Samsung is reportedly making some key changes to its flagship camera design next year. The Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ are now rumored to feature a new 10MP telephoto sensor with 3x optical zoom capabilities, as opposed to a high resolution sensor with poor optical zoom.
The Galaxy S21 and S21+ have only 1.1x optical zoom, but they offset this shortcoming with a high-resolution 64MP sensor that enables digital zoom. The upcoming Galaxy S22 and S22+, however, will reportedly take a different route. The telephoto sensor will have a lower pixel count, but it will benefit from proper 3x optical zoom.
Bringing a taste of Ultra to the base and Plus models
In essence, this might be the same 10MP telephoto sensor with 3x optical zoom, dual pixel PDAF, and OIS that's found on the Galaxy S21 Ultra. It's also expected to be used by the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which means that the upcoming flagship trio should share more similarities in the camera department than the previous generations did.
Previous rumors suggested that the base Galaxy S22 models will have a 12MP telephoto camera with 3x zoom, but that doesn't seem to be the case in light of the latest leak, courtesy of Galaxy Club. However, the upcoming Samsung flagships — or at least the base models — are still expected to each have a 50MP main camera along with the improved telephoto sensor.
