Meanwhile, a bunch of purported insiders and leakers, some far more reliable than others, started teasing major new features and radical upgrades of key components months ago, helping paint a pretty detailed picture already of a high-end smartphone lineup only expected to officially break cover in February 2020. We can never know too much stuff in advance of such a highly anticipated release, of course, which is why we certainly welcome the latest report alleging to confirm Samsung’s “biggest ever overhaul to the cameras on its flagship phones.”

Far from surprising at this point in the Galaxy S11 build-up, the intel relayed by Bloomberg carries the prestigious financial publication’s seal of reliability. While Bloomberg’s inside sources can occasionally get things like these wrong, we’re almost 100 percent sure this is not the case here.

Seeing as how most ultra-high-end handsets nowadays are blazing fast, camera performance is becoming an increasingly important factor in our buying decisions. But despite making decent strides last year, Samsung hasn’t been able to catch up to Apple and Google in this crucial department, as proven by several real-world comparisons and experiments.

It’s therefore not shocking to hear the world’s number one smartphone vendor has a massive camera overhaul and drastic redesign in the pipeline. Like it or not, the Galaxy S11 and S11 Plus will almost definitely come with at least four shooters (each) mounted on the back in a large, protruding, and rectangular module. What’s perhaps going to be even more divisive is the primary 108MP imaging sensor, which sounds amazing but on other devices, it’s simply not that great for the time being.

Could Samsung optimize and polish the 108-megapixel lens found on the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 to perform significantly better on the Galaxy S11 and S11+? Maybe, but at least for now, it seems like the company is taking some unnecessary risks that could well backfire, noticeably slowing down the image capturing while not improving the quality that much compared to the Galaxy Note 10+.

Of course, Samsung’s 2020 “photographic arsenal” will have a lot more going for it than just a super-high-resolution main sensor, and a telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom support definitely sounds great. In contrast, the S10, S10+, Note 10, and Note 10+ are all limited to 2x optical zoom, just like the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max. 

Meanwhile, we know very little about the “ultrawide-angle” lens of the S11, with a time-of-flight 3D sensor expected to be thrown into the mix to enable depth detection similar to the tech found on the Note 10+ and S10 5G. Curiously enough, Bloomberg’s sources are staying mum on the possible integration of a mysterious fifth camera teased by all those recent render leaks.

Most rumors and reports about the company’s second-ever foldable phone so far have focused on design revisions and pricing expectations, but we’re now hearing the upcoming “Galaxy Fold clamshell device” will borrow the “high-resolution sensor and 5x zoom camera” from the Galaxy S11. That’s not exactly surprising after the first-gen Galaxy Fold essentially shared its three main cameras with the S10 and S10+, but it pretty much crushes our hopes of seeing this direct Motorola Razr rival released at a reasonable price.

It’s hard to imagine Samsung could pull off a sophisticated vertically-folding design with a primary 108MP shooter, a 5x telephoto lens, a state-of-the-art Snapdragon 865 processor, and… a sub-$1,000 price point. It just doesn’t sound like it can be done yet. Surely not as soon as February 2020, when this unnamed Galaxy Fold sequel spin-off is tipped to be unveiled alongside the mainstream Galaxy S11 family.