This year’s Samsung Unpacked event have brought Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Fold into the South Korean company fold. Each device comes with its fair share of innovation, but the thing we are hooked on the most is Galaxy S10 5G support. It is the first device of its kind, and alongside the now proverbial camera and sensor improvements, 5G has huge potential to transform Galaxy S10 AR efforts.
For all the talk of Augmented Reality taking the central stage in next-gen Smartphone devices, Samsung did not really go all in on it. Last year S9 unveiling had much more to say on smartphone AR integration. Despite only a passing mention, the announcement of 5G connectivity for both S10 and Fold is reason enough to reignite excitement in AR. To brush up on it briefly, 5G connectivity is the next big thing in telecommunications that will allow excitingly greater networking speeds. Things like automated self-driving can only be possible through interconnectivity provided by high-speed low-latency nature of the new network. And AR has a huge part to play in this 5G future.
Revolutionary though it is, 5G is not where the Galaxy S10 AR innovation ends. Samsung is moving to triple-lens camera system for regular, telephoto, or ultra-wide capture. ‘As network speeds get faster, we’ll be able to use our phones to do things we can hardly imagine today’, Drew Blackard from Samsung America said. Apart from improved image quality, this means a much better visual addons than before. And yes, Augmented Reality among other things: ‘And for AR, this is going to be a game changer. With faster network speeds and 3D spatial mapping, you’ll be able to interact with the world around you in real time, and it will feel more real’.
Another Samsung yearly trademark innovation is sensors, and galaxy S10 doesn’t disappoint. Quite the contrary. ‘To power these (AR) experiences, we outfitted the S10 5G with a cutting-edge camera system that includes a powerful new 3D-sensing depth camera’. We are talking about a ToF (Time of Flight) camera that has advanced space sensing capabilities. It works much like a radar does, emitting beams and calculating time needed for them to return, thus creating a 3D rendition of a user’s surroundings. It goes without saying that ToF sensors make Galaxy S10 AR capability a lot more potent.
Getting one up in the 5G arms race has added fuel, if not sparked the trade wars between US and China. The projections are that whoever has the 5G advantage will be a frontrunner in their field, and S10 is the first 5G phone on the market. ‘Since its launch ten years ago, the Galaxy S series has stood for premium innovation – offering consumers an incredible experience, and the ability to find the device that’s right for them’ – the words of Samsung CEO DJ Koh. It’s not a mistake to read 5G into the statement and imagine the Galaxy S10 AR possibilities that come along.
