Galaxy S11 to get 5x zoom camera, larger area for fingerprint on display

With the Galaxy Note 10 safely on its way to becoming Samsung's best selling smartphone yet, at least based on some sources, attention among the company's fans and observers are unsurprisingly turning to its next big flagship. Unless it makes a big change, that will be the Galaxy S11 that will be coming in early 2020. And if industry sources are correct, it will finally be catching up to the smartphone trends that have been rising up around it.

The Galaxy S10 was Samsung's first smartphone to use its much-delayed on-screen fingerprint sensor. While it was commendable for adopting Qualcomm's ultrasonic fingerprint scanning technology, it was judged by some to be less reliable than regular in-screen fingerprint sensors that use optical cameras. In particular, the active area of Samsung's FoD (fingerprint-on-display) was also smaller than the growing number of sensors on other phones.

According to Korea's The Elec, Samsung will be upgrading that sensor next year. That information comes from GIS which produces these Qualcomm sensors. The current FoD that Samsung uses has an Active Area Dimension of 36 sq. mm. while the Galaxy S11 might use a 64 sq. mm. AAD sensor. The only catch is that GIS says that the product is still a work in progress.

The Elec also has some insider scoop on the cameras for the Galaxy S11. It seems that Samsung will finally dogfood its own tech, using the 5x zoom camera it worked on for the OPPO Reno. There's also talk that its 108 megapixel sensor will arrive on next year's flagship with a wide-angle lens.

Of course, it's too early at this point to say anything definitive about the Galaxy S11. And while the specs may sound impressive, it will be the real-world performance that really counts. And judging by reviews of Samsung's first gen FoD and night-time camera performance, there's definitely a lot of room for improvement.