Galaxy S23 Ultra’s upcoming 2x Portrait camera mode appears

Although the Galaxy S23 Ultra is among the best smartphone cameras right now, Samsung is bringing even more improvements to optimize its camera performance. It was revealed that the South Korean firm could bring more camera features with the next software update, and one of those features has been spotted.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra will get the 2x focal length option in the camera app's Portrait mode, and the feature was spotted by tipster Ice Universe (@UniverseIce) when testing an unreleased firmware. The screenshot below shows a 2x option on top of the 1x and 3x options that are already present. This gives more focal length options to users who want to capture portrait images of people, pets, or other objects.

Galaxy S23 Ultra's upcoming 1.5GB update will bring 2x Portrait mode

Apparently, this 2x option in the Galaxy S23 Ultra's camera app uses a 50MP crop (in-sensor zoom) from the primary 200MP ISOCELL HP2 camera sensor. And then, that image is converted to a 12MP image in post-processing. In-sensor zoom offers better details than just digitally cropping an image. This option is already present in the Galaxy S21 series.

The upcoming firmware that Samsung is currently testing internally has a file size of around 1.5GB and a firmware version ending WE9. Apart from the 2x option in the Portrait mode, the upcoming update is also expected to improve image quality, solve blooming issues around objects in HDR, and 2x zoom for videos. It could be released sometime toward the end of May 2023 or early June 2023.