Samsung has unveiled a new camera technology that can significantly increase the performance of the camera in the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. This comes hot on the heels of a report that Samsung is also preparing a keyboard cover for its duo of upcoming flagship smartphones.
At an investor conference in South Korea, Samsung officially unveiled its new BRITECELL technology for cameras, which the company claims can make the camera module 17 percent slimmer while improving photos taken in low-light conditions.
In a nutshell, Samsung's BRITECELL camera will produce clearer, crisper photos even with minimal lighting sources by removing a smartphone camera layout called Bayer filter. Traditionally, this filter makes photos darker by using green pixels that can block light from passing through the sensors, which is useful technology that prevents images from becoming overexposed. It's not as useful when taking photos in low light, however, so by turning the green pixels white, more light can pass through to create brighter photos.
Samsung also unveiled Smart WDR, an image processing technology akin to HDR in that it combines multiple exposures of a single object to put them together into a single, clear, color-bright image.
Although the company has remained mum about which of its smartphones will be getting the BRITECELL camera, it is quite clear the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, which are both tipped for a January or February launch, depending on who is doing the reporting, will be the first smartphones to get these enhancements.
Meanwhile, SamMobile reports that the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge will likely have display sizes bigger than the 5.1 inches of their predecessors. This is particularly due to the reported existence of a Keyboard Cover that Samsung is planning to sell for its upcoming flagships. Other accessories purportedly include an S View Cover, a Glitter Cover and a Clear View Cover.
Samsung equipping the upcoming phones with a Keyboard Cover is not entirely impossible. After all, the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ both had a rather expensive $80 Keyboard Cover that unfortunately did not sit well with most users because of its unwieldy design. However, if Samsung plans to add the same accessory for its new smartphones, the South Korean firm should at least bump up the display size to more than 5.1 inches, since covering a third of that screen size does not make sense.
Photo: Maurizio Pesce | Flickr
