New Samsung patent hints at S20 camera improvements

A new patent filed by Samsung in the UK offers a glimpse at potential improvements in the company’s future devices.

Samsung has recently unveiled a number of impressive camera technologies, including the 108MP sensor (which may or may not live up to the hype), and the rumoured 10x optical zoom system expected to appear on the Galaxy S20.

More recently, Samsung filed a patent for what it calls ‘Super ISO’. As LetsGoDigital wrote, the patent is filed under Category 9, which covers imaging tech for smartphones. Though exact details of the patented technology aren’t clear, it seems that the S20 will have enhanced exposure settings for low-light photography.

In photography, ISO is the term for light sensitivity in the image sensor—the higher the ISO, the brighter details appear in a photo. 2019’s Note 10 and S10 family had an ISO range that maxed out at 3200, but the S20 may offer double that at ISO 6400 or even higher.

Of course, this doesn’t magically take care of everything in low-light situations—with high ISO numbers, there is always the risk of too much noise, the fuzzy grain often present in darker images. At worst, noise can render a photo useless, which is why camera companies put much effort into better noise reduction software.

As to the low-light performance of the S20 in real life, we’re still left in the dark for now (pardon the pun). But if Samsung’s patent pans out, it could be a game-changing feature to round out the phone’s rumoured camera prowess.