Lightroom on Apple's M1 Max Mac: Holy mackerel, this is fast

Lightroom on Apple's M1 Max Mac: Holy mackerel, this is fast

I didn't really need to upgrade to an M1 Max-powered MacBook Pro. After spending hours using Adobe's Lightroom photo editing and cataloging software, boy, am I glad I did. 

The speed of the new MacBook Pro knocked my socks off. The battery life was similarly impressive. And it's great having an SD card reader back for importing photos and videos from my cameras.

The improvements, validated with by testing some common Lightroom chores that caused my older Intel-powered Mac to crawl, are thanks to Apple's new chip and Adobe optimization to take advantage of it. Apple is halfway through a two-year process of replacing Intel processors with its own M-series designs. The chips are beefier cousins to the A-series chips in Apple's iPhones and iPads.

If you're leery about the switch, come on in. The water's fine.

Among the advantages the M1 Max and its similar but less graphically powerful M1 Pro sibling deliver: built-in circuitry for artificial intelligence tasks, a unified memory architecture, and a beefy built-in graphics processing unit. The chips balance power with battery life by combining high-speed and high-efficiency cores, resulting in more hours of use per charge. The chips are made for Apple by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC).

My photography labor of love

For the record, my new MacBook Pro sports 32GB of memory, a midrange configuration for the 16-inch models and twice what's in my two-year-old MacBook Pro using a six-core Intel Core i7 processor. The extra memory is a $400 addition, but I judged it worthwhile to accommodate photo and video editing plus my usual burden of a few dozen browser tabs. (Lightroom is happy to grab as much of that memory as it can.)

To be clear: I was trying to decide whether my upgrade was justified, not evaluate how the latest Intel-based machines measure up. So the speed tests are relevant to me and likely anyone else wondering whether to shell out $3,000 or more. But they aren't meant to be definitive.

From the moment I set up the machine, the performance boost was obvious. Loading websites, scrolling and unlocking with Touch ID were all noticeably faster. Everything was refreshingly snappy.

And for a collection of Lightroom tests I ran, clocking common operations by stopwatch, the speedup factor on a collection of tests I ran is between 2x and 5x.

My new MacBook Pro with Apple's M1 Max processor handily outpaced the two-year-old Intel-based machine on a variety of common computing chores in my Lightroom photo editing. Each result is the average of three tests I clocked with a stopwatch.

Stephen Shankland/CNET

The main reason I justified buying a $3,500 laptop, which came to $2,150 with a $1,350 rebate for trading in my previous Intel-powered machine, was because glowing reviews indicated the new MacBook Pro would be better at heavy-duty tasks like photo editing.

I take a lot of photos. My Lightroom catalog has more than 129,000 shots and my Flickr archive has upwards of 30,000. I use photography as a creative outlet, a journal of my family's life and a tool that encourages me to learn about everything from insects to architecture. I take a lot of photos for work: I've documented refugees, nudibranchs and close-up details of processors.

It's a labor of love, and I do mean labor. I usually take 30-megapixel photos in raw image formats with my Canon 5D Mark IV. I also shoot hundreds of raw photos with a Google Pixel and an Apple iPhone. I also try out new camera products like the 45-megapixel Canon R5 and the 151-megapixel Phase One IQ4. That means I have a lot of photos to manage, many of them in processor-taxing sizes.

Processing photos is a lot of work for computers. Turning raw photo data into a shot I can see on my screen is a constant computational bottleneck as the computer renders new photos or rerenders them with editing changes. I quickly max out my memory with editing tasks such as exposure adjustments and tonal changes. I often sit impatiently watching progress bars crawl along as I merge multiple photos into a single panorama or high dynamic range (HDR) image or increase photo size with Adobe's Super Resolution feature.

Lightroom on the M1 Max MacBook

So how much faster is the new machine? Way faster. I performed five tests of routine but taxing Lightroom actions, running them three times on each machine and taking the average time. That might not be statistically rigorous for a scientific study, but it did clearly show I wasn't imagining the speedup.

