What you need to know
- For years, the standard and "Plus" variants of Samsung's flagships have used 10MP selfie cameras.
- A new rumor indicates that Samsung may finally upgrade the camera with a higher 12MP resolution.
- It's unclear if these sensors will be hidden under the display or if they'll include OIS.
We've already heard that Samsung may upgrade the rear camera on at least one of its flagship smartphones next year, but a new rumor shines some information about the front-facing camera.
According to GalaxyClub, the standard Galaxy S23 and S23+ may receive a small resolution bump for the selfie camera, bringing them to 12MP. This would be an increase from the 10MP sensor used in base and Plus flagship models since the Galaxy S10. It also puts the resolution on par with some of the best Android phones and even recent iPhones.
While it's only a slight increase and the Galaxy S22 series already takes great selfies, the extra resolution could make all the difference, giving users a couple million more pixels to work with for a sharper image. However, it's unclear if there will be any other upgrades to the selfie camera like optical image stabilization, a feature that has been rumored for the front camera since the Galaxy S21.
It's also unclear if Samsung plans to go with an Under-Panel Camera like the Galaxy Z Fold 3. This feature has yet to appear on any of Samsung's "traditional" smartphones, so it would be interesting to see it on the Galaxy S23. That said, Samsung's solution is hardly perfect, limiting the Z Fold 3 to just a 4MP sensor, but there could be improvements in-tow if Samsung plans to adopt it in its S23 line.
Samsung's Ultra models have already been bumped to 40MP selfie cameras, which use pixel-binning to produce 10MP images. However, this results in larger pixels when compared to the standard and Plus models, allowing more light intake and potentially better selfies. GalaxyClub could not tell whether the Ultra model would get an upgrade as well.
However, it seems likely that the Galaxy S23 Ultra's upgrade would be limited to the rear camera, which is expected to sport the first 200MP sensor on a Galaxy smartphone.
We're still a ways from the Galaxy S23 launch, which is expected in the first months of 2023, so there's plenty of time to learn more about these upcoming devices.
