Samsung teases the Galaxy S 6's camera technology

Samsung's head of camera R&D has taken to the company's official blog to promise that the next Galaxy S handset will usher in another innovation in smartphone camera technology.

Samsung's head of camera R&D has taken to the company's official blog to promise that the next Galaxy S handset will usher in another innovation in smartphone camera technology.

In the post, which charts the history of the smartphone camera in general and Samsung's role in its evolution from gimmick to absolute necessity, DongHoon Jang claims that with the upcoming Galaxy S6, due to be officially unveiled on March 1, smartphones may have finally caught up with dedicated digital cameras in terms of performance and capabilities.

However, unlike a dedicated camera, the unit on the next Galaxy will be all about simplicity, preventing anything from getting in the way of its user's creativity. 'It will be intelligent and do all the thinking for users, allowing them to take amazing pictures under any conditions, without having to worry about anything more than just pressing the shutter button. It will demonstrate just how far Samsung has advanced smartphone cameras, and once again will open the creative side of our users for new ideas and new possibilities,' he writes.

The post also confirms that the new phone's front-facing camera will also be bringing something new to the table in terms of features and performance.

Although the official unveiling ceremony isn't scheduled until March 1, on the eve of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, much has already leaked about the next-generation Samsung Galaxy S, including -- thanks to publicity images created by a smartphone case maker -- that there appears to be two versions, one with a three-sided display.

On Wednesday, the news of Samsung's plans to launch two types of handset appeared to be confirmed by Bloomberg, whose sources said one of the devices will have a display covering three sides and that both handsets will be finished from quality metals and glass rather than the usual plastic.

As well as Bloomberg's report, on Wednesday what appeared to be the Samsung Galaxy 6S's benchmark scores also appeared online. They suggest that the phone will be faster and more powerful than an Apple iPad Air 2, that the handset will have a 5.1-inch display, a 5-megapixel front-facing camera and a huge 20-megapixel rear-facing camera.