We’ve had a lot of fun digging into the Oreo update for the Galaxy S8. Thus far, we compiled a full list of the biggest changes and ran down some of our favorites. One of the most user-facing components on a smartphone is the camera. Samsung made sure to add some nice tweaks to the camera UI in Oreo too, bringing it more in-line with the camera on the Galaxy Note 8.
The biggest change to the Galaxy S8 camera app in Oreo is the new default UI. This interface will look familiar to anyone using a Note 8 on a daily basis. Perhaps the two biggest changes are located in the top row of toggles.
Looking at the screenshots below, we immediately notice the inclusion of the full-view toggle found on the Note 8. This setting allows users to enjoy the entire area of their infinity display as a viewfinder. It is important to note that enabling this option will` force your picture size to 18.5:9 (7.9 MP), regardless of what your default setting is. Once you turn off the full-view mode, your default picture size setting will be restored automatically.
In a somewhat strange decision, Samsung also took away the dedicated HDR toggle located along the top of the camera UI. The option to set HDR to on, off, or auto is now located in the full camera settings menu. There is a separate HDR option for the front and rear cameras, so you can choose to use HDR on one camera but not the other.
The removal of the toggle from the user-facing UI is quite annoying, as you can no longer quickly switch between HDR modes manually. The beta testing community seems to have issues with Samsung’s choice here, so this may change in the stable version as a result of user feedback.
Most of the other UI changes are rather understated. The quick swipe settings for filter effects has been cleaned up and takes up less of the viewfinder area. There is also a toggle for Shutter Sound in the full settings menu for the Camera.
One feature that did not make its way to the S8 Oreo update is Live Focus. Earlier this fall there was a fair amount of speculation that Samsung may bring a software-only version of Live Focus to the S8. Unfortunately, for those looking forward to this particular Note 8 feature, it hasn’t arrived just yet.
Overall the S8 Oreo update for the camera app is a bit of a mixed bag. The new refined UI is definitely nice, but the choice to bury HDR mode is very strange. If you’re using the Oreo beta on your S8, let us know what your camera performance is like in the comments below!
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