The prolific and oft-reliable leaker Ice Universe recently tweeted a series of camera specs for the upcoming Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus that should come as a relief to Samsung fans that don’t want to spend up for the Galaxy S22 Ultra (via SlashGear).
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The new leak from Ice Universe points to a trio of rear cameras for the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus. No surprise there, but the massive 50MP primary with a 1/1.57-inch sensor and f/1.8 aperture is a serious departure. The last two generations of Galaxy S phones both stuck to 12MP sensors for the primary wide-angle on all but the Ultra. Before you get too excited about having all those pixels to play with, it will likely still output a 12.5MP photo due to the use of pixel binning, which splits the image from that larger sensor into four parts. The net effect there should be dramatically better low-light photos, an area where Samsung has trailed Apple and Google. Samsung may also give you the option to capture in the full 50MP resolution as it does with the 108MP sensor on the Galaxy S21 Ultra. The other three sensors are less impressive with a 12MP ultra-wide at f/2.2, a 10MP 3x telephoto at f/2.4 and finally the 10MP front-facing camera at f/2.2. If that telephoto is really the right spec for both the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus that will be a considerable step down for the latter as the Galaxy S21 Plus offered a 64MP 3x telephoto. If accurate, this collection of cameras will make the standard Galaxy S22 a formidable photographic foe for the iPhone 13 which saw fairly minimal upgrades to its camera system this year. However, the iPhone 13 Pro will still dramatically outclass the Galaxy S22 Plus with its incredible f/1.5 primary wide-angle and f/1.8 ultra-wide sensor. With the rumors pointing to Samsung sticking to an almost identical design for the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus, the hope is that the phones would have some dramatic internal improvements. While the enhanced primary sensor is a move in the right direction, it’s going to take more than that if Samsung wants to compete with the best from Apple and Google in 2022.
