Samsung's Galaxy Z Series Brings Professional Lens Effects to Smartphone Video

Samsung's latest Galaxy Z series, unveiled in July 2026, carries a camera feature that attempts something photographers have chased for years: making a smartphone video look like it was shot through a professional lens. The feature is called Portrait Video, and it works by keeping a subject sharp while the background blurs into soft, rounded circles of light—the effect photographers call bokeh. What makes this different from simple blur is that the effect changes naturally based on how far the subject sits from the background, mimicking the optical behavior of an actual large-aperture camera lens.

The technology emerged from a collaboration between two Samsung divisions: Samsung Research, which handles foundational technology development, and the Mobile eXperience Business, which builds features into devices. YoungGeol Kim, who leads the Visual Technology Team at Samsung Research, spent 25 years as a photography hobbyist before moving into camera research. He noticed that while smartphone photography had advanced rapidly, video lagged behind in one crucial way: it couldn't recreate the distinctive depth and background rendering that professional lenses produce. When the MX Business began exploring ways to help users create more professional-looking videos, the timing aligned. Kim's team proposed turning their research concept into a product feature.

The challenge was not simply to blur a background. A conventional blur works by blending surrounding colors together, which flattens the image. A real large-aperture lens operates differently. It renders out-of-focus areas with specific shapes and textures based on how light spreads through the glass. To replicate this on a smartphone, Samsung's researchers first analyzed how light behaves in actual professional camera lenses, converting those optical characteristics into data. They then combined this data with AI-estimated distance information about the scene, allowing the system to adjust both the degree of blur and the size of the bokeh based on the distance between subject and background.

The most difficult technical problem was rendering the boundary between subject and background naturally. Hair, eyeglass frames, and other fine details are nearly impossible for AI alone to separate cleanly from the background. A small error results in blurred hair strands or sharp patches of background that make the subject look artificially cut out. Samsung's solution was to combine AI distance estimates with boundary information extracted directly from the video footage itself, allowing the system to preserve fine details while still creating the cinematic effect. Sang-uk Park, who oversees camera development at the MX Business, described the refinement process: the teams filmed each other repeatedly under countless different conditions—varying weather, lighting, subject movement, and distance—reviewing results together and discussing what looked unnatural. The improvements were noticeable with each iteration.

Another constraint was power and heat. Processing 4K video in real time demands significant computation. The teams had to make strategic choices about where to preserve processing power for visible quality and where to reduce it in areas users wouldn't notice. The result was a balance: natural lens rendering achieved without draining the battery or generating excessive heat during extended recording sessions. Users can also adjust the blur level and shift focus to a different subject after filming, giving them creative control that a physical camera lens cannot offer.

The feature works best in specific lighting conditions. Bokeh becomes most visible when bright light sources—sunlight through leaves, Christmas lights, streetlights at night—sit against a darker background. When filming a person, positioning light from behind or to the side of the subject, rather than from the front, creates a more atmospheric result. The light softly illuminates the subject's hair and contours while making the background bokeh more prominent, and reflected or ambient light prevents the face from falling into shadow.

Park expressed hope that users, creators, and video professionals would be surprised by how easily they could now create cinematic video on a smartphone. Kim's vision extended further: he hopes people will feel they no longer need to carry a separate professional camera. The feature represents the culmination of extensive testing and collaboration—a research concept refined through real-world use until it became reliable enough for millions of devices. What began as one researcher's 25-year passion for photography has become a tool that brings the shallow depth of field and light rendering of professional cinema within reach of anyone holding a Galaxy Z series phone.