In its relentless push for adding new features, Samsung may have just accidentally revealed a potentially interesting property of its new devices, the upcoming Galaxy S7 and its bigger, slightly curvier sibling, the S7 Edge. An application recently filed with the USTPO in fact contains a request for trademarking a so-called ‘Always On Display’, which despite sounding pretty generic leaves us little room for interpretation…
Given the already widespread use of similar implementations, especially among OEMs whose devices primarily adopt AMOLED panels, like Motorola’s famous “Ambient Display”, it wouldn’t surprise us if the South Korean giant was headed towards bettering notifications and battery management. With the phone’s rumored huge battery, the small amount of battery drain to come from such a feature would be no problem.
Last year was full of important changes for Samsung, whose flagships had been heavily criticized in the past mainly because of their plastic build and below par software experience. However, in order to fix that — and bring us the undoubtedly gorgeous-looking Galaxy S6 — the company made some tradeoffs not necessarily praised by fans or the critics.
Their upcoming top-of-the-line devices are trying to bring the best of both worlds, drawing heavily from their predecessors in terms of aesthetics, while trying to cram in as many features as possible, such as an IP certification for waterproofing and the return of a microSD slot, both things that Samsung fans couldn’t benefit from in a high-end handset post-Galaxy S5. Throwing something like a panel that makes a smarter use of its technology would certainly help making the whole package all the more compelling.
The announcement event is scheduled to take place on February 21st, right before this year’s Mobile World Congress kicks off.
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