Samsung Galaxy S10 could get a serious battery life boost, new leak reveals

Samsung will hold its Galaxy Unpacked events this week, on Wednesday February 20, 2019. The press conferences, held simultaneously in London and San Francisco, are widely-tipped to see the launch of the Galaxy S10e, S10 and S10 Plus, as well as a new fitness-orientated Galaxy Watch Active, Galaxy Fold bendable flagship phone, wireless Galaxy Bud earbuds, and new wrist-worn fitness trackers, dubbed Galaxy Fit and Galaxy Fit E.

Ahead of the media event, we've seen a glut of rumours, speculation and leaked renders online. In the final few days before Samsung mobile chief DJ Koh takes to the stage to officially announce the new hardware line-up, we've now seen one final rumour around the Galaxy S10 range. And it's a real doozy.

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Technology blog GSM Arena has published a detailed breakdown of all of the features and specs planned for the Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 Plus, which are codenamed Beyond 0, Beyond 1 and Beyond 2 inside the South Korean company, respectively. It is these codenames that appear on the leaked sheet.

GSM Arena has a proven track record when it comes to leaks around as-yet unannounced smartphones, and the information included in the two sheets of A4 tallies with a number of previous whispers we've heard from trusted sources.

So, it certainly looks like this is the real deal. As well as reiterating a number of previous leaks, the leaked document also reveals some interesting new tidbits about the battery life of the Galaxy S10 range.

According to the leaked specs sheet, pictured below, Samsung will increase the battery capacity of every single model of its new handset. The Galaxy S9 had a 3,000mAh battery cell, while the Galaxy S10 will purportedly boast a 3,400mAh. Meanwhile, the larger Galaxy S9 Plus sported a 3,500mAh, which looks set to increase to a whopping 4,100mAh capacity in the Galaxy S10 Plus. For comparison, that's even bigger than the Galaxy Note 9, which had a 4,000mAh cell.

Combined with the massive gains in efficiency of the new Qualcomm SnapDragon 855 and Samsung-built Exynos 9820 processors (40% improved compared to the previous chipset, Samsung says), which will power the various variations of the smartphone sold across the world, the Galaxy S10 range should get a serious boost in battery life compared to its predecessor.

The increase in battery capacity could prove to be hugely important with the Galaxy S10 range. After all, the new handsets are rumoured to be able to wirelessly charge other devices – including the new AirPod rivalling Galaxy Buds – by placing them on the rear case of the smartphone. To make this feature worthwhile, it needs to not completely drain any remaining battery life in your smartphone.

Samsung is also using its new, all-screen Infinity-O display design with the new smartphones. This design runs across the entirety of the front of the flagship phone – with only a small cut-out in one corner for the front-facing camera. This will allow Samsung to squeeze a larger display into a handset that remains small enough to comfortably use one-handed. However, a bigger panel requires more power, so it's reassuring to see the size of the battery cell increase to match.

Elsewhere, the leaked specs seemingly confirms that Samsung will include wireless fast charging 2.0, although it's unclear whether this is any different from the Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 standard already supported by Samsung.

The latest leak from GSM Arena also claims the Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus will have the first selfie camera able to capture 4K Ultra HD video footage, which could be a bit of a memory hog. Fortunately, Samsung is expected to launch an S10 model with an almighty 1TB of built-in, expandable storage, which should definitely cover it.

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