While my esteemed CNET colleagues were in San Francisco for the release of the Samsung Galaxy S26 series, I was in Barcelona ahead of MWC 2026, seeing the sights and eying the fancy cars that ply the Spanish city’s streets.
Once my colleagues arrived with the Galaxy S26 in tow, I found a novel use for one of its coolest features: shooting videos of Europe’s expensive automobiles.
It’s not uncommon for a Porsche or Maserati to zoom down the streets of the upscale neighborhoods in Barcelona. To capture them on video, I tried out the Galaxy S26’s new Horizontal Lock, an extremely forgiving image stabilization mode. As my colleague Abrar Al-Heeti noted in her first take, with the camera feature turned on, you can tilt the phone as much as you want while the horizon remains steady.
First, I reviewed CNET’s hands-on sessions with the new mode. I overrotated the phone 90 degrees in one direction and flipped it 180 degrees in the other. Horizontal Lock worked exactly as advertised, showing smooth footage you’d believe was shot with a phone held very still.
This was a great feature to try out on Barcelona’s streets, turning my wiggling arm into a steady hand behind the camera as I tracked flashy autos speeding down Passeig de Gracia and Carrer d’Arago in the Quadrat d’Or.
With Horizontal Lock straightening my footage, I could send videos back to my friends at home with undeniable proof that I’d seen some beautiful cars — like the Porsche Carrera GTS in the image above (a 904 from around 1964, if my Googling skills are to be believed).
The Galaxy S26’s Horizontal Lock is a perfect assistant if you’re shooting fast, agile subjects darting around unpredictably. The feature could also salvage videos from unusably shaky footage, a clear advantage when recording during emergencies, disasters or in war zones.
And for everyday Galaxy S26 owners, Horizontal Lock makes casual videos easier to watch, ensuring they end up on the good photography subreddits rather than the bad ones.
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