Sorry Galaxy S23 owners, no Super HDR for you!
Samsung won't make Super HDR available on devices older than the Galaxy S24 series. This breaking news comes from a Korean forum post, where a moderator answered this specific question with: "In the case of Super HDR, only the S24 model can be supported by AP and display is supported."
The weird sounding sentence is a translation from Korean, but the message is clear enough. No Super HDR on the Galaxy S23 or any older devices. And it gets worse. It turns out that it's not a question of a delay in the rollout but a fundamental hardware constraint.
As the name suggests, this feature makes your photos pop up, increasing the dynamic range. This is done using things like embedded HDR metadata, Display P3 color gamut, and SDR dimming, among other clever algorithmic techniques.
Actually, the feature is very similar to what Google introduced with Android 14, something called Ultra HDR. The difference is that the S24 devices can apply Super HDR to photos taken with other Samsung phones, ultimately to every photo on the device (This has been tested by Reddit users.)
Earlier last month, some older Samsung devices (the S23 series, Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5, and the Galaxy Tab S9 series) received some of the Galaxy AI features that were launched with the latest flagship series, namely Circle to Search with Google, Live Translate, Chat Assist, and Generative Edit.
This makes the case even more strange. The Galaxy S23 series features a very similar camera system to the latest lineup (some of the hardware is virtually the same), and the screens are also sufficiently bright.
What do you think about it?
The weird sounding sentence is a translation from Korean, but the message is clear enough. No Super HDR on the Galaxy S23 or any older devices. And it gets worse. It turns out that it's not a question of a delay in the rollout but a fundamental hardware constraint.
What is Samsung Super HDR?
As the name suggests, this feature makes your photos pop up, increasing the dynamic range. This is done using things like embedded HDR metadata, Display P3 color gamut, and SDR dimming, among other clever algorithmic techniques.
Galaxy AI on older Samsung phones
Earlier last month, some older Samsung devices (the S23 series, Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5, and the Galaxy Tab S9 series) received some of the Galaxy AI features that were launched with the latest flagship series, namely Circle to Search with Google, Live Translate, Chat Assist, and Generative Edit.
This makes the case even more strange. The Galaxy S23 series features a very similar camera system to the latest lineup (some of the hardware is virtually the same), and the screens are also sufficiently bright.
So it's puzzling that only the S24 series is capable of doing Super HDR, given that the older generation is not far off in any area and can do some of the Galaxy AI stuff as well. This leads us to think that either Samsung is keeping the feature S24 exclusive to boost sales or the moderator in question doesn't know what he's talking about.
What do you think about it?
Things that are NOT allowed: