Samsung Galaxy S11 renders: All rubbish, says leaker IceUniverse

Dominik Bärlocher

28.11.2019

Translation: machine translated

A leaker contradicts a leaker. IceUniverse says that OnLeak's leaks about the Samsung Galaxy S11 are false. A tricky situation in a world of half-knowledge and non-facts.

The leaks of the Samsung Galaxy S11 published yesterday night have caused a stir. The Twittersphere and the scene media have taken a look at the camera system and found it to be "disorganised". Among others.

But reader Luan was the first to get in touch. His excitement: the leaks are all rubbish. He referred to a tweet from the leaker IceUniverse.

As informative and revealing as this tweet seems, it presents fans of leaks with a new situation that goes a little further than just the layout of a camera system or the colour scheme of a smartphone.

OnLeaks or IceUniverse?

The situation is a little tricky. There are two leakers who have each made a claim to the world. That's new. Until now, it was usually the case that a leaker claimed something and then it materialised except for a few details. Leaker Evan Blass has made a name for himself over the years by being largely reliable.

Now, however, one leaker is saying something and another is directly contradicting him. The solution seems simple: we look at which leaker was right about which things, deduce the sources from there and then say: "He's right."

• IceUniverse has made a name for itself as a Samsung leaker
• OnLeaks is the co-founder of SlashLeaks and has recently leaked OnePlus, Motorola and Samsung
• Evan Blass is probably the most famous leaker in the world
• ...

This doesn't work either, because leakers don't confront readers with facts, but with pure assumptions. We have simply got used to the fact that Evan Blass, IceUniverse and co. are usually right. Nevertheless, they don't really know anything either.

They keep their sources secret, for obvious reasons. However, this can at least theoretically mean that they don't have any sources and sometimes think "yes, that sounds good" or "plausible". Therefore: It is imprudent to give leaks absolute credence, even if SlashLeaks has a "trust score" that indicates how much the leaker trusts the leak. Because even there: The leak can be fictitious, at least in theory. So can the trust score.

A marketing trick?

Of course, it is also possible that IceUniverse, Evan Blass and SlashLeaks are being used by manufacturers as a marketing tool. A render here, a spec there and the anticipation for a new device grows months before the announcement. In the case of the Samsung Galaxy S11+, we know that it will probably be released in February 2020. Probably a week before the MWC in Barcelona. If Samsung wants to create anticipation for the launch, then leaks are the way to go.

But what if Samsung has decided to provide two leakers with two possible configurations and thus create two contradictory leaks? The scene is full of drama, a topic of conversation, and has been busy for several days. They argue about whether OnLeaks or IceUniverse has the right data, speculate and research.

Meanwhile, someone in Samsung's Marketing Department is happy about the free publicity. The unfortunate effect is that the leaker scene cannibalises, undermines and discredits itself.

Even that: pure speculation. However, manufacturers leaking their own phones is a fairly established practice. The Chinese manufacturer Leagoo is/was particularly brazen and sent emails from its Marketing Department to the media with the subject line "Leak". To all media.

One thing remains the same: Leaks are sexy. No matter how credible. <p

Dominik Bärlocher

Senior Editor

dominik.baerlocher@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.