Yesterday Samsung detailed its new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge and for us the camera was one of the more interesting bits of news. Samsung reduced the resolution, which in turn made the pixels larger. Samsung also increased the f-stop to an industry-leading 1.7 and shrunk the camera hump on the back down to just 0.46mm. Among these tidbits the Dual Pixel autofocus technology took a back seat but it's the most advanced aspect of the module. You have got to understand that Dual Pixel is the same well-known phase detect technology that top-tier smartphones, DSLRs and mirrorless cameras use. However, Samsung chose to call it differently this time around because their implementation is nothing like what we've seen on any other smartphone up so far. We've already seen quite a few smartphones touting Phase Detect autofocus but what it means is that they use a hybrid autofocus solution, which combines the benefits of contrast detect and phase detect auto focus system while phones in the past only had contrast detection to rely on. The advantage of phase detection is that in good lighting this hybrid autofocus system acquires accurate focus faster than contrast...
Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/samsungs_dual_pixel_tech_is_like_canons_dual_pixel_auto_focus-news-16805.php
