Galaxy S11+ front panel leak reveals Samsung is about to kill the bezel
Samsung is expected to lift the cover off its next big thing, the Galaxy S11+ in the middle of February, but the leaks and rumors mill is already grinding up at full capacity, and this latest leak shows the front panel of the Galaxy S11+ and it reveals two interesting details: first, the S11+ will obviously have almost no bezel and it will be an edge-to-edge screen experience, and secondly, there will be a tiny centered punch hole for the selfie camera, just like on the Note 10+.
The information comes from Samsung leaker @IceUniverse who has a pretty solid track record with such leaks.
From our point of view, it's really interesting to see that Samsung obviously once again bets on a fingerprint scanner embedded under the screen rather than a 3D Face ID system that requires a larger notch. The Galaxy S10 and the Note 10+ both use an in-screen fingerprint reader of the ultrasonic kind, while most of the industry has gone with optical under-display fingerprint scanners. That has been one of our biggest complaints about the S10 and Note 10 series: the fingerprint scanner just did not feel as fast and as reliable, and it often takes a couple of attempts to unlock the phone. We have seen Google jump on the 3D face recognition train with the Pixel 4 family and we were quite impressed with how effortless and quick it was, but Samsung is obviously not interested in using such a technology at the moment. Here's to hoping that the new in-screen fingerprint reader on the S11 series is more reliable.
For all else that we know, the Galaxy S11+ will have a huge focus on an improved camera experience: we have seen leaks picture a giant camera isle housing multiple lenses. The main camera is rumored to be a 108-megapixel behemoth of a sensor that will use the information from 9 neighbouring individual pixels and combining them into 1 super-pixel, so at the end of the day you get high-quality 12-megapixel snaps. The ultra-wide angle camera will also stay, and new here will be a 5X periscope zoom lens that will allow you to zoom further without losing much in detail.
Of course, with the advent of 5G and the extra strain it puts on battery, expect to see a larger battery cell on all 5G-enabled S11 phones, with rumors saying the battery size on the S11+ might reach 5,000mAh.
Under the hood, the S11 series will be one of the first devices in the world powered by the top-end Snapdragon 865 chip by Qualcomm (models outside the United States will feature a similarly powerful Samsung-made Exynos processor). And just like the Note 10 series, the Galaxy S11 is expected to remove the headphone jack and leave us with a USB-C port only for wired audio.
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