from the carrier at a starting price of $1299 or $54.16 per month for two years. This gets you a 256GB model, while the 512GB variant will set you back $1,399 or $58.33 per month for two years. The phone is currently available online and at Verizon’s brick-and-mortar stores. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Spectrum Mobile, and Xfinity Mobile will all then carry the phone from “this summer.”

In addition, the company has already launched the Galaxy S10 5G in South Korea, starting on April 5 for the starting price of 1.5 million won (~$1,329). Samsung has also confirmed that Galaxy S10 5G pre-orders will kick off in the U.K. from May 22, then going on sale from June 7. The phone is also available for pre-order in Switzerland, with sales commencing on June 14.

Even if you lay your hands on a Samsung Galaxy S10 5G in the coming months, compatible networks will only be live in a number of cities. Ubiquitous coverage even in the U.S. is still years away. Be sure to check out your carrier’s 5G coverage before splashing out well over $1,000 for the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G.

Up next: The best Samsung Galaxy S10 5G cases