Have you ever tried to see your phone screen in bright sunlight? It can feel like you’re looking into a mirror because the sun’s glare often outshines the screen. Samsung, a leading display manufacturer, has created a solution.Vision Booster is Samsung’s innovative approach to enhance screen visibility and color quality in high-brightness scenarios. But how does Vision Booster work? Which Samsung Galaxy devices support this technology? Here’s everything you need to know.

Decoding technical jargon

First, let’s break down some technical terms into simpler explanations to better understand how Vision Booster works.

A histogram is like a report card of colors and brightness in a picture.Histogramsshow how much of each color and how much light or dark is in the picture.

Side-by-side comparison images, set against sunlight, of a woman gazing upwards. The left image, displayed on the S21 Ultra and labeled ‘Previous’, has a darker appearance. In contrast, the right image on the S22 Ultra reveals the woman with enhanced clarity and brightness, revealing improvement.

Tone mapping

Imagine you have a box of 100 colored crayons but can only use 10. Tone mapping helps you pick the 10 crayons that will make your picture look good. It’s a way to simplify colors and brightness while keeping the image nice to look at.

Color accuracy

Color accuracy quantifies how well a screen can display colors and shades.

Posterization

Imagine a smooth gradient from white to black. Now, if you simplify it too much, it becomes blocks of gray, losing the smooth transition. That’s posterization. It makes smooth color transitions look blocky or banded.

Nits are a way to measure brightness, like how we use inches or centimeters to measure length. More nits mean a brighter screen, which can be better for seeing your screen on a sunny day.

A 3D histogram visualization overlaying a screen with an image of a woman looking upward. The histogram showcases fluctuating light values, highlighted with specific numbers such as 324, 410, and 450, representing the calculations made by the Vision Booster feature to optimize screen display. The bottom text indicates “Image simulated for illustrative purposes” and the top right corner mentions “Histogram analysis”.

Contrast is the difference between the lightest and darkest parts of an image. High contrast means a big difference (like black and white), while low contrast means the colors are more similar to each other (like gray and slightly darker gray). It helps to make pictures look clear and easy to see.

How Vision Booster optimizes Samsung’s displays under the hood

Facing the challenge of high ambient light, screen content can often appear faded. To counter this, smartphone brands commonly raise their display’s brightness each year. However, Samsung understood that simply ramping up the peak brightness levels isn’t the best solution. Samsung’s Vision Booster feature taps into the Galaxy smartphone’s integrated light sensors. These sensors expertly measure the surrounding light, whether it’s the bright sun outdoors or muted lighting indoors, guaranteeing the best screen visibility under different conditions.

After detecting the ambient light conditions, the Vision Booster’s Intelligent Outdoor Algorithm activates. It calculates the histogram data of all the content appearing on the display, which represents the distribution of light and color values on the screen. This process involves scanning each pixel to determine the exact light intensity and color distribution. Based on this analysis, Vision Booster uses tone mapping to fine-tune brightness, enrich colors, and adjust contrast between mid-tones and shadows.

A man and a woman sitting side-by-side on a train. one dressed in a knitted sweater, the other in a vibrant yellow jacket. Both are using their smartphones. The person on the left enjoys a clear view of their screen, while the one on the right seems distracted. Written in the middle is the caption: ‘Epic viewing even in bright light’.

As a result, dark areas on the screen become brighter, and colors appear more saturated. These adjustments ensure a high-quality visual experience that aligns with the human eye’s perception. The process happens automatically without manual intervention required from the user. The fascinating aspect of this feature is that color accuracy remains acceptable even when Vision Booster is activated.

While the Vision Booster feature offers many benefits, it has drawbacks. It uses a low-resolution histogram map to calculate which regions of the display to boost. This can cause posterization, causing a harsh change from one tone to another. Additionally, the Vision Booster feature doesn’t work when the Eye comfort shield or Adaptive brightness features are activated, so be sure to turn them off when you’re outside tomake the most of that gorgeous display.

Which Samsung phones come with Vision Booster?

Vision Booster debuted in February 2022at the Samsung Galaxy S22 Unpacked event. Since then, it has expanded to other models, including theSamsung Galaxy S23series, Galaxy A54 5G, and Galaxy A34 5G. These models come withOLED screens, a common feature shared by devices supporting Vision Booster.

While Samsung has not explicitly detailed the brightness requirement for Vision Booster, smartphones with this feature generally have displays that reach at least 1,000 nits of peak brightness. This specification ensures the feature’s efficacy in amplifying screen visibility and color contrast under intense light.

Stay bright with Vision Booster

The next time you’re squinting at your screen on a sunny day, take comfort in Samsung’s Vision Booster. With Vision Booster, Samsung has once again demonstrated its commitment to delivering user-centric innovations. This feature improves the viewing experience, making the Samsung phones a desirable choice for those who are always on the go. Pair it with one of thehigh-quality active earbudsand stay comfortable on your next outdoor adventure.