Merging six 30-megapixel shots into a panorama was 4.8x faster on the new MacBook Pro, taking an average of 14 seconds vs. 67 for the Intel machine. That was the biggest speedup in my tests. The smallest was merging three 30-megapixel shots into an HDR photo, which took 22 seconds on the Intel machine and 12 seconds on the M1 Max, a 1.9x speedup.

Lightroom still struggles to accommodate Phase One's enormous 151-megapixel raw files, but the new Mac handled it much better than my older machine. A panorama merge of two shots took an excruciating 109 seconds on the Intel Mac; it was 3.2x faster on the M1 Max MacBook Pro at 34 seconds. Interpreting the raw files to generate full-resolution previews -- the most common delay I experience in Lightroom -- was 2.5x faster on the new machine.

Adobe's Super Resolution, a machine learning tool that benefits from the M1 Max's AI accelerator module, was 2.4x faster on the M1 Max Mac, an average of 9 seconds compared with 22 on the Intel Mac.

Adobe has updated Lightroom to take advantage of the M1 chips' unified memory architecture, which offers a single pool of memory that the central processing cores and graphics processing cores both can take advantage of. That means data doesn't have to be laboriously copied back and forth to separate CPU and GPU memory regions, liberating programmers to use whichever core is fastest for a particular job. Adobe also taps into the M1's Neural Engine cores for AI acceleration, said Sharad Mangalick, Adobe's photo product manager.

Lightroom photo editors also should see "noticeable improvements" in speed and responsiveness when importing and exporting photos, scrolling through the photo library, editing, and merging shots into HDR and panorama images, Mangalick said.

Indeed, I found many tasks in Lightroom -- launching, scrolling, zooming, importing and exporting -- are snappier on the new machine. On a Thanksgiving excursion on which I shot a couple hundred photos, battery life was good enough that it wasn't until the third day that I had to plug in the new MacBook Pro.

I'm a satisfied customer.

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Pixel 6: Everything to know about Google's newest phone

Pixel 6: Everything to know about Google's newest phone

Google's new phones, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, made their debut on Tuesday at the company's recent launch event. (Here's everything Google announced including Pixel Pass, Android 12 and its in-house Tensor chip.) Google's first Pixel phone made a splash when it was unveiled almost five years ago, but since then, the search giant's foray into mobile devices has been inconsistent. Last year's Pixel 5 received high marks for its cameras, but the Pixel 5 lacked the premium features you'd expect from a flagship smartphone, especially for the price. CNET's Lynn La called it "hard to recommend." Compared with the original Pixel phone ("pure Android at its absolute best" and "our favorite phone, bar none"), Google's phone trajectory looked rough.

Read more: CNET's Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro reviews

Now that Google took a larger creative leap with its Pixel line, the question remains whether the changes will help the company compete against the best phones from Apple and Samsung or continue to disappoint its one-time fans. Let's go over what we've learned about the devices, which are available for preorder. Here's everything you need to know about the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro and which rumors about the phone have been debunked or proven true. 

What are Google's new phones called? The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

Unlike Apple and Samsung, Google has overall been consistent with its phone nomenclature. The original Pixel was followed by the Pixel 2, then the Pixel 3 and so on. Google's 2021 phones are indeed called the Pixel 6 and -- instead of an XL model -- the Pixel 6 Pro.

Google previously announced that both phones would have many of the same features: the new Tensor system-on-chip designed by Google, a camera bar that runs along the back of the phone, camera sensors that take in 150% more light than the Pixel 5's and an ultrawide lens. Software improvements also hit both models, including Android 12's Material You design, along with speech recognition and photography improvements powered by the Tensor.

