Everything We Know About Samsung’s Upcoming Galaxy S Flagships

We're a few weeks away from the Samsung Unpacked event which means that it's not long to wait until the world sees the new Galaxy S flagship line-up. If you’re looking on the market for an improved Samsung Galaxy S smartphone, then you’ve come to the right place. Read on to find out everything we know about the Galaxy S10’s successor.

What Have the Leaks Told Us?

There were and will still be plenty of leaks, and we can tell that a few significant changes are coming.

When Is the Announcement?

We didn’t expect the date to leak this early, but the more certainty the better. A promotional video has surfaced online, and after the leak Samsung officially published the same promotional video on its social media channels. They confirmed that they would be taking the wraps off the new Galaxy S flagships on February 11th at an Unpacked event in San Francisco. As of the release date, we can expect it to be the first week of March.

The promo video has two rectangular shapes instead of the letters A in 'Galaxy', covered with a white sheet. We can speculate a little that it is likely that the first shape hints at an updated rear camera silhouette, whereas the second one depicts the Galaxy Fold 2, which is Samsung’s second iteration of a foldable smartphone with a clamshell design.

S11 or S20?

As logical as the S11e, S11 and S11 Plus may sound, Ice Universe tipped that Samsung have opted for the Galaxy S20 instead of S11e, which implies that the Galaxy S20+ will take the regular’s S11 place, and the Galaxy S20 Ultra will be the S11+.

These might seem unnecessary to many of us, but don’t underestimate Samsung. Behind this name refresh we might find a game-changer. The recent Galaxy line-up name leak suggests that only the Galaxy S20 Ultra will come in a single 5G version, while the S20 and S20+ will have both 4G and 5G variants.

Is Display Going 120Hz?

Last year, Samsung missed the high display refresh rate memo, and the OnePlus 7 Pro took all the praise. However, in 2020, Samsung is going big and they are likely to offer an industry-leading display with a 120Hz refresh rate. But there's one caveat. According to recently leaked information, 120Hz refresh rate won't be available at full screen resolution and the reason behind this could be heavy battery drainage.

Display size information has been shared by Evan Blass and it looks like we’ll get the smallest Galaxy S20 with a 6.2/6.4-inch panel, and the middle S20 will feature a 6.7-inch screen. The largest of all of them will feature a 6.9-inch display.

Early hands-on with the Galaxy S20+ 5G suggests that bezels will be smaller as well as having less curved edges. The rear camera setup will move to the top left corner, and the front punch-hole selfie camera will be positioned in the centre.

Brilliant Cameras

At the end of 2019, Samsung has unveiled its new camera sensors and we might see the yet-to-be-released Galaxy S20 Ultra pack a mind-blowing 108MP sensor as its main camera paired with a 48MP telephoto lens, a 12MP ultra-wide, a periscope lens with 10x optical zoom, along with a ToF sensor. Recent renders give us a possible look at the rear camera set-up, so we might see five cameras on the Galaxy S20 Ultra if things get wild.

S20 Ultra rendered by Ben Geskin

According to Max Winebach on Twitter, Samsung might go with a 12MP 1.8μm large main sensor for the S20+ which will be more powerful that the one on the Galaxy Note 10+, while the secondary camera will be 64MP. The information about the third and fourth cameras hasn't been revealed yet.

Top of the Class Performance and Longer Battery Life

The S20 flagships will feature Qualcomm’s newly developed Snapdragon 865 with 20% faster graphics rendering and 35% more power efficiency. We hope that the Exynos version will be able to match the Snapdragon’s performance. The 865 has 5G connectivity, so we expect that all three models will be 5G compatible.

With 5G, all of the flagships will require bigger batteries, meaning that Samsung are likely to opt for a 5,000 mAh cell in the largest Galaxy S device and the recently leaked specs sheet tells us exactly that. That’s the biggest battery ever to-be-fitted in a Galaxy smartphone. A 4,500 mAh battery will be inside the medium model, so perhaps the smallest variant will feature a 4,000 mAh or above battery. Super-Fast 45W charging is expected, but we’d take rumour with a grain of salt.

An upgrade to the fingerprint sensor is very likely with the addition of Qualcomm’s 3D Sonic Max sensor. It is bigger in size than the one that the Galaxy S10 features, so with a bigger area it will be easier to unlock the phone and it won’t require that precise finger placement.

What About the Price?

Max Weinbach from XDA Developers shared his Galaxy S20 series price expectations and those suggest that upgrading to the latest Galaxy S will cost a pretty penny.

The regular Galaxy S20 5G will have a starting price in the range of €900 - €1000, so we can expect the Galaxy S20 5G to cost around £1000 in the UK. The price of the Galaxy S20+ 5G will likely start from £1,100 and the S20 Ultra 5G to cost close to £1,300. According to Weinbach, 4G models will cost €100 less. For comparison, the Galaxy S10 started at £799, while the S10e came with a £669 price tag, so we're seeing Samsung hiking prices up and we hope users will consider the new S20 series worth upgrading to.

Are you excited to see the new Samsung Galaxy S20s? Let us know what features give you goosebumps and what you want S20 flagships to deliver on. Check back for more details as we will regularly update this post. If you're looking to trade-in your old Samsung, our price tracking gives you recommendations for the best time to do it.