The Galaxy S23 series brought a lot of new camera features, including 8K 30fps videos, 4K portrait videos, and QHD resolution for Super Steady mode. It also introduced Astro Hyperlapse, a new camera feature lets you capture stunning time-lapse videos of the night sky, featuring stars trails and other objects in space. However, it seems like the feature is limited to the Galaxy S23 series.
Many expected that Samsung might bring the Galaxy S23’s Astro Hyperlapse feature to older high-end phones like the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Galaxy Z Fold 4 with the One UI 5.1 update, but that didn’t happen. The Galaxy S22 and the Galaxy S23 series support Astro Photo through the Expert RAW app, but only the Galaxy S23 can record Astro Hyperlapse videos.
Meanwhile, other flagships, like the Galaxy S20, Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy Z Fold 3, or Galaxy Z Fold 4, don’t support any astro features at all, and the One UI 5.1 update does nothing to change that. Basically, Samsung isn’t bringing any astrophotography features to devices other than the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S23 lineups for now. And creating hyperlapse videos of the sky and stars is even more exclusive, available only on the Galaxy S23, S23+, and S23 Ultra at the moment.
You can have a look at Samsung’s official video about the Astro Hyperlapse mode to see what it can produce (with the right lighting conditions and in the right place, of course). Just below the official video is a short hyperlapse we created using a Galaxy S23 Ultra. Our hyperlapse is nowhere near what you see in Samsung’s marketing materials, though your results will vary based on your region and whether or not you have too many artificial lights around (astrophotography tends to work better in dark areas).
