With winter current underway, spring can’t be far away. And one of the biggest tech revelations to look forward to during spring is, of course, the launch of Samsung’s newest flagship phone – the S11. True that’s still a few months away but rumor mills are already working overtime churning out interesting tech bits that are believed to be part of the forthcoming S11 package.
Here is a compilation of all that is known of S11 at the moment.
Versions: Rumors have claimed there could be at least 5 models of the S11 made available this year. We do know for sure there is going to be the S11e which will serve as the entry-level flagship while the S11 will serve as the standard flagship will most of the bells and whistles that would be characteristic of the S11 series. Then there is going to be the S11 Plus which will serve as the top-end model. Little is known of the to remaining models, though there could be an S11 model specifically for the adventurers while another one could be optimised for better photography, or just about anything. It’s all a guess at the moment.
Design: Conflicting opinions are doing the rounds on this, with some renders revealing S11 design featuring a centrally mounted punch hole at the front for the selfie cam. Then there are those lacking any sort of gap for the front cam, which perhaps points to there being a pop-up sort of an arrangement for the front cam.
Also, the bottom chin is at its thinnest while the display seems to be less curvaceous along the sides. The basic build though will be the same, which include glass front and rear with metal sides acting as the anchor for both.
Camera: It’s here that we can expect to see one of the biggest upgrades with the S11. Rumour has it that there is going to be a 108 mp sensor on the S11 this time. While that makes it the biggest sized sensor ever to be fitted on a smartphone, the entire camera section on the upcoming flagship is expected to witness some real upgrade.
That would be in the form of a more elaborate camera housing hosting a larger array of lenses. One of those will likely be a zoom lens having 5X optical zooming ability. Interestingly, such a lens is also rumoured to have been named Hubble after the legendary space probe of the same name.
The S11 might have a special ‘Space Zoom’ feature that would be handy when shooting the night sky. The above stems from Samsung’s move to apply for trademarking the ‘Space Zoom’ feature.
Similarly, there is a ‘Bright Night’ sensor expected on the S11, one that presumably will have the ability to shoot markedly better night shots than ever before. This is something that Samsung seems to be concerned with given the superb night mode that delivers realistic yet stunning images even on barely lit conditions. Overall, there likely could be five camera sensors on the S11, at least on the top model.
Battery: This is another area that could see some real upgrade. That would be in the form of bigger sized batteries powering the S11 series. That would be in the form of a 4500 mAh battery powering the S11 while the S11 Plus benefitting from a 5000 mAh battery.
The above details have come to the fore post Samsung’s submission of the above parts for testing and certification in South Korea. Such battery sizes make sense considering that the S11 is expected to come with displays having a refresh rate of 120 Hz.
In any case, a bigger battery is always welcome even though the S10 excelled on this aspect. For reference, the S10 came with a 3,400 mAh battery while the same on the S10 Plus stands at 4,100 mAh.
Processor and Memory: Little surprises here considering that the obvious choice when it comes to the processor is the new Snapdragon 865. That applies to the US version at least, with other regions likely getting an equivalent Exynos chip, of which there is little that we know of at the moment. Further, a 12 GB mobile DRAM will likely be seen on the S11, at least for the top-end model.
Other features: The S11 might come with a built-in spectrometer given reports of Samsung has patented a smartphone looking device with such a feature. While it could be a bit far-fetched to expect something of a spectrometer finding a place in a flagship smartphone, it can’t be ruled out either. For starters, spectrometers allow one to read the chemical composition of substances.
The S11 might dump the headphone jack given the same has been lacking on the Note 10. The space thus liberated could well be used for the fitment of a larger sized battery.
5G enabled S11: The S11 will have a 5G version for sure, with sources pointing out the S11 Plus will all be exclusively 5G enabled. The base S11e and S11, in turn, might have 5G modem for the top model only.
Launch date: Historically, Samsung has used the Mobile World Congress event held in Barcelona as the launchpad for introducing its ‘S’ series of flagships. And there is no reason to believe it’s going to be different this time. So, it’s around the last week of February that we can expect to see the S11 series coming out of the wild if Samsung is sticking to its launch schedule, that is.
