The Samsung Galaxy S11 has been leaked and it is going to have that massive Penta camera module on the back which seems to be even bigger than the on the iPhone 11 Pro Max. So without further adieu, these are all the latest Leaks & Rumors on the Samsung Galaxy S11!
The S11 has been leaked quite heavily and we even did a full video and article about two weeks ago, covering everything we knew up until that point. That video and article was split into eight different sections covering everything from; Display, Display, Battery, Special Features, Camera & more. So if you want to get a very detailed look at the S11, do check those out first, since this one is mostly focused on just the more recent leaks.
Recently the biggest leaks have been coming from OnLeaks. OnLeaks has had some pretty outstanding track record in the past, up to the point where if does post a leak or especially a full render, we can probably bet that that’s exactly how that phone will look like, and the S11 is no exception.
A concept render of the S11e (Source: OnLeaks & Pricebaba)
On November the 23rd, OnLeaks teamed up with Pricebaba to give us a first look at the Samsung Galaxy S11e, the lowest end model of the S11 lineup. As you can probably tell, the S11e is a gigantic departure from the S10e that we got last year. We no longer get thicker bezels and a flat display, but instead, some very thin bezels and a curved display as well. Then on the line of the display, the size of it got a pretty big bump, from 5.8 inches to 6.2, making the S11e even bigger than the regular Galaxy S10 was last year. The aspect ratio has also been increased to 20:9, from the previous 19:9. This means that it will be noticeably taller than the S10e. In addition, the camera cutout is now in the middle, similar to how it is on the Note 10, rather than to the right like the S10’s had it. We also seem to be getting a triple lens camera module, from the dual lens one that we had before. The Bixby button has been removed, so the only buttons that we now have are the power button and the volume buttons. Now, on the S10e we did have an fingerprint reader built into the power button, rather than the in-display fingerprint reader that the more expensive S10 and S10+ had. But I cannot see any fingerprint reader embedded into the power button, which means that the S11e will very likely get an in-display fingerprint reader.
Also, I really really love this blue colour from OnLeaks’s render. Considering that it’s in the render itself, it’s very likely that this will indeed be one of the colour options that Samsung will have for the S11e. Personally, I actually think that that is my favourite shade of blue that I’ve ever seen on a smartphone. But of course that is just a render, so that shade of blue will most certainly look a bit different in real life.
So, the S11e looks pretty stunning. If Samsung prices this well, then this will be one of the best selling smartphones of 2020, because it just nails everything so so well.
Now, on November the 22nd, OnLeaks teamed up with another tech website, in this case 91mobiles and showed us the Galaxy S11, which would be the second offering in the S11 lineup. This is actually the one that we based our own concept on, and the S11 does have a few changes from the S11e.
A concept render of the S11 (Source: OnLeaks & 91Mobiles)
First, the bezels do appear to be thinner than on the S11e. Especially if you take a look at the side bezels, there seems to be a very noticeable difference there. In addition, the top and bottom bezels also appear to be a bit thinner than on the S11e. The edges do seem to be a bit more curved on the S11 compared to the S11e. Overall, while I think the S11e still looks amazing, design wise the S11 does have a slightly more modern design.
Like the S11e we also get a larger display now with the S11. We get a 6.7” panel up from the 6.1” that the S10 came with, so that’s a gigantic increase in the display size. This makes the S11 even bigger than the S10+ was last year and actually the exact same display size as the gigantic S10 5G had.
But then on the back is where we get the even bigger changes. Rather than three camera modules, we get five modules as the one on the bottom right is actually for the microphone. This means we get a penta camera module, and a microphone, and a flash all in that gigantic camera set up on the back. Personally, I don’t really have a problem with this as long as the camera quality is improved, and the good news is that it will actually be significantly improved! So the main camera module would be upgraded from the S10’s 12MP module to an insane 108MP one! This is Samsung’s latest and greatest smartphone camera sensor, at least in terms of resolution. This new sensor is quite massive not just in terms of the resolution but also in terms of its physical size. Compared to the previous sensor which measured in at 1cm diagonally, this one is 1.91cm, so pretty much double the size which could easily be the reason as to why Samsung has such a gigantic camera module on the back of the S11. But as most of you know, or at least hopefully know, that megapixels don’t means quality. They just mean more resolution so you can zoom in more, that’s it.
