Samsung has made smartphone photography on the Galaxy A series a bit more entertaining with a new Fun Mode that was developed in partnership with Snapchat. The latest entries in the company's mid-range line – the A52, A52 5G and A72 – were unveiled Wednesday. Here's a look at the new mode, which is exclusive to the Galaxy A line, and other camera features on the 2021 devices.
While the cameras on the Galaxy A line don't measure up to what one would find on a high-end device, they're still better than what you'd find on many other mid-range devices. Last year's A31 and A51 models, for example, came with a quad rear-camera system, including a 48-megapixel wide-angle lens. In contrast, the A71 uses a 64-megapixel wide-angle lens.
This time round, all the Samsung Galaxy A series phones (including the A32 and A32 5G announced in February) feature a 64-megapixel main lens in the rear camera system. In addition to the main lens, the A32 and A52 phones are also equipped with a 12-megapixel ultra-wide lens, a 5-megapixel depth camera and a 5-megapixel macro for extreme close-ups – just like the A71. The A72 swaps up the depth camera for an 8-megapixel telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. The 64-megapixel lens and the A72's telephoto have an optical image stabilizer, allowing for steadier shots. The phones also feature a 32-megapixel front-facing camera. However, one of the most interesting features is a new exclusive Fun Mode. Galaxy A owners can use Snapchat Lenses in the native camera app, even with the ultra-wide lens. Due to this, users can take advantage of the advanced features available in a real camera app, while at the same time getting a Snapchat-like experience. Similarly, there's an AR emoji mode that lets users create and edit their own emojis. The feature includes videos, stickers and personalized moods.
4K Video Snap, Night Mode & More
Of course, not everyone will be as excited about being able to give their friends AR glasses or turn their heads into basketballs. However, the Galaxy A line offers more than just “Fun.” The phones can shoot UHD video at 30 fps and comes with a pro video mode, where users can adjust such things as brightness, color and shutter speed. The phones also offer 4K Video Snap, which like the Galaxy S21 series' 8K version, lets users capture video stills and save them as 8-megapixel images. Also like the flagship line, the Galaxy A series has a Single Take feature that shoots both video and photos at the click of a button.
A Scene Optimizer uses AI to determine the best settings for shooting and can identify 30 different types of subjects, including food, people, text and pets. Photos should also be reasonably bright even in low-light situations. The Galaxy A phones use a tetra-binning technology that merges four pixels into one large pixel, which allows more light to get in. If things are still too dark, users can turn on Night Mode, which uses multi-frame processing for a brighter image. Through both hardware and software, Samsung's new Galaxy A series will offer a good solution for photography and video recording.
Source: Samsung