Despite everything that is happening in the world, Samsung seems to persevere in the development of the Galaxy Note 20. Rumors and reports on the new flagship have accelerated in recent weeks. It often happens that new smartphones build on previous generations, more often adding new features or improving existing ones. However, sometimes companies have to step back and assess the situation. This sometimes leads them to abandon characteristics instead of adding to them.
The latest rumor is that the Galaxy Note 20 may be missing some of the features we’ve seen in the past.
The Galaxy S20 Ultra is perhaps both known and recognized for being overloaded with cameras. They look great on paper, but many have found them excessive, with performance as good, if not slightly worse than competitor smartphones, which have less and which also cost less. Samsung may be considering reducing the number of its photosensors.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 may not have a ToF camera sensor
Gizchina News of the week
A report in a South Korean media suggests that Samsung is abandoning the 3D time-of-flight ToF sensor. Not only for the upcoming Note but also for future phones.
The Korean giant estimated that the sensor, necessary to allow the smartphone to correctly see the world in 3D, is not completely used and that portrait or bokeh effects are possible without it. However, this change comes ironically at a time when Apple will install such a sensor in the next iPhone as part of its investment in augmented reality technology.
In addition, we may have a different selection of Galaxy Note 20 configurations. Despite operators and manufacturers rallying to 5G, some countries could only get LTE-only variants later in the year. The decision could be based on the slow and disappointing deployment of 5G networks in several countries.
It might be disappointing news for those who expect the Note 20 to have everything the Galaxy S20 has. But these changes also have advantages. At least, in theory, a Note 20 only with LTE connectivity with one less image sensor could cost a lot less than a Galaxy S20. Given the rather controversial price of the Galaxy S20 Ultra, this news could also be welcome.
My guess is that Apple exclusively has the ToF sensor use for photos on lock. So Samsung can only use it for video and AR features.