Leaked details about smartphones tend to fly fast and furious right before a new product launches. And sometimes they come directly from the company that's making the new phone.
That seems to have happened with the Galaxy S20 and Samsung. The electronics giant's German website briefly posted an image of the still-unannounced Galaxy S20 on a page showing off a case designed for the new smartphone. Android Police spotted Samsung's goof and took a screencap.
The image doesn't tell us anything we haven't already heard about Samsung's next flagship phone, though it's always nice to receive confirmation that the rumors circulating about a device are pretty spot-on. The images show the front and back of the S20 inside the phone case, which has a rear cutout for a rectangular camera array with three rear lenses stacked vertically. As this case is for the S20, we don't see the time-of-flight sensor that's apparently earmarked for the S20 Plus and S20 Ultra models that will also be announced next week.
As for the front of the phone, it's got a circular cutout for the front camera in the center of the display — a shift from the Galaxy S10, which featured the cutout off to the right. That's a change we were expecting, not just because it's how Samsung handled the Galaxy Note 10 but because earlier leaked images suggested as much.
The prematurely posted case image for the S20 matches smartphone cases we've received that claim to be designed for Samsung's new phone. Those cases also included a cutout for a rectangular camera array on the back of the phone.
You'd think that Samsung would be more careful with information about the Galaxy S20, especially with the phone's launch less than a week away. But tipping its hand early has become something of a tradition with Samsung. Prior to last year's Galaxy Note 10 launch, leaked marketing materials told us everything we needed to know about the new phablet's specs. Samsung support pages tipped us off to the Galaxy Note 10 Lite before Samsung unveiled that new phone last month. And Samsung's own OS has filled in some of the details about what to expect from the Galaxy S20.
Samsung is holding its Unpacked event on Feb. 11 in San Francisco, at which time we'll learn if there are any Galaxy S20 surprises remaining.
