Samsung Galaxy S10 Allegedly Codenamed 'Beyond,' Could Have In-Display Fingerprint Scanner

The Samsung Galaxy S9 is barely three months old, but Samsung is already working on its successor. A new report claims that the Galaxy S10 has already been given the codename “Beyond.”

The codename for the Galaxy S10 was first discovered by The Bell. Samsung’s codenames for its flagship phones are used to describe the company’s goals. For example, the Galaxy S8 was codenamed “Dream” because it was Samsung’s dream at the time to surpass Apple. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S9 was codenamed “Star” because Samsung believed it would be the star of 2018. The codename “Beyond” may be implying that Samsung wants to go beyond what Apple and Chinese smartphone makers have to offer.

The Bell also reports that Samsung is planning to include an in-display fingerprint scanner in the Galaxy S10, which is now being referred to as Finger On Display. The website claims that Samsung has already informed its partners that it will indeed include the technology and that it’s seen as an essential feature to introduce for the 10th anniversary of the Galaxy S series.

A Samsung representative claims that the big four Chinese phone makers, namely Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi, are already preparing premium smartphones with in-display fingerprint scanners. However, Samsung doesn’t feel the need to be in a hurry.

Samsung is allegedly testing various types of in-display fingerprint scanning technologies. This includes solutions from Qualcomm, Synaptics and taiwan’s Ezetek. Qualcomm’s solution uses an ultrasonic sensor, while Synaptics and Ezetek use optical sensors. As of late, Samsung is still undecided on which technology to use for the Galaxy S10, but it could source sensors and modules from multiple vendors.

Another thing that Samsung is rumored to be working on is the inclusion of a 3D-sensing front-facing camera. However, it’s now being reported that Samsung might actually not include the technology in the Galaxy S10. Samsung has been working with Mantis Vision to develop the technology, but it looks like it won’t be ready by the time the Galaxy S10 is announced. An electronics industry official claims that they haven’t seen “mass production movements” for 3D sensing modules.

Apple was able to bring a 3D-sensing module to the iPhone X with its TrueDepth camera system. This technology allowed the Face ID facial recognition to work on the iPhone X. Samsung already has facial recognition on the Galaxy S9, but it’s still not as secure as Face ID, which uses infrared dot projectors to capture an accurate 3D representation of the user’s face.

The Bell has a solid track record when it comes to providing information on Samsung’s upcoming flagship phones, as pointed out by BGR. That being said, the specs provided for the Galaxy S10 should still be considered a rumor for now since it's still a long way before Samsung could reveal any real information about its 2019 flagship phone.