In the last few months, Apple and Google unleashed their latest flagship smartphones – the iPhone 12 Pro and Pixel 5, respectively – just in time to land on store shelves before the Christmas shopping rush. Unfortunately, Samsung fans hoping to see the firm’s response to these handsets will have to wait a little longer. The South Korean company typically unveils its latest entry in the Galaxy S series within the first three months of the year – something we expect to see repeated this year.
Thankfully, you won’t have to wait three months to set your eyes on the successor to the Galaxy S20 Ultra, which is believed to be called Galaxy S21 Ultra. That’s because serial tipster @OnLeaks has published high-resolution renders that purportedly reveal the design of the next smartphone from Samsung. Not only that, but reliable leakster Ishan Agarwal, who has an incredibly strong track record when it comes to forecasting as-yet unreleased hardware from Samsung, has shared details of some of the specifications believed to be found inside the new Galaxy S21.
And for anyone hoping for a dramatic redesign or a bucketload of new features… the first leak of the Galaxy S21 Ultra isn’t great news.
According to Agarwal, Samsung will fit the Galaxy S21 Ultra with a 6.8inch AMOLED display with an Infinity-O design – that’s Samsung marketing speak for the small circular cut-out in the touchscreen for the selfie camera to peer out. For those counting, that display size is also 0.1inch smaller than the one fitted to the Galaxy S20 Ultra, which launched earlier this year.
One thing that will be identical between the Galaxy S21 Ultra and its predecessor is the battery size, according to Agarwal. The renown tipster claims Samsung has lined-up a 5,000mAh battery cell. Combined with a more efficient next-generation chipset – the Qualcomm Snapdragon 875 in China and the United States, while the UK, Europe and South Korean handsets use the Samsung-developed Exynos 2100 – and an (ever-so-slightly) smaller display, we could see some serious battery life gains with the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
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Given the extra battery needed for features like high-refresh rate displays and super fast 5G downloads… battery life gains could really set the Galaxy S21 Ultra apart from the competition.
Elsewhere, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is tipped to pack a quadruple camera, including a 108 megapixel main camera. The Space Zoom feature, which combined a telephoto lens and AI smarts to offer 100x zoom capabilities, is expected to make a return from the Galaxy S20 Ultra too. For those who didn’t appreciate the humongous camera bump on the rear case of the Galaxy S20 series… there’s more bad news. If these high-resolution renders are accurate, those chunky camera bumps are here to stay.
The thickness of the new flagship phone will reportedly measure 10.8mm at the camera bump, dropping to 8.9mm on the rest of the body, which is more or less similar to the Galaxy S20 Ultra. Meanwhile, flipping around the Galaxy S21, the front-facing camera is expected to be 40-megapixel.
The latest from Samsung will launch with Android 11 and Samsung’s One UI 3.0 mobile operating system out of the box, sources claim.
Some have suggested that Samsung could bring forward the launch of the Galaxy S21 series – from its typical February or March launch window to early January. Samsung hasn’t confirmed whether that’ll be the case. Likewise, all of the above details remain unconfirmed rumours until the launch event kickstarts next year, so it’s worth taking with a pinch of salt.