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Samsung trademarks BRITECELL, hinting at a new camera sensor for the Galaxy S7

Nov 04, 2015, 4:16 AM

Daniel P.

Samsung trademarks BRITECELL, hinting at a new camera sensor for the Galaxy S7

Samsung is hard at work on its next-gen phone cameras, it seems - just as we learned that it has developed a 20 MP sensor with a frugal 28nm package, now comes the news that it has patented the term BRITECELL. The patent application doesn't leave us guessing as to what it is about, saying “image sensor for mobile phones” right in the description.

Now, this patent might be related to the new 20 MP sensor, as Samsung lists it with a RWB color pattern for enhancing light sensitivity, and improving the signal-to-noise ratio in low-light conditions, hence the term "BRITE." Given that Samsung still uses ISOCELL to describe the 20 MP sensor, however, BRITECELL might be related to something totally new and yet-unreleased, rather than the new RWB pattern. Yesterday, Korean media spilled the beans on an alleged 12 MP sensor developed by Samsung, which will sport a large 1/2" surface area, allowing for huge pixels that collect more light, instead of mindlessly chasing the megapixel count, with an ever-decreasing pixel size as a result.

Samsung is apparently ready to put the new 12 MP sensor in production very soon, so when it comes to rumormongering, the Galaxy S7 could be equipped either with the new 20 MP, or the speculated 12 MP sensor, depending on what you'd like to believe, and the low-light technology on either of them can be titled with the trademark name BRITECELL. Fun times.