Samsung Galaxy leaks: S21 series detailed, no Note in 2021? And more tech news!

Your tech news digest, by way of the DGiT Daily tech newsletter, for Monday, 16 November 2020.

1. Huge Samsung Galaxy S21 drop, and, wait, no Galaxy Note in 2021?

A double-shot of Samsung Galaxy news emerging over the weekend and today.

First,  Max Weinbach at Android Police, with some significant Samsung Galaxy S21 leaks around the coming release (which looks more likely to be named the S21 now over the S30, it seems).

The second is that two new sources have backed up reports earlier this year out of Korea that Samsung won’t continue with the Galaxy Note series. No Galaxy Note 21 or Note 30.

To the S21 leaks, which are so considerable I can scarcely round them all up. But there are some big details:

• Again, we expect three models of the new S series, including S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra.
• According to the leaks, the S21 will have a 6.2-inch display, the Plus at 6.7 inches, and the Ultra will reportedly have a 6.8-inch display
• Each will be running the latest Snapdragon or Exynos SoC as expected, which I’ve detailed a bunch of times already as being critical new elements for 2021 flagships.
• Most of that is expected, but things start to get a little more unexpected here: The S21 Ultra seems to support an S Pen, though won’t come with an S Pen, but some official device cases may come with a pen.
• On the camera front, the S21 Ultra has all the spoils, with a 108MP main camera sensor, a 10MP 3X optical telephoto lens, a 10MP “super optical” 10x telephoto lens, and with a fourth lens a 12MP ultrawide.
• 5G will be standard on each, with Wi-Fi 6E coming to the Ultra, a feature we expected to roll-out to more devices for less congested Wi-Fi in the 6GHz spectrum, with fast speeds, and low latency.
• Battery sizes for the phones will reportedly be 4,000mAh for the Galaxy S21, 4,800mAh for the S21 Plus, and 5,000mAh for the S21 Ultra.
• Finally, the report details phone colors too, with the usual black, plus copper variants with subtle tints, and more.
• The main missing detail was pricing. No info there, and I only have limited speculation as to where Samsung might price the three models. I’d be amazed if the Ultra was under $999 based on recent history.

And the Galaxy Note details:

• Again, Max Weinbach with the detailed, noting on Twitter that Samsung is expected to offer four Galaxy S21 phones and three foldables in 2021. This includes the three Galaxy S21 variants from above, plus a Galaxy S21 FE, and three foldables: Z Flip 3, Z Fold 3, and Z Fold FE.
• Instead of the Note, the Z Fold 3 may have an S-Pen.
• It all means we’re short on definitive proof. But the case against the Note is stacking up: it hasn’t had a lot of differences to the S-line, the Fold and Flip 2 are rock solid compared to both the first editions and competitors, and the Note may not be worth the marketing spend in comparison.

2. A rollable phone is coming tomorrow from OPPO, unclear what it exactly means just yet (Android Authority).

3. Qualcomm can now sell 4G-only smartphone chips to HUAWEI (Android Authority).

4. Samsung’s latest monitor is a smart TV with PC features: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirPlay 2 plus Wireless DeX (Engadget).

5. “iPhone 12: I still want USB-C, but I was wrong about Apple’s magnetic charger” (CNET).

6. iPhone 12 mini teardown shows what Apple had to shrink to make a smallerflagship: battery, taptic engine, speaker all smaller, and differences between US and international versions of the device (iFixit).

7. Apple’s macOS 11 Big Sur has created a storm around privacy (iPhone in Canda). Apple has responded and explained its protections, and will cease logging IP addresses, and launch encrypted protocol in 2021. More on this emerging as that tingling feeling when something is wrong is happening. Odd that Apple didn’t think people might not worry about this…

8. Elon Musk’s totally awful, batshit-crazy, completely bonkers, most excellent year. This great profile was written before Musk possibly contracted COVID-19 (Variety).

9. Huawei, 5G, and the man who conquered noise: How a Turkish scientist’s obscure theoretical breakthrough helped the Chinese tech giant gain control of the future (Wired).

10. Amazon Customer Support apparently did not know that Northern Ireland was part of the UK, a rather touchy thing to get wrong (Gizmodo).

11. The top 10 emerging technologies of 2020. Electric aviation, virtual patients for clinical trials, and more cool stuff (Scientific American).

12. The world is watching more anime—and streaming services are buying as it goes completely mainstream. Netflix has 16 projects in the works (WSJ, $).

13. Thanks to SpaceX, NASA regains a capability it lost for a decade (Ars Technica).

14. “How did early humans figure out the planets were actually planets, and not stars, before the invention of the telescope?” (r/askscience).

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