The Galaxy Note 20 may have a surprising new rival from Xiaomi. Rumors of the new phone from the Chinese company claim it's going to have one of the most powerful zoom cameras we've seen, and that it's due to arrive next month.
This leak comes from Russian site Xiaomishka (via TechRadar). Its report states that the codename of this device is 'CAS,' but the site believes the phone could be potentially called the Mi CC 10 when it launches, likely building on the Xiaomi Mi 10 flagship revealed earlier this year. As for a launch date, Xiaomishka says this phone will appear in July, which would mean we see it before the Note 20's assumed August reveal event.
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The Xiaomi CAS will be notable for its alleged 120x max zoom and 12x optical zoom telephoto camera according to the report, although there's no mention of the size or resolution of the sensor attached to the periscope mechanism. For comparison, the 100x 'Space Zoom' camera on the Galaxy S20 Ultra can only manage 4x optical zoom, with the highest optical magnification around right now being 5x zoom, found on phones like the Huawei P40 Pro.
Since rumors point to the Note 20 not getting the S20 Ultra's zoom camera, and that it could instead use a 13MP telephoto camera with a maximum of 50x zoom, this could give Samsung's next flagship a big disadvantage over Xiaomi's new phone.
Keeping up the high standard of cameras on the Xiaomi phone will be a 108MP main sensor. The Mi 10 already uses this camera, so it's no surprise to see it here. While we're hoping to see a 108MP camera on at least one Note 20 model, it's not believed to be coming to the whole range.
On the inside, the CAS will contain a Snapdragon 775G processor, which as the name suggests makes the phone 5G compatible. The fact that this is a 7-series Qualcomm processor rather than the range-topping 865 found in many Android flagships could limit this phone when it comes to maximum performance. But the 775G, also thought to be used in the Google Pixel 5, is still a great processor with plenty of grunt, and will likely mean the Xiaomi phone will cost a lot less than rival flagships.
Xiaomishka says we could see this phone debut in July, which is remarkably soon. If that's true, it'll give the Samsung Galaxy Note 20, the iPhone 12 and even next year's Galaxy S30 a major rival straight out of the gate.
