What’s the best zoom level for Portrait Mode? Some say, 2x is good enough, others swear by 3x. In reality, it’s always good to have a choice between multiple zoom levels, because your environment may just restrict you from moving around too much.
When Apple moved to a 3x telephoto zoom lens with the iPhone 13 Pro, some long-time users may have felt those restrictions in Portrait Mode (previous iPhones typically had 2x telephoto lenses). That’s why the iPhone 14 Pro was released, it came with multiple zoom steps for portrait — 1x using the main camera, 3x using the telephoto camera, and a 2x using a crop of the high-res 48 MP main sensor for what Apple insists is lossless zoom.
Here’s an interesting note — by specs sheet alone, the Galaxy S23 is already the better camera phone than the non-Pro iPhone 14. While the latter only has two cameras — 12 MP ultra-wide and 12 MP wide — the Samsung offers you three camera (ultra-wide, wide, 3x telephoto), and a 50 MP main sensor. If that rumor is true, then Sammy will be cropping into that main sensor to provide you with a choice of 1x, 2x, and 3x during Portrait Mode. Currently, you only have 1x and 3x steps.
So, this update alone will bring the $800 Galaxy S23 closer to the $1,000 iPhone 14 Pro and shoot it well past the in-class competition. If you want a more in-depth comparison to the non-Pro model, check out our Galaxy S23 vs iPhone 14 review.
