The groaning you heard was mine when I found out that Samsung was going to reduce the optical zoom on its flagship Android phone, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, from 10x on the S23 Ultra to 5x. My favorite Galaxy function was gone, and I had no idea why.
Now that the Galaxy S24 series has debuted, and I’ve even had some hands-on time with the titanium-rich Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, I’m ready to reconsider my skepticism and ponder whether – just maybe – Samsung did the right thing.
It’s difficult to squeeze 10x optical zoom into a 7.6mm thick smartphone. Samsung must use periscope technology to turn the light from the lens 90 degrees and direct it down through the body to a waiting sensor. That requires experience, innovation, and room. The 5x zoom, which is becoming the standard on most flagship phones, may be the limit of what you can do optically without periscope technology.
While I’ve lately reconsidered my early delight for Samsung’s 100X Space Zoom (too much AI artistry for my liking), nothing could dampen my joy for pure, Galaxy S23 Ultra 10x optical zoomed imagery. In practice, this allowed me to get twice as close to the action as the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s 5x zoom camera. I like using the S23 at concerts when I had nosebleed tickets, but especially when I had good seats and wanted professional-level images of The Boss bounding over the stage.
In a straight comparison, Apple outperformed Samsung in the zoom megapixel category. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra’s highest zoom camera was powered by a 10MP sensor. The iPhone 15 Pro Max 5x Zoom features a 12MP camera. Nonetheless, the megapixel differential never placed the finest iPhone ahead of the best Samsung phone, at least in the telephoto competition.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra will now have the same telephoto zoom capabilities. There are two 5x zoom cameras, so no periscope is required. Samsung, on the other hand, made a crucial decision that, even in my brief hands-on, made me think that Samsung may still have an advantage in terms of zoom.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra’s 5x zoom camera is powered by a massive 50 MP sensor. That’s a lot of pixels, significantly more than you’ll get from Apple’s greatest zoom. More surprisingly, Samsung still claims that its S24 Ultra has 10x zoom. It appears on the camera app after 5x (see gallery above). I’m not impressed that Samsung doesn’t distinguish between optical and digitally assisted zoom in the app.
So, what’s happening here? Well, Samsung is employing a rather typical approach. While its 5x optical zoom may reduce the 50MP of pixels to a 12MP photo, its 10x zoom scans the entire 50MP frame and selects 12MP in the center for a full-resolution “zoom” image.
Critics have claimed that, while Samsung provided 10x optical zoom on the S23 Ultra, the low megapixel count resulted in subpar and possibly murky image quality. Now, we have additional megapixels from a new sensor, which could lead to a superior, ultimate “10x zoom” device.
I would always prefer true 10x optical zoom over anything digital, but I see the goal here, and after a brief interaction with the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, I began to see how this controlled 10x zoom might not be as bad as I had feared.
I can’t quit you, 10x
Look, I still want smartphone firms like Apple, Samsung, and Google to break the 5x optical zoom barrier with as many pixels as possible, but I also understand the trade-offs required to make that happen.
In a standard camera, the only way to achieve zoom is to use larger and longer lenses. A zoom requires a distance between the glass lens and the sensor as well as space to draw enough light into that gap. Our flat slab phones are not built to accommodate this. For Samsung and Apple, there will always be a trade off. If you cram the necessary periscope within a phone, you may lose a small amount of battery life, and Samsung may not have been able to incorporate the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s considerably larger vapor chamber, which will keep the phone running cooler, more efficiently, and maybe longer.
It’s early days for the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. I’m still disappointed that Samsung removed the 10x optical zoom, but I think I can tolerate the optical/digital/sensor compromise. Will my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra 10x images be as good as those taken with the Galaxy S23 Ultra? They might be better. They might potentially be slightly worse.
I’ll reserve final judgment, but I believe Samsung may have a point here.
