The wheels are finally in motion: The Galaxy S11 has cleared an obstacle on its way to retail shelves by picking up Bluetooth certification. To be specific, it's the 5G variant of the Galaxy S11+ (model number SM-G988B) that has been certified. The Galaxy S11+ is likely to be sold as a 5G-equipped device in all markets, while the Galaxy S11e and Galaxy S11+ could have both LTE and 5G variants, despite the fact that the Exynos 990 and Snapdragon 865 have 5G connectivity built-in as standard.
The Bluetooth certification simply calls the phone a “Samsung Mobile Phone”, so it's unclear if a recent rumor about Samsung possibly launching its next flagship as the Galaxy S20 has any truth to it. It's standard fare for companies to want to keep the names of their upcoming flagships a secret as they make their way through the necessary certifications ahead of an official launch, and that's probably the only reason why the certification is using a generic product name.
As usual, the Bluetooth certification reveals nothing about the phone's specs, only that it sports Bluetooth 5.0. As of this moment, some of the expected Galaxy S11+ specs include a 6.9-inch display, the Exynos 990/Snapdragon 865 SoC, up to 12GB of RAM, a 108MP primary rear camera, a 48MP 5x zoom camera, and a 5,000 mAh battery with 45W super fast charging support. It will also come in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage flavors and introduce us to One UI 2.1, as we had exclusively revealed a couple of months ago.
