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Samsung’s Galaxy S11 won’t have the crazy new feature we’re waiting for

Published May 21st, 2019 10:58AM EDT
Galaxy S11 Release Date
Image: Zach Epstein, BGR

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The Galaxy S10 was released just a few months ago and it turned out to be a success for Samsung, unlike its predecessor. In about three more months, the Galaxy Note 10 will come out with an updated design as well as several new features, according to the newest leaks. In other words, it’s way too early to talk about next year’s Samsung flagship phones, but the first Galaxy S11 rumors are already here. And one of them claims the phone won’t have the exciting new smartphone design feature we’re waiting for.

Well-known Samsung insider Ice Universe said a few days ago that the Galaxy S11 is codenamed Picasso internally at Samsung, without revealing any other details. He did tease that Samsung will launch more creative smartphones in the second half of the year, but made it clear he wasn’t talking about the Note 10.

We wondered what these smartphone design breakthroughs might be, and whether Samsung is finally ready to launch a phone with a selfie camera placed under an active part of the screen, which is the only design that can give us a true all-screen phone. Such a device would not have a notch, a hole-punch display, or a pop-up camera because the front camera would be hidden behind an edge-to-edge screen.

Samsung and other smartphone vendors are all working on display designs like this, as we’ve known that for a few years. But the technology isn’t mature enough for commercial deployment.

That brings us to the Galaxy S11 series, which isn’t supposed to feature an in-screen selfie camera, according to a report from Chinese-language Sina. The report notes that “foreign media” broke the news that Samsung is working on a “true full screen” smartphone design, according to a Google translation, but the screen won’t be available to the Galaxy S11.

While it doesn’t provide any sources, the report notes that Samsung will upgrade the Infinity-O screen by making the hole-punch camera opening smaller than before. The camera will supposedly have the same height as the phone’s status bar. The report also notes that Samsung is developing 5nm chips that will be shipped next year, with the Galaxy S11 expected to be the first Samsung handset to make use of the new processors.

These are early Galaxy S11 rumors, however, so take everything with a grain of salt. The phone won’t be unveiled until next February at the soonest, so we have a long time to go before we know for sure what’s in store for the Galaxy S11 series.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.