What you need to know
- A new report details the Galaxy S24 Ultra's camera modules, including the 200MP main sensor and the new 50MP telephoto camera.
- The 10x telephoto camera is reportedly staying on for another year while the 3x optical lens is swapped out for a 5x one.
- The same report notes that Samsung expects the Galaxy S24 Ultra to account for 45% of total shipment volume over the year.
According to a new report from The Elec (in Korean), everyone's favorite Samsung Galaxy camera feature is here to stay. This contradicts nearly all previous leaks and rumors for the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which all pointed to the 10x optical camera being removed in favor of several different solutions.
The report details several camera modules and lens orders that coincide with the Galaxy S24, including the bombshell revelation that Space Zoom is here to stay. Samsung will allegedly pack the Galaxy S24 Ultra with a newer 200MP main camera than was supplied on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, as well as a 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera, a 50MP telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom, and a 10MP telephoto camera with 10x optical zoom.
Beginning with the Galaxy S21 Ultra back in 2021, Samsung has been utilizing a telephoto camera with a 10x optical zoom lens, enabling its most expensive phones to zoom up to 100x away while taking photos. But Samsung has long had a weakness in zoom quality between 5x-9x zoom. When I recently compared the S23 Ultra to the Pixel 8 Pro, it was clear that Samsung retained the "zoom crown" at 10x and beyond, but Google's phone was better in the mid-range.
Now, with the advent of a 50MP mid-range zoom camera behind a 5x telephoto lens, Samsung will almost assuredly take back the camera crown from Google next month when the Galaxy S24 Ultra is expected to launch.
Beyond that, this new report confirms that the Plus model is the worst-selling of the trio every year, with Samsung estimating that the Galaxy S24 Plus will only account for 16% of the total unit sales of the series. Meanwhile, the company expects the smaller Galaxy S24 to take roughly 38% of the sales, while the most expensive Galaxy S24 Ultra will account for a whopping 45% of sales throughout 2024.
Throughout 2023, we've seen the Galaxy S23's sales number beat the Galaxy S22 by a long shot. Samsung only sold about 17 million Galaxy S22 units, while the Galaxy S23 was on track to sell around 26 million as of Q3 2023. Samsung's estimate of 35.2 million Galaxy S24s sold in 2024 shows the company is confident that it's taking back the lead in the smartphone market, despite losing market share to other brands in 2023.
