The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra could be the most disappointing phone of 2024

No more 10x zoom

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When you think about theSamsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, one of the first things that probably comes to mind is its 10x optical zoom, as this is a featureSamsungreserves for its Ultra handsets, and one that almost no other phones can match. But it’s also a feature that bafflingly Samsung might ditch on theSamsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

This is according to leaker@UniverseIce, posting on X (formerly known as Twitter), who has a reasonable track record for leaks.

They don’t say what will be offered in its place, but for reference the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has a 200MP main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide, a 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and a 10MP periscope, offering 10x optical zoom. So it’s the last of those that might be absent.

1x，10x, 30x,100xS23 UltraBut I’m worried about S24 Ultra.Because it removes the 10x optical camera. pic.twitter.com/SJugAElHyDSeptember 18, 2023

We would however take this with a pinch of salt, for a wealth of reasons, starting with the fact that it seems a very strange thing to do.

The 10x zoom is one of the key features of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, so ditching it would surely harm the phone’s popularity. Unless of course it was replaced with something better, like 15x zoom, but @UniverseIce’s post sounds more negative than that.

Now seems a more important time than ever for Samsung to hold onto this feature too, asApplehas just launched theiPhone 15 Pro Maxwith a 5x optical zoom, bringing this rival brand closer to matching Samsung’s zoom skills than ever before.

On top of that, we’re not sure how confident in this claim the source actually is. They recently said the same thing before deleting the post, and they’ve previously made numerous conflicting claims about the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra’s camera system.

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In fact, so far there hasn’t been much agreement on what cameras the Galaxy S24 Ultra will have. Why that is isn’t clear – perhaps the company has been testing a number of different options. But it does mean there’s a high chance this leak is wrong.

We certainly hope so, because the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is one of the verybest camera phones, and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra might struggle to match it without a 10x zoom.

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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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