Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra could be a boring upgrade
No change to the zoom
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
TheSamsung Galaxy S21 Ultrais one of the best and most exciting phones around, especially for photography fans, but if you were hoping for a big photographic boost from theSamsung Galaxy S22 Ultrathen you might be out of luck.
According toGalaxyClub, theSamsungGalaxy S22 Ultra probably has similar camera hardware to the Galaxy S21 Ultra. It apparently once again has a 10MP periscope lens offering 10x optical zoom, along with a 10MP telephoto camera. The site doesn’t know the zoom potential of this second lens, but suspects that it’s 3x, as on the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
While the site doesn’t have information on the other lenses,recent reportshave suggested that these won’t change either, with a 108MP main sensor planned and a 12MP ultra-wide. That said, there are some disagreements, with a couple of earlier leakspointing to a 200MP main camera, and some sources saying the zoom snappers will be 12MP.
Where we might see bigger improvements is on the Samsung Galaxy S22 and Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus, with GalaxyClubechoing other sourcesin saying that these phones might have a 50MP main sensor (up from 12MP on theSamsung Galaxy S21range).
Though the ultra-wide and selfie cameras on these phones sound no different, with this source saying they’re 12MP and 10MP respectively, as they are on the S21 range.
As ever we’d take these leaks with a pinch of salt, but most sources now seem to be agreeing on these specs, except for the megapixel counts of the zoom cameras on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which could either be 10MP or 12MP.
Analysis: the most exciting rumored Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra feature is looking unlikely
Arguably the most exciting thing we’ve heard rumored about the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra so far is that itcould offer continuous optical zoom, meaning that you would be able to optically zoom all the way from 1x to whatever the maximum optical zoom length is – likely 10x.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
On most phones you’re limited to only being able to optically zoom to one distance, with all the others being digital or hybrid zoom, so this would make the zoom camera a lot more versatile.
However, given that numerous rumors now suggest that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra will have two zoom cameras (probably a 3x one and a 10x one again), we don’t think this is very likely.
If the phone could continuously optically zoom then it presumably wouldn’t need two different zoom lenses, as the whole point of having two is so that you can optically zoom to both 3x and 10x, while a continuous zoom would let you go every step, likely from a single lens. Though we suppose it’s possible that both lenses have continuous optical zoom, just covering different zoom levels.
And while technically no sources have said we won’t see this feature, not many have mentioned it as something that is coming either, so at this stage we’re not convinced we’ll see it.
Coupled with the other cameras on the Galaxy S22 Ultra likely being similar to the current model, this could be a slightly boring upgrade – especially for photography fans.
James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.
Samsung reveals its next-gen Bixby AI – a Galaxy brain to rival ChatGPT and Gemini
Galaxy tri-fold rumors are hotting up, so here are 3 things we want to see
Your doctor may have an AI assistant taking notes during your next Zoom call
