Samsung Galaxy Note 21 may have been quietly announced at CES 2021.

A nondescript Samsung CES 2021 promotional video about the new Galaxy Upcycling program showed off a phone designed much like the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, only without the punch hole selfie camera.

In the portion of the video beginning at 2:15, a Samsung representative talks about using an old Galaxy phone as a baby monitor, and the parent device is briefly shown on the screen. As mentioned, it looks a lot like a Galaxy Note 20 or Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, but the lack of a camera notch suggests that if it really is a real phone, it may have a front-facing camera mounted below the display. And this small detail makes people wonder if this is an early surprise appearance of the Galaxy Note 21.

The Korean company has already shown off a robotic vacuum cleaner, a spinning TV, and new Neo QLED and MicroLED display technology at CES, but this is probably the most high-profile one yet.

Under-display camera phones are slowly becoming a reality, led by the ZTE Axon 20 5G. It has long been rumored that Samsung is looking to introduce a sub-panel selfie camera on one of its flagships. However, since Samsung's Galaxy S21 still appears to use a punch-hole camera, attention has turned to the Galaxy Note 21 as the next candidate.

If this is not a notchless phone concept, then the most obvious answer would be a rendered image added in post-production. However, it is not clear why Samsung would go to the trouble of excluding the punch hole in the camera, since it does not interfere with the notifications displayed on the screen.

Even if this were the Galaxy Note 21, we would have to wait until this fall for its release. But that's okay, since the Galaxy S21 will be released just two days later, on January 14.

According to multiple rumors, the Galaxy S21 will again come in three different versions. The basic model will be 6.2 inches with three cameras on the back, while the S21 Ultra will be 6.8 inches with four rear-facing cameras and an autofocus sensor.

For more information, see our roundup of the biggest CES 2021 news from the virtual event.