For a couple of years now, Samsung has leveraged massive 108-megapixel lenses in its high-end smartphone cameras to capture more photographic detail than market rival Apple. And now, with the release of the Galaxy S22 Ultra, America’s second largest smartphone supplier contends that its latest flagship can also beat the top-of-the-line iPhone 13 Pro Max at its own game: with top-notch night photos and video.
That would be quite a feat. Because taking steps to jack up resolution, where Samsung already excels, invariably comes at the expense of low-light performance, which is Apple’s strength.
Indeed, there’s no way to skirt the tradeoffs of pixel physics. That said, most of what separates entry-level smartphones from top-of-the-line models in the nearly-$80 billion U.S. smartphone market is photo and video quality. So if Samsung really has found a path around the high-res/low-light continuum, it will have a better shot convincing loyal iPhone buyers to take a S22 Ultra test drive.
We’ll know soon enough, because the S22 Ultra comes available February 25.
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The physics of choice
In order to pack more pixels into a lens, you either have to expand the sensor to accommodate the new graphic elements, or shrink the size of the pixels. If you grow the area, the lens won’t fit into smartphones, which are already packed to the gills with batteries, displays, antennas, speakers and processors.
Unfortunately, smaller pixels don’t capture as much light. To compensate for that, the shutter must stay open longer. Which means your subjects are more likely to move. And you are more likely to shake the camera. All of which can blur the picture.
For its part, Apple has decided that 12MP lenses achieve the right balance between detail and low-light performance. That’s proven to be a reasonable compromise, as 12 megapixels offer enough resolution for many everyday shots – with sensors large enough to take sharper snapshots during twilight ballgames and evening backyard parties.
Each of the 108 megapixels in the S22 Ultra’s primary camera, in fact, is less than half the size of the pixels in the iPhone 13 Pro Max’s main 12MP lens.
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Breaking free
Even though you can’t break the laws of physics, there are ways to mute its impact. And with the S22 Ultra, Samsung is deploying more hardware refinements and software techniques to take better pictures and videos at night.
“When you are taking a picture or video indoors under low light you will see a noticeable difference,” Sungdae Joshua Cho, VP and head of camera R&D at Samsung, told me.
One technique Samsung implemented is called binning, which bundles three-by-three blocks of pixels into one. The nine-pixel group pools the light, which Samsung says results in sharp low-light 12MP pictures.
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Samsung brought pixel binning to market two years ago with the S20 Ultra, the first with a 108MP lens. The company improved the technique with last year’s S21 Ultra, and again with the upcoming S22 Ultra.
Cho said that the S22 Ultra includes other low-light performance improvements, including:
Larger pixel sensors – 23% larger to be exact – to soak in more light,
- Optical image stabilization hardware that can absorb 58% more shake than last year’s model
- A more sensitive sensor to help minimize smaller movements and vibrations
- A new anti-flare lens glass to help produce clear, crisp pictures in both high- and low-light conditions
- Twelve-bit HDR, which helps manage nighttime video lighting
- An AI processor that is twice as powerful, which dramatically improves software performance.
The AI processor also helps improve the 100x digital zoom during daylight. The camera’s fully-optical 10x zoom, a Samsung first, also contributes to better telephoto performance. For its part, Apple just increased its top-of-the-line optical zoom to 3x from 2.5x, with digital zoom expanding to 15x from 12x.
Each time to you take a picture, Cho said, the camera is taking a dozen shots, and synthesizing them to produce the best picture. The number may sound impressive. But it actually synthesizes fewer simultaneous shots than the S21 Ultra because the improved AI inside the new model is able to do more with less.
“We’ve improved the algorithm so that it will be taking less pictures with faster processing,” Cho said. “So the end result is better.”
Better, yes. But good enough to beat the iPhone 13 Pro Max after dark? One thing’s for sure: we’ll be able to shed light on that in just a couple weeks.
