Samsung is already planning to drop the punch-hole camera

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One of the innovative features of the Samsung Galaxy S10 range of phones is the ‘punch-hole’ front-facing camera, which enables the phones to have a virtually all-screen display – but now Samsung has confirmed that it’s already planning to drop this feature for future handsets.

Speaking in a briefing the vice president of Samsung’s R&D group, Yang Byung-duk, described Samsung’s plans to create a phone with a full-body display, with the camera and speaker under the screen. This fully edge-to-edge display wouldn’t have a notch, bezel or even a punch-hole – but it’s still a way off.

According to Byung-duk, Samsung is still two or more years off producing this futuristic screen, and before this it plans on reducing the size of the punch-hole in the Galaxy S11 or other future devices, until it’s small enough to effectively be invisible. 

As well as an under-screen camera, Byung-duk said Samsung is working on a way to turn the screen into a speaker in order to get rid of the usual perforations at the top. LG has already created a phone with this tech – the LG G8 ThinQ, with a vibrating screen which turns the whole display into a boombox – and as a major manufacturer Samsung likely isn’t far behind.

The Samsung Galaxy S10’s screen-to-body ratio is an impressive 93.1%, with a minimal black border all the way around the display, and we’re intrigued to see what solutions the company comes up with to push that number to 100%.

But it looks like we won’t be seeing Samsung’s full-screen device for a couple of years yet – and for now we don’t know if it’ll be a future entry to the Galaxy S series or another product, like one of the many foldables Samsung is reportedly working on – but based on how much we liked the Galaxy S10’s Infinity-O display, the handset could be a seriously impressive product. 

Tom Bedford
Contributor

Tom Bedford was deputy phones editor on TechRadar until late 2022, having worked his way up from staff writer. Though he specialized in phones and tablets, he also took on other tech like electric scooters, smartwatches, fitness, mobile gaming and more. He is based in London, UK and now works for the entertainment site What To Watch.


He graduated in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Prior to working on TechRadar, he freelanced in tech, gaming and entertainment, and also spent many years working as a mixologist. He also currently works in film as a screenwriter, director and producer.