Galaxy S24 Ultra tipped to get an improved 200MP camera

Samsung will reportedly equip the Galaxy S24 Ultra with an improved 200MP camera. The company hasn’t developed a new sensor from scratch but optimized the ISOCELL HP2 sensor found on the Galaxy S23 Ultra for better picture quality and other improvements. It will call the optimized version ISOCELL HP2SX.

The information comes courtesy of reliable X (formerly Twitter) tipster Ice Universe. The source claims that the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s 200MP camera will have the same specs as the ISOCELL HP2. The latter has an optical format of 1/1.3-inch and packs 200 million pixels of 0.6 micrometers (μm) size. The camera uses 2×2 (4 in 1) pixel binning to capture 50MP shots and 4×4 (16 in 1) pixel binning to capture 12.5MP shots in low-light conditions.

In fact, the Galaxy S23 Ultra captures 12.5MP images by default. In this mode, the pixels have an optical size of 2.4μm. They can absorb adequate light for the best output in all lighting conditions. But if your environment is well-lit, you can manually switch to 50MP (1.2μm pixels) or 200MP modes to capture high-resolution photos. The sensor boasts Super Quad Phase Detection autofocus and 8K video recording at 30fps (frames per second).

Samsung has pushed several camera updates to the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the other models in the series since their launch earlier this year, adding new features and improvements. Of course, those updates only improve the software side of things. But hardware is only part of the overall camera experience. An optimized ISOCELL HP2 200MP sensor paired with an improved camera algorithm should bring notable quality improvements to the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra may get a new zoom camera

Samsung may not be giving the Galaxy S24 Ultra an entirely new primary camera, but it’s expected to upgrade the zoom hardware. The same source reported last month that the next-gen Ultra model will feature a 50MP sensor for 3x optical zoom. The current model uses 10MP cameras for both 3x and 10x optical zoom.

The updated lens reportedly has an optical size of 1/2.52 inches and features 0.7μm pixels. Like the main shooter, it will probably employ pixel binning to capture bright zoom photos in dim environments. However, the resolution upgrade allows for clearer photos at non-native zoom levels as well. The Galaxy S24 Ultra can capture much better 5x zoom photos thanks to the new camera, the source said. The new Samsung flagship will arrive in early 2024.