An early Galaxy S24 rumor last month suggested that Samsung‘s 2024 flagships could bring much-improved zoom cameras. At least the Galaxy S24 Ultra was said to get the big upgrade if not the entire lineup. While details were scarce, the rumor hinted at a new type of telephoto camera with an improved zoom mechanism. A tipster recently shed some light on what Samsung might be cooking for its next-gen flagships.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra may take zoom photography to a whole new level
According to the latest information, Samsung will equip the Galaxy S24 Ultra with a “Gen4” zoom camera. The upgraded optics design will bring a wider aperture between F/2.5 and F/2.9. For reference, the 10X zoom camera on the Galaxy S22 Ultra has a much narrow aperture of F/4.9. These changes mean the phone may offer up to 150X digital zoom. Samsung’s recent flagships topped out at 100X magnification, which the company calls Space Zoom. We aren’t expecting any changes to that with the arrival of the Galaxy S23 Ultra next month.
The tipster further states that the Galaxy S24 Ultra could boast variable zoom capabilities. It may be something like LG’s newly-launched Optical Telephoto Zoom Camera Module. The weirdly-named camera solution offers continuous optical zoom from 4X to 9X magnification levels. Currently, this ability is mostly limited to DSLRs or professional cameras. Smartphone cameras only offer optical zoom at fixed magnification levels. They apply digital zoom in between those fixed levels, which doesn’t do good to the image quality.
Samsung now seems to be planning to fix this problem with the Galaxy S24 Ultra next year. However, it may already have some tough competition in the market. The same source said that the next-gen Galaxy flagship will be only as good as Xiaomi’s upcoming Mi 13 Ultra in terms of zoom photography. The Chinese brand is reportedly preparing to launch the new phone at MWC 2023 next month. By the looks of it, Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra won’t be able to match the zoom capabilities of this phone. The Korean firm will have to come up with a whole new solution next year.
There may only be two Galaxy S24 models
If these kinds of features are overkill for you, Samsung may not present you with many choices next year. Rumors are that there will only be two Galaxy S24 models. You either get the vanilla Galaxy S24 with the best of smartphone basics or the Galaxy S24 Ultra with pretty much everything the industry has to offer. There may not be a Galaxy S24+ as a middle ground. At least that’s what rumors are saying currently. We should get more clarity about it in the coming weeks. Maybe after Samsung is done unveiling the Galaxy S23 series. The new flagships arrive on February 1, 2023.