Samsung Galaxy S11 Rumors: New Flagship Leak To Introduce Laser Autofocus

A new rumor suggests that the highly-anticipated Samsung Galaxy S11 flagship may sport a new feature that's never before seen in any of Samsung’s flagship smartphones in the past: laser autofocus for the main rear camera.

In a new report via Twitter, a tipster called Ice Universe hints that a supposed render of the Samsung Galaxy S11 shows previously reported multiple camera lenses on the back of the phone and a sensor that was said to be the laser autofocus.

Traditionally, Samsung flagship phones have made use of dual pixel autofocus systems on their smartphones. If this rumor will turn out to be true, this will bring in another first for a Samsung flagship.

In order to better understand the difference between the traditional dual pixel autofocus and laser autofocus, a blog post from Technicles detailed the specifics of these two mobile camera mechanisms.

According to Technicles, dual pixel autofocus, which is what Samsung flagship smartphones are known for, “are superior than PDAF and hybrid systems.” This is because, in PDAF or phase detection autofocus, only 5 percent of the available pixels were part of the image focusing. On the other hand, in dual pixel autofocus, “phase detection photo diode is embedded into each and every pixel on the camera sensor.”

As for phones that use a laser autofocus system, there is a small laser transmitter and a receiver. This works in a way that the sensor sends a laser beam to the subject and it bounces back to the receiver. An algorithm then calculates the time it took the laser beam to reach the subject and bounce back.

Laser autofocus is known to be the fastest autofocusing system and it works well even in a low light environment. On the other hand, laser autofocus is not ideal for taking photos subjects that are too far away as the laser beam that is being used in this system is not strong enough to reach longer distances.