The Galaxy S21 (S30) 5G is the next Samsung flagship tipped to skip on a major breakthrough
The Galaxy S20 Ultra comes with a conventional centered front camera
Pretty much all of the world’s top smartphone manufacturers have been toying with the idea of achieving the perfect full screen design with absolutely no borders or perforations for quite a few years now, but it’s hard to think of a more vocal and energetic company in this field than Samsung.
“No under panel camera on S21”
While Young stops short of rating the confidence level of his latest high-profile prediction for an unreleased device widely expected to see daylight no sooner than February 2021, the reasons why Samsung is reportedly omitting this major upgrade… yet again sound pretty plausible.
Old and dreamy concept of the Galaxy Note 20
They’re also extremely familiar, being mentioned essentially every single time in the last couple of years when Samsung was rumored to delay the commercial integration of this technology. In a nutshell, the tech is still not ready for primetime, requiring excessive spending on the part of an interested vendor due to pricey materials and low yields.
Will the Note 21 change the game at last?
The answer to that question is… unclear, which seems very natural for a product that’s still a year or so away from its commercial debut. For what it’s worth, Ross Young believes it is possible the Galaxy Note 21 5G (or Note 30) will have the feature, but it’s simply far too soon to make anything other than an educated guess based on little more than instinct and previous product roadmaps.
The problem is we’re looking at an incredibly challenging technology here that doesn’t even provide many benefits from a utility standpoint. Yes, a completely bezelless, notchless, and holeless smartphone does sound cool and futuristic, but is anyone really bothered by Samsung’s teeny-tiny screen perforations anymore? Like, truly bothered?
The Note 20 Ultra will come with the same barely noticeable hole punch camera as the S20 Ultra after all
And even if that is indeed the case, it’s certainly more important to wait until the company makes sure that the “invisible” front-facing camera actually works at its full potential than being first to market with some half-baked technology that would also considerably increase the starting price of the Galaxy S21 5G.