Millions more Galaxy smartphone owners will soon be able to take advantage of a powerful new app from Samsung.
RIGA, LATVIA, FEBRUARY 9 2022 – New Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Android smartphone is displayed for … [+]
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Announced In November of last year, Expert RAW enables a host of advanced camera functions plus improved picture quality, particularly in zoom shots. Unfortunately, it was initially restricted to the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
The good news is that Samsung has now unveiled its road map for bringing Expert RAW to a wider range of premium Galaxy smartphones, beginning with the entire Galaxy S22 lineup from February 25.
A recent announcement On Samsung’s community support site officially confirms that the app will additionally support the Galaxy Z Fold 3 from April and gain compatibility with the Galaxy S20 Ultra, Note 20 Ultra and Z Fold 2 in the first half of 2022.
However, not all of Samsung’s premium smartphones will be able to take advantage of Expert RAW. The app’s complex image processing requires significant computing power as well as specific camera hardware and lens configurations. This forces Samsung to evaluate each specific smartphone model to assess its capabilities before adding it to the official support list.
Samsung Expert RAW is available as a free download from the Galaxy Store.
Samsung
According to Samsung, the app requires at least an Exynos 990 or SM8250 processor, more than 8GB of RAM and a telephoto lens of at least 2x magnification that supports raw output.
Unfortunately, this means Galaxy S20, S20+, S21, S21+ and Note 20 models won’t be supported as their 64-megapixel telephoto lenses offer only a 1.1x optical magnification.
It’s good to see Samsung putting in the work to bring Expert RAW to as wide a range of smartphones as possible, especially as most comparative smartphone camera reviews are unlikely to take its features or quality improvements into account.
While its ‘pro’ features may prove too complex for mainstream users, anyone wanting to get improved picture quality from zoomed shots would be wise to check it out.
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