Samsung Galaxy S6 Getting Apple iPhone-Like Camera Features


The Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge will receive an Android 5.1 update, likely next month, which will include some new camera features that are very iPhone-like, according to the International Business Times.

The Android 5.1 update, coming to the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge as soon as June, will begin rolling out from Canada. And while the jump from Android 5.0 to 5.1 is not a major one, as TechTimes reports, many flagship Android devices this year, including Samsung’s Galaxy series and HTC’s new One M9, have been experiencing some fairly significant bugs, with users eagerly awaiting fixes.

One particular memory leak was so bad for the Galaxy S6 that Samsung beat Google to the punch. Samsung issued their own fix well in advance of the latest edition of Android, which also contains a fix for the issue, as previously reported in the Inquisitr.

As for the Galaxy Edge series camera, a brand new interface is on the way to Samsung’s flagship phones, taking a few pages from Apple’s playbook. Although Samsung has always allowed for a very significant amount of control over the camera on the Galaxy, ever their latest interface is somewhat unintuitive for an inexperienced user. The new interface will add an exposure control slider to the main interface very similar to the one found on the latest iPhone, allowing Galaxy S6 users to adjust their exposure on the fly.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Getting Apple iPhone-Like Camera Features
iOS 8’s exposure slider (Image courtesy of Apple)

Sources using an early build of Android 5.1 for the Samsung Galaxy indicate that the Apple sunburst icon has been replaced, in the Samsung Galaxy S6 version, with a small lightbulb. Exposure control came to the Android platform in Google’s Camera2 API.

The update also includes support for capturing RAW images directly from the 16MP camera built into the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, as well as shutter speed control, which should delight amateur photographers, and any professionals who find themselves morally able to use a smart phone camera – a technology that, whether the pros care to admit it or not, keeps closing the gap on professional equipment.

The camera is, to many, the most important feature in the debate over which smart phone to purchase, and it makes sense that companies are quick to adopt what works from each other. In this case, Samsung already provided an incredible level of manual control over the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge cameras – but it was Apple’s typically-elegant simple, minimalist design that won the day for most consumers, and Samsung is happy to jump on board.

[Photo by Donald Bowers/Getty Images for Samsung]

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