![XDA Forums](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="500" height="147"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
Let's travel back to the year 2013. Apple introduced the iPhone 5s and iOS 7. Its camera UI looks like this:
In horizontal orientation, the mode names become difficult to read due to being in left-up orientation, and iOS 7 used small text for the mode names. Only three camera modes' names fully fit on screen at a time.
To go from the lowermost to the uppermost mode, you need to tediously tap the uppermost visible mode on screen until you reach the top.
At the same time, Samsung's much superior camera UI looked like this:
Notice how there is a video button in photo mode, so video recording can be accessed with one touch. This is the Galaxy S4, when Samsung made the clever move of replacing the mode switch with a direct video button, and I was proud of Samsung for this.
In 2015, Samsung introduced a mode selector with a good overview. It could show eight modes with icons and text labels at once on screen:
But in 2019, with the Galaxy S10, they undid this benefit. In fact, they went straight ahead and carbon-copied the iPhone camera UI. The mode selector has the same vertical layout as the Apple camera software since iOS 7. There are differences such as that the mode names are not all-uppercase, but it is the same layout as iOS 7.
Also other major smartphone vendors such as Huawei and Xiaomi have copycatted the iOS 7 camera layout.
While Apple admittedly had superior autofocus and auto exposure locking controls since iOS 7 (hold to lock, swipe to change exposure), that iOS7-like mode selector is trash. Video recording was downgraded to a separate mode like it was until the Galaxy S3 in 2012.
Why would all major vendors go along with Apple's inferior camera layout?
In horizontal orientation, the mode names become difficult to read due to being in left-up orientation, and iOS 7 used small text for the mode names. Only three camera modes' names fully fit on screen at a time.
To go from the lowermost to the uppermost mode, you need to tediously tap the uppermost visible mode on screen until you reach the top.
At the same time, Samsung's much superior camera UI looked like this:
Notice how there is a video button in photo mode, so video recording can be accessed with one touch. This is the Galaxy S4, when Samsung made the clever move of replacing the mode switch with a direct video button, and I was proud of Samsung for this.
In 2015, Samsung introduced a mode selector with a good overview. It could show eight modes with icons and text labels at once on screen:
But in 2019, with the Galaxy S10, they undid this benefit. In fact, they went straight ahead and carbon-copied the iPhone camera UI. The mode selector has the same vertical layout as the Apple camera software since iOS 7. There are differences such as that the mode names are not all-uppercase, but it is the same layout as iOS 7.
Also other major smartphone vendors such as Huawei and Xiaomi have copycatted the iOS 7 camera layout.
While Apple admittedly had superior autofocus and auto exposure locking controls since iOS 7 (hold to lock, swipe to change exposure), that iOS7-like mode selector is trash. Video recording was downgraded to a separate mode like it was until the Galaxy S3 in 2012.
Why would all major vendors go along with Apple's inferior camera layout?
