Budget Samsung phones will adjust screen brightness using selfies, the Galaxy J8 is already doing it

For those who care more about the brand than the features, Samsung's low-budget handsets seem like the way to go. However, the lack of an ambient light sensor and its replacement — at least awkward, if you ask me — with a software workaround that involves taking selfies to adjust the screen brightness makes most of Samsung's affordable handsets nothing more than devices that should not have been built.

Last week, SamMobile received a screenshot taken on a Galaxy J8 that had just been updated with a new feature that brings auto brightness adjusting to the handset. The description of this feature that shows up when enabling it reads the following: "The front camera will automatically take a picture each time you unlock your phone. This picture will only be used to measure the current lighting conditions and will not be stored anywhere."

Samsung still has to confirm that other similar handsets will get this feature, but it is probably just a matter of time until this happens. After all, even the Galaxy J8 received it without any fanfare, so it is highly likely that at least the other recent J-series handsets got this feature already or will get it soon.

Is Samsung pushing cost reduction too far? Would you buy a phone that takes your photo each time you unlock it to adjust the screen brightness instead of using an ambient light sensor? Let us know what you think in the comments below.