New Samsung Leak Reveals MuchNeeded Galaxy S24 Ultra Upgrade
08/10 update below. This post was originally published on August 8.
The next-generation Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra camera will have significantly better zoom performance, according to the latest information from famous leaker Ice Universe.
In a post on the social networking site formerly known as Twitter, the tipster stated that Samsung's next smartphone will have a new 3x 50 megapixel telephoto camera. It's a potentially huge upgrade over the 10-megapixel version currently fitted to the Galaxy S23 Ultra, and should offer significantly better photo quality in the mid-3x to 10x zoom range.
The news supports a now-deleted tweet from the same publisher, which stated that Samsung has "full confidence" that it has improved the 3x telephoto camera, bringing significant improvements to the 3x to 10x zoom range.
"The answer is: 3x. I believe that the Galaxy S24 Ultra has improved the camera performance by 3x, which means that the image quality will be significantly improved by 3x-10x."
The Galaxy S23 Ultra is now known for its powerful long-range zoom capabilities thanks to its 10x periscope lens. However, it doesn't work well at lower magnifications, as the Dxomark test page points out:
"The S23 Ultra falls far short of its competition, where we expected better results, given that the main camera uses a 200MP sensor that should offer excellent digital zoom capabilities."
A radically improved 3x camera sensor will have a 3x to 10x difference. The jump from 10 megapixels to 50 megapixels is very significant and the triple camera lets you capture more detail, increasing the phone's digital zoom capabilities throughout the zoom range.
However, if the new sensor isn't significantly larger than the Galaxy S23 Ultra, it's likely to suffer from poor low-light performance due to significantly smaller pixels. Samsung can reduce this through pixel crowding, software processing, or techniques for 3x cameras using brighter, stronger lenses.
Significant advances in software processing have been predicted in previous leaks, along with a first variable aperture lens and possibly a new "variable zoom" telephoto lens. With these big changes, the Galaxy S24 Ultra will be an exciting release for camera enthusiasts next year.
Update 08/10: Based on some new information from veteran tipster Yogesh Brar , it seems that not all Galaxy S24 customers can expect the same experience from Samsung's new flagship.
In a recent tweet, the publisher announced that the three Galaxy S24 models (Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+ and Galaxy S24 Ultra) will come in Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Exynos 2400 variants.
While the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a Snapdragon chip in all regions, it looks like the Galaxy S24 may return to Samsung's previous position of offering different hardware depending on the region where the phone is sold. Typically, customers in North America will get the more powerful Snapdragon variant, as well as South Korea and sometimes other regions. However, European and UK customers will have to make do with Exynos phones.
That's a big deal considering Samsung's Exynos chips have historically underperformed Snapdragon versions. Importantly, the difference in chipsets can also affect camera performance, leading popular review site Dxomark to offer separate camera tests for the Snapdragon and Exynos versions of the Galaxy S22 Ultra . In this test, the Snapdragon variant is ahead by four points.
There is no information that this change in camera performance will be repeated in the Galaxy S24 series. However, since the updated software is expected to play a significant role in improving the camera's performance, it is worth paying attention to.
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