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The Samsung Galaxy S11 series could introduce huge battery upgrades

By Joshua Swingle

Updated: Nov 08, 2019, 5:27 AM

21comments

Samsung Android

The Samsung Galaxy S11 series could introduce huge battery upgrades

Samsung Galaxy S11 concept render

UPDATE: Another certification listing has revealed what appears to be the standard Galaxy S11's battery. The updated story continues below.

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Earlier this year, Samsung introduced some huge battery capacity upgrades that directly benefited the autonomy of the Galaxy S10 series. The company took things even further with the Galaxy Note 10 lineup that launched in August and new reports suggest Samsung is now looking to make even bigger improvements with next year’s Galaxy S11 flagships.

The Samsung Galaxy S11e may feature a 4,000mAh battery

As spotted by GalaxyClub, a new Samsung battery with the EB-BG980ABY product number was recently certified in the company’s home market of South Korea. The listing itself provides little information about the cell but it does include a photo of the actual battery which reveals some very important details. Specifically, it supports a rated capacity of 14.36Wh and operates at 3.85 volts, which means the battery boasts a minimum capacity of 3,730mAh and a typical capacity of around 4,000mAh, a huge upgrade over this year's budget flagship.

To refresh your memory, the Galaxy S10e features a compact 5.8-inch display paired with a small 3,100mAh battery. PhoneArena’s testing indicates a decent level of autonomy which is on par with that of the regular Galaxy S10, although it seems the upcoming Galaxy S11e will ultimately blow these results out of the water. The margin of difference, however, may not be as big as you think.

Despite the huge increase in capacity, the Galaxy S11e’s battery will be tackling several negatives. The biggest one is going to be 5G support, which involves introducing a new kind of modem that’s very power-hungry and not as efficient as the 4G LTE one used inside the Galaxy S10e. Another may arrive in the form of a higher refresh rate. Rumors suggest Samsung is working on a rival to OnePlus’ Fluid AMOLED display that’ll undoubtedly increase battery drain, although it’s not clear if the cheaper Galaxy S11e will benefit from it.

Almost 5,000mAh is rumored for the larger Galaxy S11+

This year’s Galaxy S10+ features a decent 4,100mAh cell but tipster Ice Universe believes next year's Galaxy S11+ may offer a much higher capacity of almost 5,000mAh. The source argues that such a huge boost is necessary in order to offer any kind of improvement because, as mentioned above, the next-generation flagship will probably offer 5G network support as standard.

This smartphone is almost guaranteed to benefit from either a 90Hz or 120Hz display that'll position it as a more direct competitor to Google's Pixel 4 XL and OnePlus' 7T Pro. It should also fend off future competition from Apple and OnePlus, both of which are rumored to be adopting 120Hz displays on the iPhone 12 Pro and OnePlus 8 Pro respectively.

Samsung Galaxy S11 concept render

Samsung may also be planning to use a larger display on its 2020 flagship, something that’ll also impact battery life. Fortunately, there is one positive. The Exynos 990 is quite a bit more efficient than the Exynos 9820 used inside the Galaxy S10 series, meaning the power drain won’t be quite as high.

The Galaxy S11 could inherit the battery used in the Galaxy Note 10+

Samsung's final Galaxy S11 flagship, the standard model that'll sit between the Galaxy S11e and Galaxy S11+, will reportedly inherit the 4,300mAh battery that Samsung recently used inside the Galaxy Note 10+. That's according to a new certification listing in South Korea that was spotted by Roland Quandt of WinFuture and includes a photo of the actual battery, anyway.