In October Patently Apple posted a report titled "Copycat Samsung to Introduce Galaxy S8 in Q1 2017 with Dual Cameras and No Home Button." A Korean report at that time claimed that the Galaxy S8 would be the first Samsung smartphone to introduce a dual lens camera like Apple's iPhone 7 Plus. While Samsung may still introduce such a camera for the S8, a new report has surfaced stating that Samsung will pass on this feature until the Note8 or next year's S9 model. The reason for the delay may be due to Samsung recently investing in Israeli firm Core Photonics.

The Korean business report notes that "Samsung's interest in dual lens cameras is growing day by day. Samsung Venture Investment Corp. has invested in Core Photonics, an Israeli dual-camera manufacturer, while Samsung Electronics has applied for patents on dual camera technologies in succession. The next Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone, which is scheduled to go on sale in the first half of this year, will allegedly not come with a dual lens camera setup. However, models after that are expected to be equipped with a dual camera.

According to industry sources on January 12, Samsung Venture Investment, Foxconn, the biggest assembler of Apple, and Taiwanese chip designer MediaTek have invested a total of US$15 million (17.69 billion won) in Core Photonics.

Core Photonics is the leading vendor of smartphone dual camera imaging technologies and has collaborated with Qualcomm. To date, the company has raised about US$50 million (58.98 billion won) since its foundation in 2012. Core Photonics plans to use the latest investment as a stepping stone to develop dual cameras for next-generation smartphones and tap into the action camera market.

As a dual lens camera has been embedded in the Apple iPhone 7 Plus and the LG V20, it is becoming standard equipment of premium smartphones. A dual camera phone refers to a smartphone which has dual cameras on the rear. It is a type of camera with two or more lenses with a separate image sensor or film frame for each lens. It makes the picture more vivid and detailed and the color more accurate, compared to a single lens camera.

Such cameras could also allow the camera to simulate human binocular vision, and therefore gives it the ability to capture three-dimensional images. This is why a dual camera is considered essential equipment to introduce augmented reality (AR).

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.