There are plenty of trademarks that Samsung applies for all year round. And one of the company’s latest filings has caught our attention – Samsung filed a trademark for a new image sensor called ‘Bright Night Sensor’ on November 28. Bright Night was originally Samsung’s version of a dedicated Night mode for the Galaxy S10 camera, but the fact that the company is now making an actual image sensor with the same name suggests something is afoot for one of Samsung’s upcoming smartphones.

The first thing that comes to mind is that this could be one of the new sensors we will see on the back of the Galaxy S11 or Galaxy S11+. The latter was shown in leaked renders with five rear cameras, and it’s possible one of these could be dedicated to improving results in low-light conditions. Precisely how this ‘Bright Night Sensor’ would work is anyone’s guess – perhaps this sensor is just the laser autofocus module that is rumored to be present on the Galaxy S11 series and not a proper camera?

It’s hard to say, as there’s not enough information available about the Galaxy S11 cameras at this time. Rumors suggest the flagship will be equipped with a 108MP main camera and a telephoto lens capable of 5x zoom, and we can assume another camera will be dedicated to taking ultra-wide pictures. The rest is a mystery, unless we don’t count the Galaxy S11e, which is expected to have a traditional triple camera setup like the Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy S10.