by You might have thought that just about every aspect of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S23 phones had been leaked by this point, but nope – the rumor mill keeps coming up with more information about these flagship devices ahead of their February 1st launch.
Today we have received another tidbit of information from a well-known supplier of leaks Ice Universe (opens in a new tab) (via GSMArena (opens in a new tab)), who has taken to Chinese social media platform Weibo to give us some details about the portrait video mode on the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
The source says the mode will be capable of recording in 4K resolution at 30 frames per second, with the phone offering relatively good thermal control so that the processing power required to capture clips in this mode doesn’t overheat the phone.
Resolution bump
We weren’t very impressed with the portrait video mode on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, especially compared to the cinema mode on the iPhone. In both cases, the subject in a video is kept in focus while the background is blurred.
The current Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra can record normal video with an 8K resolution at 24 frames per second, or with a 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. In portrait mode, it goes down to a 1080p resolution with 30 frames per second.
What is not clear is whether the other two Galaxy S23 models will get portrait mode this time. All will be revealed when Samsung’s next Unpacked launch event rolls around, and it’s just a couple of weeks away.
Analysis: a tale of two sensors
Based on the rumors we’ve heard so far, we expect the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra to come equipped with the new 200MP ISOCELL HP2 sensor that Samsung has revealed. Meanwhile, the standard and Plus models are rumored to stick with a 50MP main sensor.
That should mean the Ultra model is the one to look at for the most extensive camera upgrades compared to last year’s models. So far, we’ve heard that the night vision capabilities will improve, and we’ve seen sample images for comparison purposes.
There has also been talk of Samsung adding more modes on the software side, to go with improvements in the hardware. From a photo and video standpoint, you should be able to do more than ever with the upcoming Galaxy S23 phones.
In fact, there’s been so much buzz around this that we think the Galaxy S23 Ultra could be one of the best photography phones of the year – and it might even have more to offer than what Apple plans with the cameras on the iPhone 15.
