Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra will likely miss out on this killer camera upgrade

Samsung wants to “polish” its current camera tech for the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

What you need to know

• Samsung is reportedly working on a 200MP camera but won’t include it with its 2022 Galaxy flagship.
• The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is rumored to come with another 108MP camera sensor.
• Samsung has been teasing support for 200MP cameras for some time with its latest Exynos chip.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra reportedly won’t feature a 200MP camera sensor as some Galaxy fans may have hoped. The latest rumor points to the company focusing on improving its 108MP sensor for its next flagship.

According to leaker Ice Universe, it’s almost “100% confirmed that the Samsung S22 Ultra will not follow up with 200 million pixels” (via rough translation). Instead, the company will “polish the third generation 108MP sensor,” although there are no details on what exactly this means.

Right now, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has one of the largest resolution smartphone cameras on the market at 108MP, challenging many of the best Android phones on the market, even compared to its predecessors. There have been rumors that the company is developing a 200MP camera, especially since the company leaned hard on teasing the capabilities of its latest Exynos chip.

Relax! It’s not a teaser. The #Exynos2100 already supports up to 200Mp sensor with multi-camera set-up. Find out more: https://t.co/GHZsa9ctey

— Samsung Exynos (@SamsungExynos) March 22, 2021

If Samsung is working on such a sensor, it’s likely that it wouldn’t put it inside its own smartphone first. When the company first introduced its 108MP sensor, Xiaomi was actually the first to release a smartphone with the inflated resolution, only for Samsung to follow closely after with the Galaxy S20 Ultra. That partnership may continue with a new 2022 flagship Xiaomi smartphone, but it seems the Galaxy S22 will miss out either way.

Rumors initially suggested that the ZTE Axon 30 Pro would be the first to feature Samsung’s 200MP sensor, but the phone came and went without it. The rumors stated that the sensor would be physically smaller than Samsung’s current flagship cameras, which falls in line with the smaller pixel size of the recently announced ISOCELL JN1.

Of course, the number of pixels often doesn’t tell the full story of how a camera performs, but Samsung seems to want to make the most of its 108MP camera before squeezing more pixels into its flagships.

Camera king

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

$1200 at Best Buy
$1000 at Amazon

Get up close

The Galaxy S21 Ultra features some of the best cameras you’ll find on a smartphone. Its 108MP sensor can capture tons of detail, and you can get real close to the action with its dedicated 10x telephoto zoom sensor.