Think of a sensor as a chess board, a grid where the size of the board is the size of the sensor and each squares inside are actually the pixels. If you increase the number of pixels, you need to make them smaller, otherwise they won’t fit on the board. But here’s the thing, pixels capture photons or light particles and the larger the pixels are the more photons or light they can capture. Therefore, if you want a sensor to be good in low light you need to have a few mega pixels as possible, otherwise the pixels would be so small that they would barely be able to capture any light and the images would be extremely soft and blurry in low light. This is why high end phones such as the iPhones, the Samsung Galaxy phones, even the Google pixels have always had a 12MP camera, and why mid-range phones from Xiaomi, OnePlus, Oppo added 48MP, 64MP and now even 108MP modules with the Xiaomi Mi Note 10, because just having a larger mega-pixel count does make it sound better which is extremely important to have in the mid-range category, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is better.
So I am a bit worried in terms of the low light performance on the S11, considering that the Xiaomi Mi Note 10, which has the exact same 108MP sensor by the way, didn’t really have the best results in low light or even day light. What I mean by this is that if it was slightly cloudy, the results weren’t that great. So I do hope that Samsung optimises this heavily in software.
We’re also getting 8K video recording in up to 30 fps. Yes, 8K video on a phone, we barely even have any professional cameras that can do 8K and Samsung will be the first to support it on a phone! I guess that this is also a way for Samsung to promote and sell their new 8K TV’s now that they also have a phone that can film content for that TV.
Now, so far I’ve only talked about the main module, but we do have a few more modules. So the top and bottom ones would be the zoom and the ultra wide angle modules. The zoom module is actually expected to offer a 10x optical zoom, or lossless zoom, in combination with that 108MP sensor which is pretty impressive. We would then have a digital zoom of up to 50x, so this camera would be very similar to the zoom capabilities that we got with the Huawei P30 Pro. Then we also have two more modules which we don’t yet know what they are for. Some of you might think that they’re TOF, or time-of-flight sensors, similar to what the Note 10+ had, but you’ll see why that’s very likely not the case in just a bit.
So I personally think that one of them is a Macro lens, as quite a lot of mid-range smartphones did include a macro module in 2019, so I do see Samsung including one in the S11 as well and then the second one could be a depth sensor, for improving portrait mode photography with the back facing camera. So that’s what I think, and the reason why I believe that these are not TOF sensors is because OneLeaks also leaked the big S11+.
With the S11+ we get the same design on the front as the regular S11, just with an even larger 6.9” display, making this even bigger than the Note 10+, so this will be a mammoth of a phone.
A concept render of the S11+ (Source: OnLeaks & CashKaro.com)
Then on the back, the camera module itself will be even bigger than on the regular S11 and the camera modules themselves are arranged in a very different way than they are on the S11. We get five main modules, just like on the S11, but then we also get two dots which to me look to be either dual microphones or two TOF sensors. They’re a bit small to be time of flight sensors, but at the same time, there is no cutout in the glass itself for them to be microphones, so they could be either or. Now, when it comes to the front facing camera, this will very likely be upgraded to a 4K 60fps camera so that it matches frame-rate that the iPhone 11 Pro can do, as at the moment the S10 can only do 4K 30fps with the front camera.
The headphone jack will also be removed from the S11’s, just like with the Note 10+. This means that if you want to used wired headphones you would either have to use a dongle, which will probably not come bundled in the box, or you can also use wireless headphones such as the Galaxy Buds 2, which will also be launching alongside the S11.
Speaking of sound, the top speaker grill is expected to be even thinner than on the Note 10+, which was absolutely minuscule. It was so thin you could barely see it and since the headphone jack is being removed we might be getting dual speakers on the bottom. However, on OnLeaks’s render we only have one speaker grill and one microphone port. In our render, we did add a second speaker grill though.
Now as a complete 180 on all of that, IceUniverse who’s also a pretty well known leaker at this point, did say that OneLeaks’s rendeers are not 100% correct. He says that the final version will be more beautiful than this so we’ll have to wait and see. OnLeaks has had a very good track record in the past, so my guess is that it will the final design, it’s just that Samsung will be making some more tweaks here and there, until February, shrinking down the camera module a bit for example, or maybe even re-ordering the camera lenses, but the main idea of its design should be very similar to the one we’ve seen.