Samsung Galaxy Note 20 design just leaked in major handset war upset

If you'd have asked us yesterday what we thought the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 was going to look like, you would have heard a description of a pretty standard 2020 flagship. 

We'd have assumed the handset would pack a massive, almost bezel-less screen, very curved corners and a quad or even penta-camera setup, like the S20 series. Which is why we were so surprised when we saw the latest Note 20 leak. 

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Top leakster Ice Universe flagged up a new design from fellow leaker Harmless Karl, who we've seen break some news before. He's released a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 design said to be "a rough design preview" of what Samsung are looking to implement later this year. Check out the tweet below:

Twitter replies on the above tweet range from "I really hate the camera cutout" to "That looks wrong". Oo-er. Both Ice Universe and Harmless Karl have been reliable in the past, but neither disclose their source on the CAD design. 

It's certainly... boxier than we were expecting, with a simple triple-camera setup. We know from a separate Ice Universe leak the phone won't be packing the S20 Ultra's enormous 100x zoom, so this adds further weight to the legitimacy of both rumours

Ice does go on to say "don't believe its bezel, it's just a rough design preview", so we can imagine the screen will be proportionately larger and bezels will have shrank by the time the Note 20 is released, in line with the design of the S20 series. The rectangular rear camera module also echoes the S20, so we assume these design choices will be a common thread throughout Samsung's future lineup. 

The CAD render has also moved the volume rocker and power button from the Note 10's left-hand side to the right. We're not shown the bottom and top edges of the screen, so it's unclear if the S Pen storage placement has changed at all. 

Ice has hinted in the past Samsung were close to launching an under-screen selfie camera, to finally achieve that all-glass uninterrupted display, and it was set to debut on a premium device that wasn't the S20 series or the Fold 2. That leaves the Note 20, but as these designs clearly display a Note 10-style punch-hole selfie camera, we can assume the under-screen camera remains a pipe dream. Ah well: the rumour mill continues to churn, and we look forward to all the predictions the under-screen camera will debut in 2021. 

We do know, however, the Note 20 will sport the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, the 5G  chip that made the S20 series such a powerful smartphone, and that it's set to debut in July despite the global health crisis causing delays for its competitors. 

Apple, for example, has moved its September 2020 showcase back at least one month. Will this give Samsung a unique advantage, debuting its new high-end handset so early in the second half of the year unopposed? Time will tell.

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