Huawei P11 release date, specs rumors: Upcoming flagship to boast triple-lens camera and face unlock feature similar to iPhone X Face ID

Official render of Huawei P10 smartphone, highlighting its Leica-powered dual camera setupHuawei website

After last week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), there is  another huge tech expo coming up that will showcase the latest and hottest gadgets this 2018. According to the latest reports, the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) will introduce some of the most anticipated flagship from different tech giants, and one of these is the Huawei P11 smartphone. The recent leaks suggest that the P10 successor will boast the industry's first ever triple-lens camera sample, and one of the P11 variants is expected to resemble Apple's iPhone X flagship with its own notch feature.

Accoding to Phone Arena, Huawei will release three variants of the P11 smartphone this year, similar to the Huawei P10 lineup in 2017. The public can expect that the upcoming flagship will feature the regular Huawei P10 model, the mid-tier Huawei P11 Plus with increased proportions and performance, and the budget Huawei P11 Lite variant. The common denominator among all three P11 variants is the rumored triple-lens camera build at the rear.

The latest reports suggest that Huawei's partnership with Lieca for the upcoming flagship phones with built-in premium cameras still holds, although it appears that the two companies are attempting to exceed their limits by going above the dual-lens camera setup. The triple-lens camera of the Huawei P11 will be placed in one row next to each other, and what makes the camera more impressive is its capacity to capture 40MP images. It is not clear, however, if 40MP resolution is dedicated for each lens, or such clear resolution will be obtained by combining the three lenses.

Meanwhile, it is speculated that the Plus version of the Huawei P11 will feature the iPhone X's signature notch. The P11 Plus is expected to be an all-screen phone with almost non-existent bezels on the sides, although a notch area on the top portion of the display is still visible. To note, the notch area in the iPhone X contains the necessary sensors for the Face ID system, so this raises the question if the Huawei P11 Plus will have a facial recognition feature of its own.

While many tech enthusiasts refer to the 2017 P series entry as the Huawei P11, other sources claim that the company will not follow an iterative numbering this year for the said lineup. Huawei is reportedly calling the P10 successor as the P20. In contrast, the handset maker went from P8 to P9, and then to P10 for the previous iterations of the flagship series. At this point, the rumor mill gives more weight to the Huawei P11 moniker for the 2018 flagship over P20. Although, the company can sometimes make surprising decisions from time to time.