New leaks from Pigtou and OnLeaks suggest Samsung may be working on a phone with a pop-up camera.
According to the tipsters, the new phone is likely to do away with a front notch camera completely and instead have a front-facing snapper that’s hidden within the phone’s body. It is not revealed whether this could be an early look at the Samsung Galaxy S30 or something more mid-range, like a new entry in the brand’s excellent A series.
In Pigtou’s rendered images below, the phone looks fairly chunky because of that design decision, with a body that measures 9.7mm across at its widest.
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Not everyone is a fan of this new pop-up trend, with people questioning the durability and response times of the design. But despite these reservations we have seen the feature well executed in the past – the OnePlus 7 Pro’s front-facing snapper ultimately proved very hardy and satisfyingly fast. However, it did not appear on the recent OnePlus 8 Pro.
Credit: Pigtou/ OnLeaks
In terms of other cameras, the renders suggest we’re looking at a triple-lens set-up on the rear of the phone, with a fingerprint sensor on the back as well. Unfortunately, it looks like the headphone hack has been removed from this design, so it might not one for anyone who’s part of the wireless resistance.
Burying the front camera within the phone’s body does mean that we’re looking a nice clean display, with no intrusive notches or teardrops. Rumours from the above publications suggest that it will be a respectable 160.9 x 77mm screen, so it could be a nice little device for watching movies on-the-go.
There’s no confirmation on where the new camera-design would slot into Samsung’s current phone line-up, but that bulky form looks like it would be better suited to a mid-range series. That said, it could be tricky for Samsung to offset the costs of the pop-up mechanism in a budget phone.
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At this point the above is still a mix of wild speculation and rumour, and there’s no confirmation that we’ll get another Samsung reveal any time soon.
But given that Apple has just started shipping the iPhone SE 2 for £419/$399, Samsung is under pressure to step up if it wants to make a serious splash in the mid-range market.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.