Over at Mobile World Congress Shanghai, an offshoot of the main MWC mobile conference that happens every year in Barcelona, Spain, Samsung has announced that it’s rebranding its smartphone camera image sensors to “ISOCELL”.
If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Samsung has been manufacturing smartphone camera image sensors that make use of its proprietary ISOCELL technology since 2013. Starting with the Galaxy S5, every Samsung flagship has featured the then latest and greatest ISOCELL image sensor.
The more significant announcement here, especially as it relates to the company’s upcoming products, is that Samsung plans to manufacture sensors in four different categories: Bright, Fast, Slim and, most notably, Dual.
If you’ve been following the Note 8 rumours, you’ll know that one of its big rumoured features is a dual rear-facing camera. Here’s what Samsung has to say about its ISOCELL dual sensors:
“ISOCELL Dual sensors can be mixed and matched in various combinations on consumer devices to bring about features demanded in the latest dual camera trend.”
That description doesn’t tell us much about how the sensors will work together, but it does indicate Samsung is at least serious about the idea of a dual camera smartphone. Following the launch of S8, The Verge asked a Samsung executive if the company had considered adding another rear camera to the S8. The executive said, “Samsung has not found real value for it yet.” Later, a prototype S8 with two back-facing cameras leaked online.
While not any more conclusive than the leaks that have come out in the past few weeks, it does seem we’ll eventually see a dual camera Samsung smartphone, even if it’s not the Note 8.
[source]Samsung[/source]
