Galaxy S11 May Sport 108MP Camera With Periscope-Style 5x Zoom

Samsung’s next flagship smartphone may launch with a 108MP primary camera paired with a 5x optical zoom lens. That’s according to a new report coming out of South Korea, which claims the main camera module in the upcoming Galaxy S11 will be a periscope-style unit led by the company’s very own 108MP ISOCELL HMX sensor, which was announced just last month.

The report, published by South Korean tech blog, The Elec, also claims that the 5x optical zoom module will be supplied by another Samsung company called Samsung Electro-Mechanics, who is said to have started manufacturing them last May. The first batch is reportedly already being used by Oppo, while the next batch will apparently be used by the company for its net-gen Galaxy S-series flagship.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics earlier this month shared a video (see below) showcasing how its 5x optical zoom camera module will work. As can be seen, the periscope mechanism will use a prism for redirecting light rays much the same way as the camera module in the Huawei P30 Pro. However, whether Samsung will actually use the technology in the Galaxy S11 still remains to be seen.

In case you don’t know it already, Samsung last month announced the new 108MP ISOCELL Bright HMX sensor that it claimed is the world’s first mobile image sensor to go beyond 100 megapixels. The 0.8μm image sensor comes with a large 1/1.33-inch size, which lets it absorb more light than standard sensors in low-lit settings, resulting in better images in the dark. Its pixel-merging ‘Tetracell’ technology also allows it to imitate big-pixel sensors, producing brighter 27MP images.