The Samsung Galaxy S23 is already capable of taking some impressive photos, whether you buy the base model or the high-end Galaxy S23 Ultra. So when we heard that a new software update ratcheted things up a notch we had to pay attention. And you should too.

That new software update promises to make a number of improvements to the way Samsung's flagship phones handle taking photos, and all of them sound like a combination of fixes for issues and whole new options. The update is currently available in South Korea under the firmware version S91xNKSU1AWC8 and is almost a gigabyte in size. That should perhaps give you an inkling of how much has changed. And while it hasn't yet started to roll out in the rest of the world, that's surely only a matter of time.

Camera updates are the best updates

The download itself was announced via the Samsung Community forum and spotted by SamMobile. In that post, we learn that there have been changes to autofocus, the photo gallery, and more.

One of the improvements, via machine translation, says that Samsung has "changed the AF (autofocus) concept so that when the user presses the shoot button, they can shoot right away, even if the Focus isn’t completely right." The post goes on, saying that "if you want to shoot after completing the Focus as before, please change the settings in the latest Camera Assistant."

Samsung Galaxy S23 top down home screen

That should mean that photographers have more control over how their photo turns out, especially if they'd previously have missed a shot while the phone spent time trying to get into focus.

There are more improvements. There are fixes for an intermittent green line that might appear when taking specific photos, while image stabilization has also been tweaked when shooting in specific settings.

With these changes hitting the South Korean March update it's now likely that everyone else will have to wait until April. But it could well be worth that wait, at least.