Samsung and Google take very different approaches to smartphone photography. While Samsung has had a penchant for experimenting with hardware and software camera features, throwing in everything and the kitchen sink, Google’s approach has been a lot more deliberate, heavily leaning into computational photography to extract the best out of admittedly dated hardware.
This different strategy leads to some interesting results. Samsung remains one of the pack leaders for smartphone photography, simply because it isn’t afraid to push the limits on its top-tier flagships like the Galaxy S23 Ultra. All of that added hardware gets garnished with dollops of software features, which keeps consumers and reviewers alike entertained for one more release cycle. There’s definitely a lot of utility on offer, no doubt, but it’s no secret either that One UI offers more features than most people can remember, let alone regularly use in the two to four years of them owning a phone.