The team behind the Galaxy S7 camera speaks about the development process

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Samsung introduced Phase Detection autofocus to mobile phones with the Galaxy S5, but the Senior Manager of Global Product Planning, Youngmin Nam, says consumers still wanted more.
This lead to the Dual Pixel autofocus feature of the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. Nam, along with the principal engineer and two senior engineers that worked on the S7 answered questions about the new camera.

They talk at length about Dual Pixel. The feature was apparently hard to implement as the sensor is physically larger than before and produces additional data that needs to be processed.
Before committing to this new type of sensor, Samsung engineers evaluated many different approaches to improving the camera. "We reviewed almost all the latest technologies related to a smartphone and a camera and came to a conclusion that a way to show the most innovative effects was to build in a dual pixel sensor, which was entirely new hardware back then," says Hwayoung Kang, the principal engineer.
The team also discussed Motion Panorama and Moton Photo - new experiences that "broke down the barriers between photos and video."

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You can read the full interview with the Galaxy S7 team here.