Robert Triggs / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Samsung has revealed a variety of One UI 6.1 camera features coming to older Galaxy phones.
- This includes an improved Single Take mode, more convenient long-exposure shots, and more.
Samsung just announced the Galaxy S24 series, and the new phones bring a few extra camera features courtesy of One UI 6.1. Now, it turns out that a few lesser-known features are coming to older Galaxy phones.
A much better Single Take mode
For starters, the Galaxy S24 series brings an improved Single Take mode. This mode now lets you choose a zoom level (ultrawide, 1x, 3x, 5x, 10x) before shooting. This is a welcome change from previous Single Take modes, which didn’t offer any lens options.
The mode also offers more results by default as well as pet recognition. The latter means you should get better images and videos of your cat or dog in this mode.
This improved Single Take mode is coming to the Galaxy S24 series, Galaxy S23 range, Galaxy S23 FE, Galaxy S22 family, Galaxy Z Fold 4 and later, Galaxy Z Flip 4 and later, and Galaxy Tab S9 series.
A better way to get long-exposure shots
Owners of previous Galaxy phones are also getting a new long-exposure feature. This lets you get a long-exposure version of an image via the Gallery app’s edit suggestion functionality. The image needs to be initially captured with Motion Photo enabled, though.
The execution is similar to the long-exposure functionality seen on iPhones. Apple’s handsets suggest a long-exposure version of an image when you capture a shot with Live Photos enabled. This should nevertheless make for a more convenient way to get long-exposure images on your Galaxy phone than using the Pro mode or a dedicated long-exposure mode.
The Korean brand confirmed that this long-exposure feature will be available on the Galaxy S22 series, the S23 range, the Z Fold 4 and later, the Z Flip 4 and later, the Galaxy S23 FE, and the Galaxy Tab S9 series.
12MP shots from Motion Photo frames
Samsung noted that the S24 series also lets you choose the desired frame of a Motion Photo and use AI upscaling to turn it into a “12MP representative photo” according to machine translation.
Samsung didn’t reveal a specific list of devices set to get this upscaling feature, save for saying it’ll be supported in One UI 6.1. This suggests that any phone or tablet running One UI 6.1 will get this functionality.
Colorizing black-and-white images
One UI 6.1 is also bringing a handy colorization feature to the table. This will allow you to add “estimated” colors to your grayscale or black-and-white image.
Samsung notes that this colorization feature is coming to the Galaxy S24 series as well as other unspecified One UI 6.1 devices.
Cross-device video editing
The Galaxy maker says you can now start a video edit on one Samsung device running the Studio editing app and finish it on another device (e.g. your tablet or PC).
This editing feature is coming to the Galaxy S24 range as well as some unnamed devices running One UI 6.1.
HDR video support in social apps
Finally, Samsung says HDR videos shot with a social app camera (e.g. Instagram’s built-in camera) or the Samsung camera app can be viewed in HDR in social media apps too. This HDR viewing functionality seems to apply to the social app’s built-in gallery, and it’s unclear whether it applies to the app’s social feed too.
Expect this capability to come to the Galaxy S23 range, Galaxy Z Flip 5, and Galaxy Z Fold 5.