No smartphone launch would be complete without some initial teething issues, and in the case of the Galaxy S10 that's a rather frustrating bug that results in Tap to Wake activating when it's not supposed to, like when the handset is in a bag or a pocket — but it seems to be isolated to the US.
“I have an S10, and I keep my phone in my pocket with the screen towards my leg (since my leg is far less likely to damage the screen),” writes one Galaxy S10 owner on Reddit. “The only issue with this is that I started feeling the “fingerprint rejected” vibrations while the phone was in my pocket.”
“First thing I did was activate tap to wake, I have never seen this in a Samsung phone before. Now I have the newest that Samsung has to offer and it does not work properly,” explains another on Samsung's US Community Forum. “My leg through my fabric taps the phone and opens it up.”
The issue results in consistent battery drain as the screen is waking up more than it should be. In some instances, Tape to Wake is also triggering the camera, which uses up even more juice as a host of sensors are subsequently activated as the handset thinks it's operating in low-light conditions.
Samsung's advice? Disable Tap to Wake and the Always-On Display. But that's far from good enough — when you're shelling out around $1000 for a product, it should work as intended. You shouldn't have to disable a feature, or two, to help it last an entire day on a single charge.
The issue doesn't appear to be affecting everyone. Almost all the reports we uncovered were from customers in the US with either a Galaxy S10 or Galaxy S10+, indicating that the bug is an issue with the region's firmware. If that's the case, Samsung should be able to fix it by a software update.
SamsungGalaxy S10
