Samsung is slated to announce the next generation of its Galaxy S series flagships budded the Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra. The devices are expected to come with high-end hardware such as the latest and greatest chipset from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 865, a 120Hz refresh rate for the screen for the top-of-the-line variant, up to 16GM RAM, and more. Another area that the devices are expected to excel at is in the camera department. The devices will reportedly sport upgraded camera hardware in the way of a larger sensor, a periscope lens for up to 10X optical zoom and a reported 100X digital zoom, and an impressive array of cameras.
Now, a new trademark filing by the South Korean giant for a “Super ISO” term has been spotted on the U.K. IPO (Intellectual Property Office) website (via LetsGoDigital). This filing suggests that the company might be planning to use the term for the high ISO range on its upcoming flagships. ISO sensitivity refers to the sensitivity of an image sensor towards the light.
Higher ISO enables the sensor to capture more light, albeit adversely affecting the image quality since higher ISOs tend to introduce more grain (distortion) in an image. Higher ISOs are used for low-light images or in night mode to increase the image sensor’s ability to capture more light and brighten an image.
A larger image sensor also helps capture more light. The resulting outcome of high ISO and a large sensor might mean that Samsung’s devices would excel at low-light photography. Competitors like Google have had better low-light capabilities and features such as astrophotography owing to powerful image processing.
It is no guarantee that the trademark filing is indicative of an imminent feature with that term. However, it will be interesting to see what benefits the larger sensor and the supposed “Super ISO” capability bring to the firm’s upcoming flagships if they do make it to the device, and how they fare against the competition. The wait should not be too long before the devices hit users’ hands since the smartphones will see the light of the day at Samsung’s unpacked event on February 11.
Header image source: OnLeaks
