Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra zoom camera unlikely to change

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra will focus on improving camera technologies but it’s unlikely to upgrade the periscope zoom with this flagship as rumored for the slim S25 model.

Flagship Samsung devices have been offering high-end zoom for years, and the company has found this specific lens interesting due to the rising competition from Chinese brands.

Huawei, Xiaomi, and others have boasted their top-end smartphone with powerful zoom. However, Samsung gave this camera a new definition by adding its expertise in these technologies.

The upcoming Galaxy S25 Ultra is no different in this direction, it will continue these imaging improvements and polish them for a better photography experience.

Based on past reports, this new phone will use a 200MP main camera, which might be the same lens as the S24 Ultra. However, new optimizations could improve day and night photographs.

Meanwhile, the company could upgrade the ultra wide-angle camera to 50 megapixels. These increased pixels will lead to better ultra-wide-angle photos and videos. The rest of the Telephoto cameras will also remain unchanged.

That means the South Korean tech company is planning to satisfy S25 Ultra buyers with an ultra-wide angle camera upgrade in 2025 and no telephoto hardware change.

Specs

Let’s take a look at what the S24U offers in the Telephoto segment. This device has two zoom cameras.

One is a periscope and the other is optical. The existing periscope camera can zoom up to 5x optical and the secondary telephoto has a 3X optical range.

The primary telephoto has a 50-megapixel sensor with optical image stabilization, a 22-degree field of view, and f/3.4 aperture. The secondary telephoto has a 10-megapixel resolution with f/2.4 aperture and a 36-degree field of view.

These two telephotos work in tandem to offer different zoom ranges for Ultra users. The S24U features improved imaging for images but the max zoom is still unfavorable in all periscope devices. Yet, AI has raised new hope, and we’ll have to see how Samsung will use this tech to enhance zoomed images.

S25 Slim

This discussion evolved after a recent rumor, indicating the upcoming slim Samsung model with a new All Lense on Prism (ALoP) camera technology.

Compared to conventional folded telephoto camera optics, which are likely to be used in S25 Ultra, ALoP equips the horizontal lens group upon the prism. This change will improve brightness intake, cut module space, and reduce camera bump height.

Conventional Folded Zoom vs Samsung ALoP (Credit – Samsung)

It seems, Samsung will experiment with the camera’s practicality in S25 Slim and conduct a full adoption with S26 Ultra in 2026. Therefore, we may not see a Samsung focusing on a zoom camera for the Galaxy S25 Ultra.