The feature in question is the ability to get 2x magnification while in Portrait mode in the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s camera app. The new mode was spotted by IceUniverse during a testing phase of unreleased firmware for the S23 Ultra. The tipster posted a screenshot on his Twitter page, showing the feature in action.
Further down in the comments under the post, IceUniverse explains that the feature is coming with a huge 1.5GB update, currently being internally tested. The firmware version ends with WE9 symbols, according to the inside information.
Another clarification sheds some light on the actual technology behind this 2x Portrait mode. It seems that Samsung will use sensor zoom to get 50 MP crops out of the 200 MP ISOCELL HP2 sensor under the main lens of the phone.
The resulting 50 MP image will be converted to 12 MP shots using pixel binning, the technology that most of Samsung’s huge megapixel sensors use to stack pixels together and get more light. The 1.5GB update should arrive toward the end of this month or in early June and should also fix the blooming artifacts around objects in HDR as well as bring optimized 2x zoom for videos.
