Samsung's Galaxy S20, and especially the S20 Ultra, will likely feature the most advanced camera technology ever seen on a smartphone, if rumors are to be believed. But if you don't believe the leaks, today's Galaxy S20 news comes from an official application to the British government.

Mark Peters of LetsGoDigital (via IceUniverse) tweeted that he had discovered a patent for the technology, dubbed "Nonacell," filed by Samsung in the UK on February 5. The name may not tell us much, but past Samsung features give us an idea of its purpose.

Older Samsung phones have used "tetra-cell" technology, where the camera sensor combines four pixels together (known as "pixel binning") to record light information as one large pixel. This means that there is a choice between better low-light performance and sharper images at lower resolutions or maximum image quality at the maximum resolution of the sensor.

"nona" is a prefix meaning "9," and given the strong indication that the Galaxy S20 Ultra will have a 108MP main sensor, we can assume that Nonacell will work by binning nine pixels to provide a 12MP image. And this is exactly what IceUniverse said when it retweeted Peters' tweet.

Nonacell technology should condense the images from the S20 Ultra's massive camera sensor and help users maximize the phone's available storage capacity. Not every shot needs 108 MP, and maintaining 12 MP image quality means that digital zoom can be used without losing too much detail.

If you are interested in telephoto shots, you will be better off with the 48MP "space zoom" camera that will also be available on the S20 Ultra, which is expected to offer 10x hybrid zoom and 100x digital zoom. There should also be an ultra-wide camera on the front, a time-of-flight sensor, and a 10MP selfie camera.

If you're wondering what else is in store at next week's Galaxy Unpacked event, check out our Galaxy S20 page for all the news, leaks, and rumors related to Samsung's latest flagship phone.