Now that all the big 2019 phones have been released, it’s time to look forward to next year’s handsets, and if these early leaks are any indication, the Galaxy S11 could be in line for a huge upgrade in the battery department.
According to noted Samsung leaker Ice Universe, Samsung’s next batch of flagship smartphones may get significantly larger batteries, with the even the smallest of the bunch—the Galaxy S11e—featuring up to a 4,000mAh power pack. Compared to the 3,100 mAh battery used in the current Galaxy S10e, that would be an improvement of nearly 30 percent in overall battery capacity.
As for bigger versions of the Galaxy S11, Ice Universe says the S11+’s battery could be as large as 5,000 mAh, which would also be a pretty big jump up from the 4,100 mAh battery in the S10+.
But what’s more important than the increased size of the S11's batteries, is what Samsung could do with all the extra juice. While other phones like the OnePlus 7 Pro, Pixel 4, and others upgraded to 90Hz displays in 2019, none of Samsung’s phones this year had displays with high refresh rates, despite Samsung being the manufacturer responsible for making the panels featured in many of its competitors.
So thanks to their larger batteries, it looks like Samsung is prepping to give the S11 some sort of high refresh rate display for 2020. And what might be even more exciting is that according to Ice Universe, if Samsung does hop on the high refresh rate trend, the tech giant may be more likely to skip 90HZ entirely and jump straight to 120Hz displays.
This would put the S11 on a par with the Pro Motion displays Apple uses in its iPad Pro line, though Apple’s tech is based around LCD panels instead of the OLED displays that Samsung will almost certainly use on the Galaxy S11.
Another important use of the Galaxy S11's extra energy could be support for 5G. Compared to 4G, connecting 5G networks sucks up more energy, which means phone makers will need to take into account the higher power draw for 5G devices. Right now, Samsung’s Galaxy S10+ 5G features a 4,500 mAh battery, so moving up to a 5,000 mAh seems like a good move to prevent potential battery life anxiety on next-gen devices.
However, with the Galaxy S11 not expected to make its official debut until sometime next spring, a lot of specifics may still be in flux, with even Ice Universe not wanting to say too much more without additional info.
Still, considering the biggest knock against the Pixel 4 is its mediocre battery, it’s nice to see Samsung possibly going hard at increasing the Galaxy S11's energy capacity.