A reliable tipster has revealed critical details about the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra's primary camera. The Galaxy S23 series is expected to be launched early next year and will be an upgrade over the Galaxy S22 lineup released earlier this year. The top-end device in the lineup is expected to be the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which should ship with an S pen stylus like its predecessor. As for its imaging chops, multiple reports in the past have claimed that it will ship with a 200MP primary camera, as opposed to the 108MP primary image sensor in S22 Ultra.
Recent rumors have revealed several aspects of the Galaxy S23 Ultra. According to a report from late July, the S23 Ultra will sport the same telephoto camera setup as its predecessor, including the tried-and-tested 10MP Sony IMX754 sensor with 10x optical zoom. The upcoming device is also expected to retain the design of its predecessor, while its battery would reportedly be the same 5,000mAh unit seen in the S22 Ultra. Overall, it may not offer many upgrades over its predecessor, but the primary image sensor might be an exception.
According to tipster Ice Universe, the Galaxy S23 Ultra will sport a 200MP primary image sensor with 0.6 µm pixels and 1/1.3-inch sensor size. In addition, the camera will reportedly be mated to a lens with an f/1.7 aperture. For reference, the Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a 108MP primary camera with 0.8 µm pixels and an f/1.8 aperture. If the report is accurate, it means the camera in the upcoming device will have smaller pixels than the sensor on the S22 Ultra but a wider aperture to let in more light.
Samsung's 200MP Image Sensor
While it's impossible to ascertain the performance of the new 200MP camera without using it first-hand, the higher resolution could improve zoom performance, which should help cropped images look relatively sharp. On the flip side, the smaller pixels could result in more noise, especially in low-light situations, and it's not immediately clear how the bigger aperture would help change that for the better.
Alongside the primary image sensor, the processor is another expected upgrade in the Galaxy S23 Ultra. According to reports, the device might be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, which is expected to be announced later this year at Qualcomm's Tech Summit in November. What's more, reports further suggest that Samsung may not use its in-house Exynos chips in its Galaxy S23-series devices at all, meaning all Galaxy S23 Ultra units could be powered by the same Qualcomm chip, irrespective of the market.
Source: Ice Universe/Twitter