Upcoming One UI 7.0 update is expected to bring major image quality enhancements to the S24 Ultra
(Image credit: Luke Baker / Digital Camera World)
Samsung's custom Android user interface, One UI, is due a major update by the end of the year. One UI 7.0 is due to be rolled out to select Galaxy phones - notably the S24 Ultra - by the end of 2024, and it's expected to bring with it a significantly improved camera experience.
The most prominent benefit is touted to be enhanced image quality when using high resolution capture modes with the primary (wide angle) and 5x telephoto cameras. According to tipster @UniverseIce:
"One UI 7 has significantly optimized the 1x and 5x50MP modes of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, basically achieving the visual experience of 12MP, but with higher clarity."
Currently the S24 Ultra generally produces the best image quality when its images are pixel-binned down to 12MP, as this harnesses the power of a group of adjacent individual pixels and combines them into one 'super pixel' in order to help reduce image noise and boost dynamic range. If the One UI 7.0 leak is true, it means Samsung has managed to extract the same image quality in the cameras' 50MP shooting mode as you'd get from a 12MP binned image, but with all that extra resolution detail - a win-win scenario.
(Image credit: Luke Baker / Digital Camera World)
Quite how this could have been achieved is as yet unknown, as Samsung's ultra-high-resolution 108MP and 200MP image sensors were always designed to yield their best results through pixel-binning. However, with the recent advancements in AI, could this be the key to Samsung now being able to achieve both quantity and quality - high resolution and low noise/high dynamic range - with no compromise?
One UI 7.0 is expected to be with us in the coming months, and we're keen to see the results.
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Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.