At least one member of the upcoming Galaxy S9 lineup may feature a “reimagined” imaging experience, as suggested by Samsung’s recent trademark filing with the Korean Intellectual Property Office. An application from the company accepted on December 22nd seeks to protect the slogan “The Camera. Reimagined.” Samsung officially associated the term with a wide variety of consumer electronics, ranging from actual cameras and 3D glasses to optical media players, set-top boxes, battery chargers, computer monitors, and TVs. Near the end of Samsung’s “Designated Goods” list submitted with the trademark are smartphones and handset accessories, with the former category being the most likely subject of the firm’s new slogan.
According to recent leaks and reports, the Galaxy S9 Plus is expected to feature a much more significant camera-related redesign, being set to sport a dual-lens setup but one with two vertically arranged sensors. A dual-LED (dual-tone) flash unit will be moved from the left to the right of the camera module, together with a heart rate monitor, with both being set to occupy the space that previously featured a vertically oriented fingerprint reader. The scanner itself has now been rotated by 90 degrees and moved beneath the camera(s) found on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus, previous reports suggested. It’s presently unclear whether Samsung will be looking to claim it “reimagined” the imaging capabilities of the smaller Galaxy S9 but the Galaxy S9 Plus could easily be advertised as such, being only the second Samsung-made flagship with a dual-camera setup that’s noticeably different than the one found on the Galaxy Note 8.
Samsung’s Camera app pre-loaded on its high-end handsets is unlikely to go through many significant changes with the next refresh of the Galaxy series and will presumably only feature additional filters and sharing options, much like it was the case in the last few years, so it remains to be seen which aspects of the lineup’s photography features will end up being “reimagined.” The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus are widely expected to be officially announced at MWC 2018 in late February before hitting the market by mid-March, starting at around $700.