When Samsung introduced the Galaxy S24 Ultra last year, the fear that engulfed everyone leading up to the phone’s reveal finally came true. It turns out that Samsung ended up ditching the 10x optical zoom camera that’s been a marquee feature for the series, opting for a 5x optical zoom instead.
While this was widely considered a ‘downgrade’ of sorts when it comes to specs, in actuality I didn’t see a whole lot of difference in its performance when I shot 200 photos with the Galaxy S24 Ultra vs. Galaxy S23 Ultra. But don’t expect the 10x optical zoom to return for the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Based on all the leaks so far, fingers point to Samsung continuing to lean on a 50MP telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom.
I personally don’t mind if Samsung sticks with this setup, but the Galaxy S25 Ultra can’t afford to come up short against the iPhone 16 Pro Max and its new Audio Mix feature. Even though I tested it out and wasn’t convinced it was a game changer, I think Samsung could learn from this and come out with a similar, but better feature for the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Currently, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is a beast of a video camera thanks in part to its ability to shoot in 8K 30fps and 4K 120fps. These two shooting modes are incredibly helpful and give me the extra utility that most phones can’t, especially when I go back and edit them in my video editing software. Yet, I cannot stress enough how the audio plays a critical role in how a video turns out.
I’m more inclined to accept a lower quality video if the audio’s clear, but I wouldn’t be as lenient if the audio is terrible. Apple certainly got my hopes up when it introduced Audio Mix, but the quality doesn’t quite live up to my standards. Don’t get me wrong, I think other video shooters like myself could benefit from a feature like it, but it needs some work before it’s usable.
I think it’s a perfect example of how AI could be leveraged to enhance the quality of the audio — by analyzing all the audio feeds from the mics throughout the phone to enhance the quality. Apple’s implementation does nicely to mitigate ambient background noise, but oftentimes the audio of the person speaking on camera ends up sounding distorted. It’s missing one component that I think the Galaxy S25 Ultra could capitalize on.
I’m referring to the ability to introduce another audio source into the mix, perhaps a wireless microphone. By adding this extra audio source, I think Samsung could tweak the algorithms for the Galaxy S25 Ultra to better enhance the audio to my liking. Unfortunately, the iPhone 16 Pro Max doesn’t support external audio sources, like one from a wireless microphone. The Galaxy S25 Ultra could exploit this omission from Apple to better use Spatial Audio recording with the built-in mics of the phone with the external source.
There’s a number of ways this could inherently improve audio recording. For starters, it could very well analyze the audio recording from all the mics to eliminate all background noise — so an outdoor video recording could sound like it’s been recorded in a soundproof studio.
Secondly, I can see how a feature such as this could make interviews better when there’s a person in the frame and someone else behind the camera asking questions. The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s performance could be dramatically better than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, especially if the person being interviewed is farther than 5 feet from the phone. Since the interviewer would be behind the camera, the mics would have no problem picking up the audio — while the person on camera that’s 5 feet away would have clear audio thanks to the wireless mic.
I can go on and on about all the ways Samsung could make a better version of Apple’s Audio Mix feature for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but I really hope the company ends up doing something similar because audio’s often overlooked in the camera department. It shouldn’t just be an afterthought, it should get the same level of attention as other aspects of the camera system.
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