Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra camera upgrades explained

Samsung has just launched its brand new flagship phones, and they’re looking set to be some of the best phones of 2022. You can always rely on Samsung’s Galaxy S series to deliver a high-quality camera with loads of extra features, and this year’s snappers are looking better than ever. 

In the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra review, we go through some of those features and how they could improve the look of your smartphone shots. The most interesting is a new and improved Night Mode, you can even use it across both photos and videos. 

To get a better idea of why this is so exciting we spoke to Nick Porter, Vice President – Product Management & Commercial Operations at Samsung UK and Ireland. 

In discussing the new Night Mode, Nick Porter expresses how it’s ‘the most advanced low-light camera available in the market today’ and goes on to say that ‘night-time is when people come out to play, and capturing images within low-light is when the camera is pushed to its absolute limit’. 

He himself has seen the benefits of it, describing how it came in handy on his son’s birthday: ‘When the cake comes out on a birthday, it’s really difficult for a camera – all the lights go down; it’s dark; there are lots of objects; you’ve got lots of shadows; you’ve got the light from the candles reflecting in people’s faces; and it’s also a very emotional moment, as well.

My wife, in particular, wants to capture those moments, and capture many of them. And I was absolutely blown away by the low-light performance of this camera, and what it was able to deliver. And that’s driven through the new Adaptive Pixel, which enables us to combine both modes and two cameras together, in order to focus on detail and brightness.’

Another way the camera achieves such good low-light performance, Nick Porter explains, is thanks to the new SuperClear rear lens ‘which really restricts the amount of light reflection that comes in, in night-time photography.

And because of our 4-nanometre processor, and our advanced AI, we’re able to create a Nightography feature which integrates the power that both of those offer, in order to create really incredible images.’

Outside of the elevated Night Mode, there are a few other camera features worth knowing about, like the improved Portrait Mode which is supposedly much more precise than before. So precise in fact, that it can pick out details like a single strand of hair so everything that should be blurred out is, and everything that shouldn't be, isn't.

There have been a few changes that will boost the look of videos on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra as well. You'll get even steadier footage, new auto-framing which can detect up to 10 people so you can fit everyone in the shot and when you tap on a person in the frame, they'll become the focal point of the video.

Well, it all sounds great, and I for one am looking forwards to giving the camera a full test run when I spend more time with the new handset. Even from taking a couple of initial snaps, I could tell that this is undoubtedly the best Samsung phone camera yet. But if it lives up to its claims, it could be the best Android phone camera system there has ever been.

There are some major releases this year though that could threaten that, like the upcoming OnePlus 10 Pro, which will be tough competition for the S22 Ultra. In saying that, it’ll have to do a lot to surpass Samsung’s AI-based camera features. For more on how the two compare, take a look at this guide: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra vs OnePlus 10 Pro.

Be sure to keep an eye out for the full T3 Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra review where I’ll try out the new camera features and bring you a detailed analysis of how they perform, but in the meantime, these are the best Samsung Galaxy S22 pre-order deals.