Samsung is reportedly adding HDR photo support to its flagship smartphones when posting on Instagram ... [+]
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra owners will enjoy much higher photo quality on social media platforms, according to a new report.
December 16 update below: article originally posted December 14.
According to the well-known leaker Ahmed Qwaider, Samsung has formed a “new partnership” with Meta to enable the 2024 flagship smartphone to upload and display HDR photos on Facebook and Instagram. This partnership will finally allow Android users to upload and display HDR content—a feature currently available only on iPhones.
Previous leaks have revealed that next year’s Galaxy S24 Ultra will support Android 14’s new Ultra HDR photo standard. However, social media platforms don’t currently support the new format. This results in the loss of any HDR information stored in the pictures and reduces their quality when viewed on HDR-capable displays, including those found in modern smartphone flagships.
HDR display differs from what has become known as “HDR photography” in that it enables the photo to display in the smartphone’s full range of brightness and colors. On the other hand, standard jpeg files are restricted to a far narrow range of brightness levels. HDR display can deliver far greater realism, especially in photos with bright highlights.
While support for Ultra HDR is good news for Samsung fans, there shouldn’t be any form of particular “partnership” required between smartphone vendors and online platforms to support Ultra HDR content.
The Ultra HDR format is an open specification that anyone is free to implement, so all that should be required to enable the feature is for both Meta and Samsung to support it—something they could easily do independently.
If Instagram, for example, enables support for Ultra HDR, then any device should be able to upload an Ultra HDR image and have it displayed correctly on HDR-capable displays. There’s no technical reason for the feature to be restricted to Samsung’s products.
I asked a Google representative recently whether the company is working with social media services (such as Instagram) to support Ultra HDR and was told,
“Yes, Android is working with our developer community to support Ultra HDR format. We are unable to share our partner timelines.”
This response strongly suggests that it won’t be just Samsung’s new flagship gaining access to this important quality upgrade next year.
Update: December 16.
Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra could gain a significant improvement over the Galaxy S23 Ultra when it comes to displaying HDR content, including Ultra HDR photos.
According to recent insider info, also leaked by Ahmed Qwaider, next year’s Galaxy flagship will feature a dramatically brighter display, achieving a maximum brightness of 2,600 nits from its Dynamic AMOLED screen. This increase represents a massive upgrade from the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which reaches a maximum of 1,050 nits, according to testing site Dxomark.
Increasing the brightness to 2,600 nits will greatly increase the display's dynamic range, improving the visual quality of all HDR material and putting it ahead of the Pixel 8 Pro with its 2,400-nit screen.
However, the actual brightness achieved while viewing HDR content is typically significantly lower than the screen's maximum brightness, so we won’t know precisely how well the Galaxy S24 Ultra will perform until it launches early next year.
Follow @paul_monckton on Instagram