Read more: Pixel 6 vs. Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 6 vs. Pixel 5

Rumors about the now-confirmed Pixel 6 Pro began when leaker Jon Prosser shared renders depicting the "Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro" in May. Prosser's renders were purportedly based on actual images of the phones, but released as renders to protect his source's identity. 

The Pixel 6 phones come in black along with pastel shades of green and red.

Google

Release date: When will you be able to buy the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro?

Google launched its new phones on Oct. 19, and the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are both available for preorders now through Google's website. 

Google has unveiled a new Pixel phone in October every year since 2016, with the exception of last year's Pixel 5, which was announced on Sept. 30. But 2020 was an exceptional year for many reasons, including phone release schedules.

Read more: Google's Pixel 6 may be more exciting than the iPhone 13, but how does it compare to older Pixels?

Google's Pixel release dates usually follow a similarly predictable pattern: The company usually makes its phones available for purchase within a week or two of being announced. The Pixel 6 will be released on Oct. 28, which is in line with these expectations. 

Price: How much do the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro cost?

We now know that Google's Pixel 6 has a starting price of $599, and the Pixel 6 Pro will cost you a bit more with a $899 starting price. In his first look at the Pixel 6, CNET's Patrick Holland says the phone is "priced to compete with the iPhone 13, the Samsung Galaxy S21 and other midtier Android phones such as the current Motorola Edge."

In comparison to older Pixel phones the Pixel 6 costs $100 less than the Pixel 5 did at launch. Last year's Pixel 5 made some compromises to get the launch price down to $699, making it more of a midrange phone than its predecessors, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 4, which both launched at $799. 

This means rumors about the Pixel 6's steeper price tag from leaker Yogesh Brar have been debunked. The tipster previously speculated the Pixel 6 would have a $749 starting price, while the Pixel 6 Pro could have cost between $1,049 and $1,099.

Although the Pixel 6 costs less than its predecessors, Rick Osterloh, senior vice president of Google's hardware division, described the line as a "premium-priced product" in an August interview with the Verge. 

Google's Pixel 6 is shown above in Kinda Coral.

James Martin/CNET

Design and colors: What does Google's new phone look like? 

Confirming Prosser's renders, the Pixel line has a new look for 2021. The Pixel 6 is available in three colors: Stormy Black, Kinda Coral and Sorta Seafoam. The official Pixel 6 Pro color options are Stormy Black, Cloudy White and Sorta Sunny. 

Moving to the front of the phone, the Pixel 6 Pro has a 6.7-inch LTPO OLED (3,120x1,440 pixel) display with a 120Hz refresh rate, while the Pixel 6 will have a 6.4-inch OLED (2,400x1,080) display with a 90Hz refresh rate. A hole-punch-style front-facing camera is centered up top, as opposed to on the left side of the screen as on the Pixel 5, and has 11 megapixels on the Pixel 6 Pro and 8 megapixels on the standard Pixel 6. 

Pixel 6 has a Tensor chip, but what can Google's first in-house processors do?

Google's reveal of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro put a particular spotlight on Google's new system-on-chip, named Tensor. Going in-house moves Google away from the Qualcomm chips that have powered its previous devices, and Google says the chip brings with it notable improvements to speech recognition and photography.

"Part of the goal is to show the very best that Google can offer," Osterloh said in an interview with CNET's Rich Nieva. "There is a big segment of the market that wants the latest, and we love building technology. So we're going to try to appeal to that part of the market, too."

Read more:  Google Pixel 6's Tensor chip aims to make the Android 12 phone smarter and last longer

The Tensor chip loads the Pixel with more power and abilities without sacrificing battery life. Thanks to Google's new in-house chip, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro has features like real-time language translations, highly accurate voice transcription and new camera features like the ability to unblur the face of a person in motion. The new features come as Google promises 24 to 48 hours of battery life for its Pixel 6 line. 

The Google Tensor chip's unveiling is a prominent part of the first look at the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.

Google

Camera specs and features: What's new on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro?

Along the phone's camera bar, the Pixel 6 Pro has three cameras: a 50-megapixel wide lens, 12-megapixel ultrawide lens and 48-megapixel telephoto lens. The standard Pixel 6 won't have the telephoto lens, but houses the 50-megapixel wide and 12-megapixel ultrawide lens. 

As for the selfie camera, Google's new phone has a hole-punch-style front-facing camera with 11 megapixels on the Pixel 6 Pro and 8 megapixels on the standard Pixel 6. The earliest rumors about the Pixel 6's camera setup included speculation that Google might upgrade to an under-display selfie camera, but that's not on the Pixel 6. Since this rumor is based on a patent filed by Google that appeared not to have a visible front camera, however, it's possible another phone will include it. Perhaps the Pixel 7? 

Read more: Google builds equity into the Pixel 6 with Real Tone photos and new voice features

Google also designed the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro's cameras to be more accurate no matter your complexion with Real Tone. The feature comes after the company announced improvements to its software for "a more accurate and inclusive camera" that works better for a variety of skin tones, in May. 

Google's new Pixel phones also see other photography improvements thanks to the Tensor chip. A new feature called Face Unblur can put the face of a moving subject in focus, while keeping the blur around the rest of the body, and another camera feature called Motion Mode can add blur into still pictures. 

Do Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro support 5G? 

It's complicated. The Pixel 6 supports sub-6 5G. Some carrier versions of the Pixel 6 will also support mmWave, which is the fast version of 5G that's not widely available. 

Read more:  Will Google's Pixel 6 and 6 Pro work with 5G? The answer is complicated

What's in the box: Google's Pixel 6 won't ship with a charger

Google's Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro won't ship with a charger in the box. The tech giant previously shared that tidbit about the new phone alongside the reveal of the Pixel 5A. Instead, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro will ship with a USB-C to USB-C cable and a Quick Switch Adapter. 

Google's decision to ditch the accessory from its phone boxes follows both Apple and Samsung. Apple stopped including an AC adapter in the box of the iPhone 12 in 2020, and Samsung later did the same for the Galaxy S21. 

Although Google's Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro won't have a charger in the box, the new phone supports 30-watt fast charging. This debunks earlier rumors about the smartphone from tipster Yogesh Brar and Android Police, which said that the Pixel 6 would support 33-watt and 23-watt fast charging, respectively. 

Google also released a new Pixel Stand for the Pixel 6. The stand is said to be an alternative to wired charging, and was leaked before the phone's launch by tipster Evan Blass. 

Images from leaker Evan Blass show off the second generation Pixel stand with 23-watt wireless charging. 

Evan Blass

Do the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have an under display fingerprint sensor? 

The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro both have an under-display fingerprint reader. The feature was previously leaked by Android Senior Vice President Hiroshi Lockheimer, who shared two screenshots on Twitter showing an embedded fingerprint sensor within the Pixel's display. The tweet, which was originally posted to show off Android's new Material You design, has since been deleted from Lockheimer's account. Screenshots of the tweet were then later posted by leaker Mishaal Rahman. 

Pixel Pass: What is Google's new subscription service?

The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro launched alongside a new subscription option to bundle phone financing and services under one bill. The plan is called Pixel Pass, and is described as a "monthly subscription that addresses users' mobile needs end-to-end." The subscription bundles Pixel device financing, YouTube Premium, Google One storage, Play Pass, Google Fi, Google's preferred care and device protection. 

Read more:  Pixel Pass: Google bundles the Pixel 6 and a bunch of its services for $45 a month

Below are all of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro specs. For more, here's how to decide between a Pixel 5, Pixel 4 and Pixel 4XL, the Pixel 5 versus the Pixel 4A 5G and the Pixel 5 versus the iPhone 11, Galaxy S20 FE and OnePlus 8. Plus, six reasons to buy a Pixel and what we think of the Pixel Buds A-Series earbuds.

Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro specs

	Google Pixel 6	Google Pixel 6 Pro
Display size, resolution	6.4-inch OLED; 2,400x1,080 pixels; 60Hz or 90Hz	6.7-inch LTPO OLED; 3,120x1,440 pixels; 10-120Hz
Pixel density	411 ppi	512 ppi
Dimensions (inches)	6.2x2.9x0.4 in	6.5x3.0x0.4 in
Dimensions (millimeters)	158.6x74.8x8.9mm	163.9x75.9x8.9mm
Weight (ounces, grams)	7.3 oz; 207g	7.41 oz; 210g
Mobile software	Android 12	Android 12
Camera	50-megapixel (wide), 12-megapixel ultrawide	50-megapixel (wide), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), 48-megapixel (telephoto)
Front-facing camera	8-megapixel	11-megapixel
Video capture	4K 30, 60fps (rear), 1,080p 30fps (front)	4K 30, 60fps (rear), 4K 30fps (front)
Processor	Google Tensor	Google Tensor
Storage	128GB, 256GB	128GB, 256GB, 512GB
RAM	8GB	12GB
Expandable storage	No	No
Battery	4,614 mAh	5,003 mAh
Fingerprint sensor	Under display	Under display
Connector	USB-C	USB-C
Headphone jack	No	No
Special features	5G sub 6 (some carrier models also have 5G mmWave) support, Wi-Fi 6E, 30W fast-charging, wireless charging, Magic Eraser, Motion mode, Real Tone, Face Unblur, Cinematic Pan, 5 years OS security updates, IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, Gorilla Glass Victus (front), Gorilla Glass 6 (back), dual-SIM capabilities (nano-SIM and e-SIM)	5G sub 6 and mmWave support, Wi-Fi 6E, Ultrawideband, 30W fast-charging, wireless charging, Magic Eraser, Motion mode, Real Tone, Face Unblur, Cinematic Pan, 5 years OS security updates, IP68 rating for dust- and water-resistance, Gorilla Glass Victus (front and back), dual-SIM capabilities (nano-SIM and e-SIM)
Price off-contract (USD)	$599 (128GB)	$899 (128GB)
Price (GBP)	£599 (128GB)	£849 (128GB)
Price (AUD)	Converts to AU$1,100	Converts to AU$1,570

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I've used Google Pixels and Apple iPhones for my daily smartphone photography needs for years. I've mostly relied on Pixels because of Google's pioneering computational photography software, which wrings superior image quality out of limited hardware. My current iPhone, the XS Max, has been relegated to occasions when I've needed a telephoto lens. But two recent smartphone launches -- of Google's Pixel 5 and Apple's iPhone 12 lines -- have changed my mind. The midrange camera hardware on the Pixel 5, and the high-end array of cameras on the iPhone 12 Pro Max, along with the gadget's large image sensor and new software options, are pushing me to the Apple camp.

Read more: iPhone 12 vs. Pixel 5: Apple and Google's 5G flagships compared

It wasn't supposed to be this way. I've been impressed by Google's ability to convert cutting-edge image processing research into superior smartphone photos. Google demonstrated how profoundly computers can modernize cameras, as it surpassed smartphone rivals and traditional-camera makers.

Google's decision to build a midrange phone with just two cameras feels like an abandonment. There's just no way to make up for the multiple cameras that rivals like Samsung, Huawei and Apple employ. Sure, rivals haven't necessarily matched all of Google's camera software, but Google isn't close to their hardware.

To be clear, the Pixel's cameras are good, as my colleague Lynn La details in her Pixel 5 review. From my perspective as a serious photographer, though, I'm looking for more.

Read more: The best phone to buy for 2020

Telephoto vs. ultrawide cameras

In 2019, Google's Pixel 4 took a step up by adding a second rear-facing camera, a telephoto option for distant subjects. That was the same year Apple added a third camera to its higher-end iPhone 11 Pro models, an ultrawide camera that sat alongside its main and telephoto cameras.

The Pixel 5 photo at 2X telephoto, shot here with Google's computational raw format, is fine viewed small but has only a 3 megapixel resolution. At right, the 12 megapixel image from a 2-year-old iPhone XS Max, shot as an HDR raw photo with Adobe's Lightroom app, offers more detail and editing flexibility. Clicking to enlarge reveals the superior iPhone detail, though it's scaled down to match the Pixel 5 photo.

Stephen Shankland/CNET

Google tried to match Apple's prowess this year by replacing the telephoto camera with an ultrawide camera in the Pixel 5. But Apple made major camera improvements with its iPhone 12 Pro, including a bigger image sensor, a longer-reach telephoto lens, improved image stabilization to counteract shaky hands, Dolby Vision HDR video at 60 frames per second and Apple's more flexible ProRaw format. It's clear Apple is sinking enormous resources into better photography.

Google may have made the right call for the broad market. I suspect ultrawide cameras are better for mainstream smartphone customers than telephotos. Ultrawide cameras for group shots, indoor scenes and video are arguably more useful than telephoto cameras for portraits and mountains.

But I want both. I enjoy the different perspectives. Indeed, for a few years I usually carried only telephoto and ultrawide lenses for my DSLR.

In response to my concerns, Google says it's improved the Super Res Zoom technique for digital zooming on the Pixel 5 with better computational photography and AI techniques that now can magnify up to a factor of 7X.

"We studied carefully to determine what's really important to folks, and then we focused on that -- and shaved off literally hundreds of dollars in the process," said camera product manager Isaac Reynolds. Having a telephoto camera would have helped image quality, but Google's priority this year "was to produce a phone that compared well to the top end but at a much lower price -- and we did that."

I'm not so convinced. When shooting even at 2X telephoto zoom, my 2-year-old iPhone XS Max and my 1-year-old Pixel 4 both offer far superior imagery compared with the Pixel 5. 

Zooming in at 2X, the Pixel 5's Super Res Zoom technology generates a 12 megapixel image, but it looks artificial up close, as in this cropped view.

Stephen Shankland/CNET

What I do like so far about the Pixel 5 cameras

I want to be clear: Google's new phone has its merits, and I've experienced some of its strengths while testing the Pixel 5 cameras over the past few days. Here are a handful:

• Google's computational raw offers photo enthusiasts the best of both worlds when it comes to photo formats. It marries the exposure and color flexibility of unprocessed raw photo data with the exposure range and noise reduction of the multishot HDR+ processing ordinarily used to make a JPEG.
• The ultrawide camera really is fun. It also dramatically improves video options, particularly indoors.
• Based on earlier Pixel phones, I share my colleague Lynn La's concern that Google's video stabilization can be "drone-like," but my early tests of video I shot while walking looked more natural.
• Double-tapping the phone's power button launches the camera app fast. It's not new with the Pixel 5, but it's so much faster than the iPhone's lock screen icon.

• Night Sight, particularly astrophotography mode, still is amazing for low-light shots.

Google also pointed to other Pixel 5 perks, including a portrait light ability to control the apparent light source brightening a subject's face; portrait shots that work in Night Sight mode; 4K video that now works at a fast 60 frames per second, more advanced high dynamic range processing called HDR+ that's now boosted by exposure bracketing for better shadow details like a backlit face, and better video stabilization.

Here's the rub, though: As Google slips in hardware, rivals are improving their software.

Google's rivals in computational photography are catching up

Apple didn't comment on its photography plans for this story, but it spent more than 11 minutes touting the iPhone Pro photo and video abilities, and its actions speak volumes.

The Pixel 5 offers a useful if not unique portrait mode that blurs the background for smooth "bokeh."

Stephen Shankland/CNET

Last year, Apple matched most of what was best about Google's HDR+ for challenging scenes with bright and dark elements. This year's Pixel 5 boosts HDR+ with bracketing technology into the multishot blending technique. Apple's Smart HDR alternative, however, is now in its third generation of refinement. Apple is improving the iPhone's nighttime photos, too. And by using special purpose processing engines on its A14 chip, Apple's Deep Fusion technology to preserve detail in low-light shooting works on all four of the iPhone Pro cameras.

Photo enthusiasts like me prefer unprocessed, raw photo formats so we can fine-tune color balance, exposure, sharpening and noise reduction. That's great for when the camera doesn't make the right choices when "baking" raw image data into a more convenient but limited JPEG image. Google's computational raw blended HDR processing with raw's flexibility, but now Apple plans to release its answer, ProRaw, in an update coming later this year to iPhone Pro models.

"We want to give our pros even more control over the images they capture," said Alok Deshpande, Apple's senior manager of camera software engineering, during Apple's launch event.

Relatively few people use Pixel phones, and that weighs on Google too. Imaging software powerhouse Adobe calibrates its Lightroom photo software to correct lens problems and adapt its HDR tool for some cameras and lenses. No surprise that Pixel phones aren't on that list. "We tend to provide support based on the popularity of the devices with our customers," Adobe said in a statement.

In contrast, Adobe is "partnering closely with Apple" to tap into ProRaw abilities. And a Google computational photography guru, Marc Levoy, has left Google and is now at Adobe, where he's building photo technology into Adobe's camera app.

Selling a midrange smartphone like a Pixel 5 or Pixel 4a 5G might well make sense when the COVID-19 pandemic has cost millions of jobs and made a $1,099 iPhone Pro Max unaffordable. But for people like me with a photography budget and appreciation for Google's computational photography smarts, it's tragic that Google has lost its lead.

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These Galaxy S22 Ultra camera features mean better pictures of your dog

These Galaxy S22 Ultra camera features mean better pictures of your dog

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra's appealing display and sneaky hidden S-Pen stylus is exciting, but as a professional photographer, it's the camera setup I'm most keen to dive into. 

The S22 Ultra, launched at today's Unpacked event alongside the Galaxy S22, S22 Plus and Galaxy Tab S8, is already starting from a good place. Its predecessor, the S21 Ultra, had a superb camera, and much of it hardware carries over: The main camera still has a 108-megapixel resolution, the ultra-wide camera is 12-megapixels, there's a 10-megapixel lens offering 3x optical zoom and an additional 10-megapixel periscope lens offering 10x optical zoom. It's an almost identical setup to the S21 Ultra, but Samsung uses this as a foundation for changes that largely affect the software side. 

Read more: The Galaxy S22 Ultra fails to excite this pro photographer. And that's a problem

The bad news is that if you were hoping for some photography revolution, like the rumored 200-megapixel sensor or continuous zoom, then you'll be disappointed. Let's dive into what has and hasn't changed.

Improved low light and AI

The main driving force behind Samsung's promised boosts in low-light photos is something called "pixel binning" in which multiple pixels combine to form a larger pixel that's capable of capturing more light. In the S22 Ultra's case, 9 individual pixels combine to create a single pixel in a process called "nona binning." But the image also uses details captured by the 108-megapixel camera to create a shot that's bright, vibrant and free of image noise, but still packed with detail. At least, that's the idea. 

We're looking forward to seeing how well the phone copes in dark situations like this.

Samsung

Samsung also says it's improved the AI processing of images, especially night shots, to further reduce image noise and improve the overall quality. Whether these software tweaks make a noticeable difference in night-mode shots remains to be seen, but the phone will have to work hard to compete with the night mode shots from the iPhone 13 Pro and Pixel 6 Pro. 

