No, we didn’t hear wrong. When Samsung announced the number 200 for the main sensor on the camera array of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, it sounded like an error, or a number related to the software.
Instead, it was the number of megapixels in the main camera lens, bringing it to the level of the highest-resolution smartphone cameras yet released globally, and the highest in South Africa.
First, it should be mentioned that Xiaomi, Motorola, and Infinix all released handsets with 200MP sensors last year. But the catch is this: all are using the 200MP ISOCELL HP1 sensor built by Samsung itself and unveiled more than a year ago. It is the first 200MP sensor on the market, and it is finally coming home.
On the S23 Ultra, it is a wide-angle lens with an aperture of f/1.7, 23mm and supports Laser Autofocus, PDAF (PDAF (phase detection auto focus, a high-speed autofocus tech), and optical image stabilization (OIS).
It is supported by LED flash and three additional lenses:
· 10 MP, f/4.9, 230mm (periscope telephoto), dual pixel PDAF, OIS, 10x optical zoom
· 10 MP, f/2.4, 70mm (telephoto), dual pixel PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
· 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚ (ultrawide), dual pixel PDAF
The cameras support 8K video at 24or 30 frames per second (FPS), 4K video at 30 or 60fps, 1080p or HD video at 30, 60 or 240fps, and 720p at 960fps for super slow-mo.
The front camera is a modest 12 MP wide angle lens with f/2.2 aperture and PDAF, shooting video in 4K at 30 or 60fps, and in 1080p HD at 30fps.
Byt who is going to print out building-sized images that take full advantage of that resolution? Or to put it another way, does 200MP matter?
Justin Hume, vice-president for mobile at Samsung South Africa, insists it does.
“There are a number of reasons for that. One is the quality of information that we want to get through our images, and these days we take a lot of human-related images.
“I was chatting to a colleague, and he said the fundamental problem that he’s got when people take an image of him is his beard, because it’s scraggly, and that blurs out to an unresolved, undefined mass. Suddenly, you’re bringing up a resolution like 200MP on a camera, and it’s in sharp contrast and resolution. It allows us to get a better quality of image.
“Second, you can be more creative in what type of images we take. Often I’m having to pull out the phone quickly to take the snap and then I’m zooming in and cropping, the images are blown out.”
The reality is that, in many images, we want to select only a portion of a photo to print out, reuse, post or send. The higher the resolution overall, the higher the quality of a small portion of the image. Cropping to a quarter or eighth of an image would usually result in a blurred pic or one with poor resolution. The more the MP, the better the quality of a small portion of the image.
The display of the S23 Ultra comes in at 6.8-inches, using Dynamic AMOLED 2X, a screen refresh rate of 120Hz, and 1750 units peak brightness. A 1440 x 3088 pixels resolution results in a competitive 501 PPI (pixel per inch) density.
What does all this mean in practice? We’ll let you know as soon as we’ve had a chance to try out the handset.
Samsung yesterday (1 February) unveiled the Galaxy S23 Ultra, S23 and S23+ globally. It will go on sale from 23 February 2023.
* Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee
