Did a Samsung Galaxy Note 21 with under-screen camera just break cover at CES?

Blink and you'll have missed it, but fans may just have got a brief glimpse of the Samsung Galaxy Note 21 in Samsung's CES presentation.

It's sent the rumour mill into overdrive ahead of an exciting year for the Korean giant ahead of the expected Samsung Galaxy S21 launch this week.

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Sharp-eyed fans may have spotted what appears to be a momentary taster of the Samsung Galaxy Note 21 in a promo video for the new Galaxy Upcycling program. 

Samsung’s promo video rolls through with the usual aplomb of a company who is an industry veteran; however, at roughly 2.15, where the Samsung rep talks about upcycling its devices into childcare tools, the product shown looks very similar to the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, albeit without the small camera notch for selfies. Does this mean an under screen camera is on its way?

Well, the devil is in the detail, as they say: it certainly appears to be missing the punch-hole camera that is characteristic of the Note devices, which could suggest a new model that forgoes this feature entirely, or uses a front-facing camera that sits underneath.

At T3, we're excited for any speculation that alludes to an under-display camera. And while the Samsung Galaxy S21 is reportedly set to maintain the punch-hole design for its front-facing camera, thoughts now turn to the Galaxy Note 21, as the primary contender for using the under screen tech.

The Korean giant looks to soar into 2021 with a bunch of futuristic offerings: be that robots that’ll take domestic duties off your hands, or smart vacuums that can be used as security cameras, Samsung always brandishes the best of its new technology at CES. But the Samsung Galaxy Note 21 would big news, even by its own impressive roster of new gizmos. The brand's phones feature heavily on our best smartphone guide; it's been lovingly put together by the T3 team to help you make the right choice, so take a look if you're puzzled by the many buying options. 

At this stage, it’s a relatively benign indication of a new Galaxy Note, and we’d be forgiven for getting excited if it’s just a rendering that’s been added, harmlessly, in post-production. Blame us for being sceptics, but at T3 we tend to subscribe to the idea that tech titans generally know what they’re doing at big events like CES; more, seemingly innocuous crumbs of information tend to have been left there for us to pick up on.

Either way, we love a riddle and this video has whet our appetites for a Samsung Galaxy Note 21 before any surer signal that it's a real thing.