Like many who received their new and shiny Note 8 this past Friday, I’ve been profoundly enjoying playing around with this fabulously engineered device over the past few days. But the brakes came on when I was playing with the zoom toggle and made an dismal discovery – the same sensor was being used when pressing the ‘x2’ toggle. While in ‘x1’ zoom, I covered the outermost lens (the secondary telephoto lens) and pressed ‘x2’ and expected to see darkness from my finger as the system switched to the telephoto lens, but no. What gives?
Then I thought, maybe I’m stupid and that’s not how it’s supposed to work. I scurried back through news outlets that covered the Note 8 and sure enough, everyone I see says that the ‘x2’ button switches to the secondary, telephoto lens. Here’s some examples:
CNET: “When your first launch the Camera app on the Note 8, you’ll notice a new button with the label of X2. This button will activate either respective camera, depending on which camera you’re currently using. By default, the Camera app launches in X1 mode, thus the X2 button. Tap the button, however, and the button changes to X1 as the camera switches to the telephoto lens.”
Pocket-Lint: “To use that zoom lens is simple, as there’s a “2x” button in the viewfinder window. You simply tap this button and you switch to the closer view, it’s as simple as that.”
Independent: “Here, there are two lenses, each with its own 12-megapixel sensor. One is telephoto and one wide-angle. With one tap of the screen you can switch from one to the other, effectively giving the phone 2x optical zoom.
And so on…
I then recalled Samsung’s new Live Focus feature, which enables more advanced bokeh’ing using the dual camera system. I toggled it and viola, confirmation that the telephoto sensor was operational. Phew. But still, why on Earth wouldn’t the ‘x2’ zoom button use the better sensor?
And that I found was exactly it – what “better” is. Recalling the camera specs, while the telephoto lens has awesomely maintained OIS, it unfortunately could not keep up with the aperture spec. Turns out that its significantly smaller lens aperture of f/2.4 does very noticeably make a turn for the worst when darkness falls, compared to the primary’s impressive f/1.7 opening. It seems that Samsung was very concerned about the zoomed in image quality.
Turns out, there’s an algorithm in place that automatically decides which lens to use depending on the lighting condition when you press that ‘x2’ button. In other words, Samsung is saying that in lower lighting conditions, the primary lens with digital 2x zoom is better than the telephoto lens at native, optical 2x zoom. Interesting.
While many would agree with this approach for the best image, I could imagine an issue with it being forced on us. What if regardless, we just want the ‘x2’ button to do what it’s supposed to and let us decide what’s better? This actually happens to be a common problem with a lot of automatic systems. Take LG’s implementation of the HiFi DACs in its phones, which automatically switches power (amp) output depending on the headphone impedance it detects. But some audiophiles were frustrated when they knew their lower impedance headphones could benefit from the extra power.
Fortunately in this case with Samsung, there is a mitigation, via Live Focus. The Live Focus mode will use the telephoto lens. The intent of Live Focus to make pretty background blur, but we can dial the effect down until it’s off. Not the ideal solution, but it is one.
Of course, Samsung could easily remedy this by adding an option to the camera settings that lets the user choose if the telephoto lens is used all the time with that ‘x2’ button, but who knows if there’ll be enough demand for that. I actually doubt many folks will know that this is even occurring.
What do you think? Do you like the automatic way that Samsung has handled the 2x zoom, or think that it’s misleading? We’d like to hear it in the comments section!
Released by Rovio Entertainment, Angry Birds took the world by surprise with its easy gameplay, comical style, and the always nice price of free. The monumental success of the game gave path to several sequels (including an agreement with Star Wars), spinoffs (like Bad Piggies), a huge amount of merchandise, and even a movie. There’s no doubt that a huge amount of games were influenced by Angry Birds’ style.
While console gaming was enjoying the likes of Red Dead Redemption, God of War III, Fallout: New Vegas, and Heavy Rain, mobile gaming had Fruit Ninja. And you know what? It worked! Why? Because this game was remarkably fun. It was so easy to pick up, it managed to, somehow, provide fun for hours, and its sessions were quick enough to be enjoyed in short bursts. This approach to making “short but sweet” games paved the way for so many other developments throughout the years, but it was also one of the first “endless” kind of games that we saw on the Play Store (then called Android Market).
Who would’ve thought that running endlessly could be so fun? Developed by Imangi Studios (which, at the moment of launch, was made up of only three people), it was so simple in concept that one can wonder why no one thought of it before. You control a character who runs forever through an obstacle-ridden Aztec temple while being chased by monkeys. If you do anything that might slow or halt your progress, it’s game over.
You somehow knew that this game was going to make it to this list. Originally launched as a Facebook game, its developer King quickly realized how appealing the game would be on mobile devices, porting it to the three main mobile operating systems in November of the same year.
The fact that this game still tops grossing charts all over the world, even when it is five years old (four on Android), is a testament of how influential this game has been on the Android gaming scene. Released by Supercell, this game in essence is Age of Empires for mobile devices. You are in control of a village, gather resources, and fight against other players.
Yes, you read that right. Flappy Bird, by dotGEARS, was actually released in 2013, not in 2014 as many of us thought. The game experienced an unprecedented amount of popularity among… Well, everyone. Every single person in this planet knew what Flappy Bird was.
In a market in which in-app purchases and pay-to-win has taken hold, an effort like Monument Valley deserves all the recognition in the world. Released by Ustwo Games, the puzzle game puts you in control of Ida, a character that travels through beautiful landscapes solving puzzles. It has a small backstory, gorgeous visuals, and a relaxing vibe that made it a hit among mobile gamers.
I will always remember fondly the days where my friends and me walked through our city’s pier with hundreds of other Pokémon GO players, all interacting with each other for tips and new discoveries. You could say that the game, at first, provided very little incentive to keep playing it, but the experience that it created is something that I have never seen in any kind of gaming. Developed by Niantic under the supervision of Nintendo, it was one of the first (and definitely the most impactful) augmented reality experiences in the Play Store, and one that caught the attention of the whole world.
