(Update: Smart AF trademark) The Galaxy S8 may provide better selfies thanks to autofocus implementation

Update, Dec 6 – The likelihood of the Galaxy S8’s front facing camera packing auto focusing abilities has just ticked up another few percentage points. The company’s recently filed trademark for the term “Smart AF” has been uncovered at the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

Along with the name, the trademark listing also reveals that the title will be associated with “mobile phones; smartphones; tablet computers; auto-focus photographic cameras for mobile phones, smartphones.” While this doesn’t mention the Galaxy S8 or a front facing camera component by name, when paired up with previous reports it’s seemingly increasingly likely that Samsung will market the Galaxy S8’s front facing camera with “Smart AF” technology.

Of course, we still don’t know exactly what Smart AF will do, although automatically focusing on faces would be a likely starting point. If this turns out to be true, it could be another important differentiator for Samsung’s 2017 flagship smartphone.

Original, Nov 29 –

The Samsung Galaxy S8’s front-facing camera may include autofocus (AF) functionality, according to a report from Korean news site etnews. Samsung would implement the feature, which automatically adjusts camera lenses to provide the most advantageous focus-level according to a subject’s position, as the challenge to offer better smartphone photo quality increases.

AF functionality is often included in rear-facing smartphone cameras – typically used for a wider range of purposes than front-facing cameras – however implementing it is costly. As front-facing cameras are generally used for close proximity subjects, like in selfies or video-calling, many manufacturers haven’t considered AF to be crucial there in the past.

“People are starting to take more selfies and number of demands for cameras that take selfies with higher qualities is increasing,” an industry representative told etnews. “It is heard that Samsung Electronics has decided to [include autofocus] for Galaxy S8 in order to differentiate its flagship Smartphone.”

etnews also reports that Samsung will use a slimmer technology for its front camera’s autofocus module compared to the rear camera’s to ensure that it doesn’t stick out. Other recent Samsung Galaxy S8 rumors suggest it will come with a bezel-less display and an all-new digital assistant similar to Siri and Google Now.