The Galaxy Note 10 is just starting to land in the hands of consumers, but as is always the case, the rumor mill is already starting to look forward to the Samsung Galaxy Note 11. We expect a release date in August 2020, so there aren’t many details now. What we have is more of a wish list of features based on the technologies that may be available but haven’t been used in any of this year’s flagship devices.
Perhaps the biggest change some are hoping for in the Samsung Galaxy Note 11 is a truly all-screen design. This would involve placing the selfie camera behind the display. We’ve been hearing rumors about this technology more and more, so there is a chance it will be available by the time next year’s Note models are released.
However, there’s no denying that this technology will be complex. The selfie camera would have to be hidden behind the screen when it’s not in use. Then the screen will have to be crystal clear when the selfie camera is in use so that the pictures come out clear even though the lens is behind the display. There are other ways to design a phone with an all-screen face, but it’s hard to imagine that pop-up modules or adding a second screen to the back of the phone will ever catch on. Phone makers are working on too many other form factors, like foldable and even roll-able designs.
Battery technology has also been in focus for quite some time, with rumors pointing to graphene batteries, possibly as early as this year. Samsung’s devices still have lithium-ion batteries, so we expect rumors about graphene technology to pick up over the next year or so. Well-known tipster Evan Blass tweeted recently that Samsung hopes to have “at least one handset” with a graphene battery next year or in 2020. Graphene batters can be charged fully in less than 30 minutes, but he said Samsung is still working on boosting capacities while cutting costs.
As far as RAM and storage, we expect the Samsung Galaxy Note 11 to have the same options as the Note 10. That means 8 GB of RAM with 256 GB of storage in the Note 11 and 12 GB of RAM and up to 512 GB of storage in the Note 11 Plus. These specs are already pretty impressive, so it’s hard to imagine that one year will bring a need for even more RAM and storage.
As far as sizes go, if the Note 10 and 10 Plus both do well at their current sizes of 6.3 inches and 6.8 inches, respectively, then the Note 11 and 11 Plus could stick to the same sizes. Of course, Samsung is probably already working on the Note 11 line-up, so it already has some idea about what it plans to do. Things could always change before the handset launches though.
Finally, we can expect further improvements to the S Pen that comes with the Samsung Galaxy Note 11. The Note 10’s S Pen added so-called “air actions,” so we would expect further improvements in next year’s model. However, it’s far too early to even take a guess at what those might involve.
