After the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy S23 in February this year, it received an update to shake off some post-release bugs. Included in the patch were several new camera features, which Samsung said will also make their way to the Galaxy S22. That turns out not to be entirely true, as two key features will now be omitted.
A moderator on the Samsung forums outlined the plans for rolling out the update to other devices. But users noticed that 360 audio recording support through the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro wasn’t mentioned. When asked about it in the comments, the moderator replied simply, saying that “there is no support plan for the S22 model.”
As for the new camera features, he clarified why you couldn’t shoot a 50-megapixel or 100-megapixel photo in the ExpertRAW mode. It seems to be a technical limit of the S22, as “ExpertRAW provides 16-bit raw images through multi-frame processing, but in the case of 100 million pixels, it is difficult to provide general usability due to processing time and memory usage.” The inability to take 50MP photos suffers from similar technological shortcomings as the 108MP sensor lacks 4-pixel binning, a technique of combining four pixels into one, and in the case of the 108MP sensor, producing a single 27MP image.
Other than those, there are plenty of features from the newer Galaxy S23 series, making it to the S22 series and older phones. These include:
- Selecting “ExpertRAW” from the “More” menu and
- Using Pro Mode for the front camera
- Multi-exposure lens support
- Astrophotography lenses support for the S21 Ultra
- Astro Hyperlapse support for the Z Fold 4 and Flip 4 in addition to the S22
- Optimized QR code scanning
- Improved search function in the gallery
- Auto Framing based on user-selected area
The Image Clipper function will also be coming to the S22, where you can cut out an object in a photo by long-pressing it, which can then be used in photo apps or videos. A similar function is also available on iOS 16. We have a great breakdown of these awesome features in our complete Galaxy S23 Ultra camera evaluation so you can learn more about them before they hit your phone.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
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The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra was one of the most complete Android smartphones on the market in 2022, offering the best screen, the most versatile camera system, the best SoC in Android, and a stylus.