Galaxy S23 Ultra allegedly set to upgrade portrait video to match Apple’s iPhone

Ben Schoon | Jan 23 2023 - 7:24 am PT

Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S23 series won’t bring a ton of new features to the table, but a new rumor claims that the Galaxy S23 Ultra in particular will be upgrading portrait video to better match the iPhone’s version of the feature.

With the iPhone 13, Apple introduced “Cinematic Video,” a feature that, among other things, could apply a “portrait” effect to videos to blur the background of a subject. The same idea has long been applied to pictures to better replicate the results of a traditional camera, but it’s a relatively new idea for video.

According to Ice Universe, Samsung is set to improve on its version of this feature.

“Portrait video” on the Galaxy S23 Ultra will apparently better separate the subject from the background. But beyond that, the feature itself will work with higher resolution and framerates. Ice says that the S23 Ultra will support 4K at 30 frames per second. That would match the top option found on the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 series. By comparison, the Galaxy S22 Ultra was limited to 1080p at 30 frames per second.

It remains to be seen if the same improvements will also make their way to Galaxy S23 and S23+.

With such demanding video processing, one might worry about heat, but apparently “thermal control” is up to the challenge, with Ice adding that it is “relatively good.”

How this all works in practice remains to be seen, but we don’t have long to wait to find out. Samsung will officially announce the Galaxy S23 series on February 1, with reservations open now to get up to $100 in extra credit with your pre-order.