Read more: Samsung's Galaxy S22 vs. iPhone 13 and Galaxy S22 vs. Pixel 6 Pro

Better portrait blur, now with added doggos

Portrait mode photos with artfully out-of-focus backgrounds aren't new, but they've been getting steadily better over the past few years, yielding more natural-looking results. Samsung reckons its most recent algorithm updates can pick out even a single strand of hair from its background, ensuring your subject stays entirely in focus, with a natural blurred background (called "bokeh") around them. 

The phone will apparently be able to do this even with complicated backgrounds. Samsung showed one demo involving a girl standing in front of what looked like a fishing net, and the blurring around her looked spot-on. 

Once you've captured the perfect dog photo you can use the S-Pen to draw all over it like the monster you are.

Samsung

But more excitingly still is that it apparently will work just as well with portrait photos of dogs and maybe other pets too. Whether it can really identify every hair around a poofy Pomeranian very much remains to be seen, but anything that encourages more photos of beautiful golden retrievers gets the seal of approval from me. 

Improved video quality

Like its predecessor, the S22 Ultra can shoot videos at up to 8K resolution from its main rear camera and at 240 frames per second at full HD for cool slow-mo videos. And while we aren't getting any more great leaps in resolution, high speed or video zooming here, there are some "behind the scenes" tweaks Samsung has made to improve video quality generally. 

The AI algorithms have apparently been boosted across the board, resulting in better HDR video footage, balancing those bright skies and those shadowy areas for a more even-looking shot overall. The AI also promises better auto focus and lower noise, particularly at night. 

Samsung promises better-looking low light in video, too.

Samsung

Videos can now be shot using an automatic, variable frame rate, which will change depending on conditions and could help reduce that annoying flicker you can get when shooting under artificial lighting. A higher frame rate can also help achieve smoother footage when filming fast-moving objects, such as cars whizzing past at a motor race. 

The downside is that variable frame rates can be very difficult for video editing applications like Adobe Premiere to handle, so if you plan on shooting and editing your footage this might be a function to avoid. 

Samsung's also added an auto-framing option for video, whereby the camera will automatically zoom in and out when you're filming people to capture everyone in the scene. It can detect up to 10 individual faces, and tapping on one person's face will allow the camera to automatically zoom in and track them in the scene. 

I can't think of a lot of occasions where this function would be all that useful to me, but that might just be because I've not been around more than three people at once since the end of 2019. 

Expert Raw sounds like it could offer great images. But why does it need to be a separate app?

Samsung

Expert Raw for better pro shots

Samsung is introducing a dedicated pro photography app -- called Expert Raw -- which will allow for manual control over settings like shutter speed, ISO and white balance, while also allowing for capturing images in 16-bit DNG raw format. Raw images typically allow for much more control over editing in apps like Adobe Lightroom, while also capturing more details in bright highlights and dark shadows than JPEG images are usually able to. Exactly how this will differ from its existing "Pro" mode, which also gives control over those settings and lets you shoot in DNG raw, remains to be seen.

Samsung also mentioned in its briefing that Expert Raw will also allow for "high dynamic range pictures in multiframe raw format" -- potentially meaning it will be able to combine different exposures into one HDR image with better dynamic range, yet still produce a DNG raw file that offers the flexibility of raw editing. This sounds very much like computational raw photography and it's exactly what Apple did with the introduction of ProRaw on the iPhone 12 Pro. 

However, it's not clear at the time of writing if this definitely is computational raw, or if it's just regular raw files that may allow you to pull back a bit more highlight detail. I've reached out to Samsung for clarification and will update this article when we hear more. If it is then that could be an exciting step forward for the phone's photographic capabilities, but it's baffling why this is only something you can apparently only do in a dedicated Expert Raw app that requires downloading from Samsung's Galaxy Store, rather than directly from the main camera, as you can do with the iPhone. 

For more, check out how Samsung's new Galaxy phones compare, what to know about nightography and what the Galaxy S22 means for the Galaxy Note series. Looking to buy one of the new handsets? Take a look at CNET's guide to Galaxy S22 preorders. 

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