To encourage people to buy 2023 phones, Samsung focused much of its Galaxy Unpacked February presentation on the Samsung Galaxy S23 camera and how it’s improved compared to the S22 series.
The biggest surprise factor comes from the Galaxy S23 Ultra and its 200MP camera sensor. That’s significantly better than last year’s 108MP and his 50MP sensor used in his cheaper S23 and many rival flagship phones. Higher resolutions enable many new features that photo and video enthusiasts will appreciate.
Focusing on talking about the S23 Ultra, Samsung barely mentioned the Galaxy S23 and S23+ cameras. They use the same hardware as the S22 series (minus the new selfie camera).What does this mean that’s all Is the Galaxy S23 Ultra worth buying for photography, or is the cheaper S23 improved solely on its software prowess?
At Galaxy Unpacked, we sat down with Joshua Cho, Samsung’s EVP and head of visual software R&D for the cameras, to get a behind-the-scenes look at how these cameras have improved. Before you pre-order the Galaxy S23, here’s everything you need to know about the Galaxy S23 camera.
What does 200MP mean and why is it important?
The Galaxy S23 Ultra uses a 200MP, 1/1.3-inch Isocell HP2 camera sensor as its primary camera. This sensor can technically capture 200 million pixels, but for the most part this adaptive sensor uses pixel binning to squeeze all visual information into a tiny 50MP (4 pixels combined into one) or 12.5MP Combine the images (combining 16 pixels into one). .
Samsung calls its binning process Super Quad Pixel, and the 200MP sensor does a lot better at capturing images in low light compared to the Galaxy S22 Ultra. It claims to be much better at recognizing subjects and being able to focus more quickly.
What’s the difference in quality between the Galaxy S23 and S23 Ultra? The former uses a 50MP 1.0μm camera and doubles the pixel size to 2.0μm when binning to 12MP size. On a 200MP sensor, a 12MP shot has a pixel size of 2.4μm. The S23 Ultra’s photos capture more visual data, but not too much. The big difference is that the Galaxy S23 captures less data, while the phone can pick and choose the “good” pixels.
Samsung’s head of camera R&D, Joshua Cho, said night photography will be easier thanks to the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 200MP sensor. Shot from accidental camera movement.
When shooting nighttime video, Cho said, the new optical image stabilization (OIS) aims to prevent camera shake and unstable lighting typically seen with small sensors that can’t capture enough light. increase. Only the S23 Ultra has double his range of Samsung’s typical OIS and can offset more erratic movements.
Samsung also added Astro Hyperlapse and Star Trail software for astronomy enthusiasts. This includes settings in the Expert Raw app that supposedly can automatically correct for planetary motion when taking planetary time-lapse photos.
With this camera sensor and upgraded performance, the Galaxy S23 Ultra will be one of the best Android phones this year. But what does that mean for the S23 and S23+?
Samsung Galaxy S23 camera: other new features and differences
| camera sensor | Samsung Galaxy S23 | Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus | Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra |
|---|---|---|---|
| main wide camera | 50MP F1.8 1.0μm FOV 85º | 50MP F1.8 1.0μm FOV 85º | 200MP F1.7 0.6μm FOV 85º |
| ultra wide angle camera | 12MP F2.2 1.4μm FOV 120º | 12MP F2.2 1.4μm FOV 120º | 12MP F2.2 1.4μm FOV 120º |
| 3x telephoto camera | 10MP F2.4 1.0μm FOV 36º | 10MP F2.4 1.0μm FOV 36º | 10MP F2.4 1.12μm FOV 36º |
| 10x telephoto camera | none | none | 10MP F4.9 1.12μm FOV 11º |
| selfie camera | 12MP F2.2 1.12μm FOV 80º Dual Pixel AF | 12MP F2.2 1.12μm FOV 80º Dual Pixel AF | 12MP F2.2 1.12μm FOV 80º Dual Pixel AF |
Samsung has taken video improvements seriously with the Galaxy S23 series, adding 4K HDR10+ at 60FPS and 8K at 30FPS for the first time. Only the Ultra has special stabilization tools, but all three seem to receive Super HDR video with a more dynamic color range.
All three smartphones use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, so they benefit from improved NPUs and greatly improve their AI. In this generation, Samsung introduced the same real-time AI object recognition it uses in its TVs to identify objects in photos and auto-populate details lost due to noise.
In theory, AI could improve the depth of a photo by recognizing and isolating different objects in a shot, or by sharpening details around recognizable “objects” such as facial features in selfies. Mr. Cho then explained. For video, Samsung uses “multiframe processing” to replace noise with relevant pixels pulled from the previous frame.
Additionally, beyond software optimizations, the new 12MP selfie cameras on all three smartphones use “dual pixel autofocus” to get information from two photodiodes simultaneously to quickly focus on your subject and deliver the “best shot.” Helps create a “bokeh effect”.
Like the S22 Ultra, the Galaxy S23 Ultra has an impressive 100X space zoom capability (based on the 10X optical zoom) that allows you to capture distant subjects with precision, but this doesn’t use the 200MP lens at all. On the S23 and S23+, it still sticks to the optical 3x, which makes it less reliable for both long shots and macro shots.
One area where all three Galaxy S22 phones struggled was capturing moving objects. I have found it to be one. Cho claimed in a discussion that the Galaxy S23 series has “zero shutter lag”, but in real-world use the phone can’t take pictures fast enough.
One possible solution is the new “Camera Assistant” app. This adds some customization directly to the camera app if you’re somewhat confident in your photography skills. These include turning off automatic lens switching, adjusting image softening and HDR, and enabling “quick tap shutter”, which takes a photo as soon as you press the shutter button instead of releasing it.
the latter can However, according to Cho, the 50 ms margin comes with a trade-off of losing post-processing quality.
These are all the major Galaxy S23 camera highlights you need to know about. Below we explain why the Galaxy S23 is an upgrade to the S22 despite using the same hardware.
Why the Galaxy S23 Series Doesn’t Need a Better Sensor
Better is always better, unless otherwise. Smartphone camera sensors are often an area where certain parts have been around for generations, like the Galaxy S23. For the most part, the primary sensor is the same one used on the Galaxy S22.
This is due to the way the camera actually works. All smartphone cameras rely on AI to produce great photos. Sure, we all love to hear about tons of megapixels and all-new hardware, but it could actually make things worse.
The software that powers the camera is made for very specialized hardware. Changing that hardware would require rewriting a very complex piece of software. Optimizing these algorithms often takes a little time, requires a lot of user feedback, and companies can’t immediately start over.
We’ve seen what you can do with the “old” sensors on Google’s Pixel phones. Versions 1 through 5 all used the same sensor and still produced better photos than any other phone.
Samsung has added a 200MP sensor to the Ultra model, and early impressions are positive. In some cases, you can get the best photos with a few more pixels. But with most of the kinks in the image processing chain worked out, the ‘regular’ 50MP sensor is solid, and using the same sensor as last year is a big part of why.
Samsung has taken the time to modernize the camera software you can view and use, adding things like the ‘Pro’ RAW image mode. It was the right decision this year not to update the sensor and the software that needed to convert what they saw into a photo.
Samsung Galaxy S23 series
Whether you rely on Samsung’s new AI capabilities to upgrade the Galaxy S23’s standard 50MP sensor, or pay extra for the Galaxy S23 Ultra and its state-of-the-art 200MP sensor with unique features, you’ll be happy. I think you can. Results regardless of your choice.
