Android Central Labs
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When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S26 series at the end of February, one of the biggest wow moments of the show was Horizontal Lock, a new video recording feature that keeps your videos steady and straight, no matter how much you bounce or turn the phone.
In other words, Samsung users who buy an expensive Galaxy S26 phone might be getting an amazing new video recording feature, but people can save a lot of money by choosing Motorola and not miss out. That means $500 phones like the Motorola Edge 2025 and the more expensive Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 all support the same feature, but can the quality match up with Samsung’s best? Let’s find out.
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Finding the horizon line
Horizon Lock on Motorola phones and Horizontal Lock on the Samsung Galaxy S26 series appear to work identically from a descriptive standpoint. Both features utilize the main and ultrawide sensors on the back of your phone to create a fused video. As such, these features reduce video quality a bit, typically capping out at 1080p resolution at 30 FPS, although the Galaxy S26 Ultra upgrades that to QHD resolution.
As these cameras record video, a sophisticated AI-based algorithm uses scene understanding to determine the horizon line. Despite what that sounds like, you don’t need to be outside or have a clear horizon line or landscape in your video. I even recorded it in a room with a blank wall, and the Motorola Edge 2025 kept the video oriented straight, even as I spun it around.
In addition to using both main and ultrawide cameras on the back, Motorola and Samsung phones use the phone’s gyroscope and accelerometers to determine how the phone is being moved. This data is then translated in real time, helping to keep the video in portrait or landscape orientation no matter how much the phone is rotated.
Most demonstrations, like my own above from 2023, focus on spinning the phone 360 degrees. In most real-world situations, there’s no chance you’ll be doing this with a phone while recording a video. That’s fine, as Horizon or Horizontal Lock are designed to adapt to any movement and keep your video locked in place.
You might be riding as a passenger in a car, recording video out the window, or maybe you’re taking a summer vacation on a boat, filming the lake while a family member drives the boat. The normal bumps and turns of vehicle movement are smoothed out by these features, and they work even better than the electronic stability features on older phones.
Samsung vs. Motorola
In the video below, you can see the difference between Samsung’s Horizontal Lock and Super Steady mode on the Galaxy S26 Ultra compared with a normal (non-stabilized) recording using the same movements. The Motorola Edge 2025 demonstration in the second half uses the two available modes, Horizon Lock and standard video, as Motorola doesn’t offer the middle option on this phone.
My colleague, Derrek Lee, also used his Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 to test the feature and found that Motorola has an orientation button on that phone that’s not found on Motorola’s cheaper phones (or the Galaxy S26 series) to change the orientation to portrait or landscape mode. This lets you record in either orientation without physically turning the phone (although you’ll probably want to), which can come in handy, particularly when recording one-handed.
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As you might expect when comparing a $549 phone to a $1,299 phone, the cheaper model’s video recording quality is significantly lower. There’s a substantial drop in quality on the Motorola Edge 2025 when Horizon Lock is enabled, so it’s not a feature you’ll want to use on that model if you’re looking for top-notch quality.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S26 Ultra does a surprisingly good job of maintaining consistent video quality while using Horizontal Lock mode, despite a drop in resolution from my normal 4k60 setting. More capable Motorola phones like the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 will get higher-quality video from the Horizon Lock feature.
You’ll also notice that videos recorded using Horizon Lock or Horizontal Lock are quite a bit wider than videos recorded from the main camera lens. That’s because these stabilization features rely heavily on the ultrawide camera and, as such, use it as the main video feed.
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I also noticed that the Galaxy S26 Ultra did a better job of keeping the video looking clear, even when I spun the phone around. There’s a limit to this, as lower lighting conditions or faster (or more uneven) spinning will produce lower-quality video, but the fringing on the left and right sides of the Motorola video is nearly nonexistent in the video from the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
It’s impressive to see Motorola offer such an advanced feature even on its cheaper phones, while Samsung only offers it on some of its most expensive phones. That’s especially prominent given the recent price hikes from Samsung. I also like that Motorola scales features based on the phone’s capabilities, so you’ll get more options on a more powerful phone like the Razr Ultra 2025 than on the Edge 2025, which is half the price.
If you’re looking to try Horizon Lock on a Motorola phone this year, the key is to ensure it has an ultrawide-angle camera onboard. The Galaxy S26 Ultra might get you the best quality video in this situation, but there’s something to be said about democratizing such a cool feature that Motorola deserves to get real credit for.
Samsung might be late to the Horizon Lock party, but the company is delivering higher quality, ultra-stabilized video on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and it’s simply awesome to experience.
