I bought a phone but it turned out to be a telephoto camera.
A few weeks ago I upgraded my phone so I could take written notes only to find out it was a telephoto camera.
In my last job, I had the luxury of always getting the latest smartphones and tablets. I tested and used most of the Samsung’s S-series smartphones and Galaxy S-series tablets for seven years.
At most of the meetings-bloody-meetings I took notes using the amazing S-Pen stylus. I also drew ideas, mental models, technical diagrams, product designs, and UI designs. I really enjoyed it.
In my new job, I got an iPhone 14. It’s not bad and I’m getting used to it. Editing text is brutal though and my wife laughed at me for weeks because I’ve been anti-Apple forever.
One thing I really miss is the S-Pen and tablet and I didn’t want to spend $1,000 on a tablet. So, instead I upgraded my personal Samsung S20 5G phone to the S23 Ultra.
Here’s the new device (left) and old one (right).
If you’re like me you’ll notice fewer icons on the S20. It’s just because I was deleting each app as I confirmed it worked on the new phone 😁.
I loved the S20 5G as it was lightweight and narrow. I was not into “phablets” (phone tablets) which most phones are these days. A lot of people love their big phones but I didn’t. Until now.
The S23 Ultra is okay for small drawings and brief written notes. What I didn’t expect was what it can do with photos and I do enjoy taking photos!
I owned a Nikon D90 for the longest time and the pics that it produced were incredible. Smartphones were taking good enough pics, and the D90 was just too bulky.
So, I sold the D90 and have been using the S20 for photos for a few years. It sucked for indoor pics but it was pretty good for landscape, sunrises, and sunsets which are most of my photos.
When I got the S20 years ago I thought “Who needs 4 cameras?” and now the S23 Ultra has six cameras, yes 6 cameras!
I found out why.
Before showing sample pics, here’s the marketing specs on the cameras.
What follows are some sample photos I’ve taken and the surprising experience I had.
Take 1
My wife and I went down to the pier which is a beautiful spot just 15 minutes drive from our house.
We grabbed a couple of ice creams, walked down to the waterfront, and grabbed a park bench.
It was overcast and around 8:30pm so getting dark and not the best time for photos.
Here’s the first shot.
Not bad.
If you look closely, you might see the outlines of a couple of people on the pier and if you strain, you might see a few people on the upper level.
Next, I took a pic with zoom, just under 10x zoom so it wouldn’t change to digital zoom.
Yes, you heard right: this phone supports 10x optical zoom compared to 3x optical zoom on the iPhone 14 Pro #justsayin.
Here’s the result.
Now you can see the set of stairs and the upper level. This pic was an earlier shot so a few people are heading to the stairs on the right.
I had to try out the 100x digital zoom.
It was hard at first because any slight movement of the phone and I couldn’t tell what I was looking at. I didn’t notice at first but there’s a small window on the top right of the camera app where you see what you have zoomed into.
Here’s the 100x digital zoom.
WOW!
This is three people on the upper part of the pier.
That is so creepy and so incredible at the same time.
You can tell they are eating ice cream, there’s a star on one person’s shirt, and one person was wearing glasses.
You think that’s amazing? Read on.
Take 2
A couple of days later we were back at the same park.
This time I took a shot just down from the previous spot. The phone determined that I was taking a landscape shot and used the wide angle camera.
Disclaimer: I tried to take a pic without people but the park was just too busy.
A nice shot. Not amazing but nice.
On the far right you can see the edge of the pier.
I noticed a ship in the distance that was moving and wondered what the camera could do.
Based on learnings from round 1, I found it easier to use.
Get ready for it!
Here’s the 100x digital zoom.
Isn’t that incredible?!
I was blown away.
OK, almost finished with the samples.
Here are a couple of pics from a spot closer to home along the Lakeshore.
2nd last shot to share.
A few days ago we had a visitor in our eavestrough above the front porch and I snapped this pic by holding the phone as high as I could and using the optical zoom slider.
I was so impressed with that shot.
One last sample.
This pic was an early morning sunrise after my 5am McDonalds breakfast.
That’s it!
I hope you enjoyed reading about my experience with this new phone, ahem telephoto camera, which also is a great note-taking device.
