The camera improvements are my favorite part about One UI 6

One UI 6.0 represents another step toward streamlining the user experience for Galaxy device users. One app – Video Library – that proved unpopular and arguably outdated is going away. Some apps got renamed. And a handful of other apps are getting significant upgrades or simply a more intelligent UI and consolidated features.

The changes to the overall mobile photography experience in One UI 6.0 are, so far, my favorite. I haven't explored the stable One UI 6.0 build enough to know if I'll change my mind, but the numerous changes to the Camera, Gallery, Expert RAW, Camera Assistant, and Enhance-X apps really add up to something much greater than the sum of their parts.

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This year, Samsung has become more focused than ever on providing an increasingly better mobile photography experience, often through the clever use of AI, irrespective of its camera hardware upgrades.

For example, the AI-driven Image Clipper feature introduced earlier this year is almost magical. And so is the Clean Lens feature, which can remove your fingers from photos of the documents you're holding into the viewfinder.

Who knew we needed all these small changes?

We detailed the many new (and some existing) features and changes in Samsung's photography-centric apps earlier today, so I won't list everything that's new or updated with One UI 6.0 here. Still, the video size options pop-up and Camera widgets for specific shooting modes are features I never knew I needed until One UI 6.0 came along.

And how come we didn't have a horizon line for the Camera's “Grid lines” feature until now? It seems like a huge omission, but it's here now, thanks to One UI 6.0.

For a first impression, I don't think I can point to one significant upgrade brought to mobile photography by One UI 6.0. However, there are too many smaller improvements that add up to a vastly superior experience, and the bigger picture is difficult to ignore. If One UI 5.1 was a refinement of One UI 5.0, then One UI 6.0 is an even bigger step up over version 5.1. And the old “greater than the sum of its parts” adage truly fits.

One UI 6.0 is now available for the Galaxy S23 series, and Samsung is expected to release the stable update for more devices before the end of the year and into early 2024.