The screen on Samsung's next Galaxy phone might have an 'always-on' feature

Maurizio Pesce/Flickr

Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S7 smartphone might have an "always-on display" feature that would show you useful information without having to wake the phone's screen, according to a trademark from Samsung spotted by 9to5Google.

It's a feature on Google's Android Wear smartwatches and Samsung's Gear S2 smartwatch that lets you glance at the watch to tell the time with a basic black and white watch face without having to wake up its screen.

In turn, the smartwatch saves on battery because the screen doesn't need to light up and display colors. That could be the same case with the Galaxy S7.

We've also seen a similar feature on the Moto X 2014 and 2015 smartphones where basic but useful information about notifications and alerts appear on the screen in black and white when your hand approaches the phone. 

It's possible that the Galaxy S7 will have this feature because it's said to use an AMOLED screen, which allows the screen to light up only certain parts of the screen. (The iPhone can't do this.) Anything on the screen with the color black lets the screen turn off, which means it doesn't use up as much battery. It's much more power efficient than conventional LCD screens used by phones like the iPhone 6s, which have to light up the entire screen even if they're displaying the color black.

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