Galaxy S7 jacks iPhone’s front-facing flash feature

Galaxy S7

Get better selfies with the Galaxy S7. Photo: Samsung

Samsung’s new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge have a front-facing flash feature that helps you shoot brighter selfies, but it doesn’t come from an extra LED. Instead, the new devices have stolenĀ the same trick Apple uses on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

According to SamMobile, when you snap a selfie on one of the South Korean company’s new smartphones, the display goes completely white and its brightness increases, casting more light onto your face for a brighter image.

It probably won’t have much of an effect when you’re outside on a sunny day, but it should greatly improve the selfies you shoot indoors in darker rooms.

It’s unclear if Samsung’s devices have the ability to increase brightness beyond maximum system brightness — as Apple’s iPhones can — but these are the brightest displays Samsung has ever shipped, according to a recent report fromĀ DisplayMate.

Samsung has shipped handsets with dedicated LED flashes on the front before — like the Galaxy J series — but it is yet to add one to a flagship device. You won’t catch me complaining about that, though; I rarely take selfies, and the fewer holes there are on the front of my phone, the better.