According to a new leak, Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra may ditch one of its signature features, which could have a serious impact on the fate of the entire Galaxy S24 series.

According to prominent leaker IceUniverse, the Galaxy S24 Ultra will not feature a 10x telephoto camera and will instead feature a 10MP 3x zoom and a 5x 50MP zoom Galaxy S23 Ultra, Galaxy S22 Ultra, Galaxy S21 Ultra also have similar telephoto cameras, making this the first 10x zoom camera for an Ultra-branded Galaxy.

Leaker also notes that these specs would give the Galaxy S24 Ultra weaker telephoto camera performance than the Xiaomi 13 Ultra with two 50MP telephoto cameras. However, since this model is not sold outside of China, it is not likely to be a candidate for the smartphone. [The 10MP 10x zoom camera is one of the Galaxy S23 Ultra's most unique cameras and helped it earn the #1 spot in our Best Camera Phones guide. While other major Android phones use periscope cameras for 5x zoom capability, Samsung's dual telephoto still puts the Galaxy S23 series out of their reach.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max has a 5x tetraprism lens, which performed well in our tests, but the 25x digital zoom is far inferior to the Galaxy S23 Ultra's 100x space zoom.

Thus, losing zoom range sounds like a loss for the Galaxy S24 Ultra; the lack of 10x zoom is not only felt on the new phone, but could also have the knock-on effect of potentially losing the 100x space zoom mode as well. While this level of zoom was not always useful for photography, it was certainly impressive when shooting the moon.

However, a camera that is supposedly a 5x telephoto camera could still be a match, thanks to the increased resolution of 50MP. Having more pixels may be the reason why Samsung decided to ditch the more powerful optical zoom, since a higher native resolution may mean a larger lossless digital zoom range, satisfying users as much as a smaller sensor with a more powerful lens

Galaxy

It is worth noting that other rumor sources have different stories about the Galaxy S24 Ultra's camera. One account claims that the 50MP sensor is for a 3x camera and the 10MP periscope camera will stay the same, while another account suggests that Samsung may use a new variable zoom lens on the S24 Ultra to increase versatility. It is highly unlikely that all of these accounts are true at once, so we will have to wait for further rumors to appear to support the claims.

Samsung is expected to launch the Galaxy S24 in February of next year, so there is still time for Galaxy S24 rumors to fly. Nevertheless, it will have to be a hit no matter when it launches, as it will be competing with the high-performance iPhone 15 Pro and the upcoming (but probably superior) Google Pixel 8 Pro.