Samsung is rumored to be working on a variable zoom camera with plans to debut it with the Galaxy S24 Ultra early next year. The 2024 flagship will reportedly offer optical zoom at all magnification levels between 3X and 10X. Amid these rumors, the company has applied for trademarks for a couple of new camera sensors: ISOCELL Zoom and ISOCELL Zoom Pro. These appear to be new types of zoom cameras that we haven’t seen before from the Korean firm.
Samsung may be readying advanced smartphone zoom cameras
Samsung filed these trademark applications with the UK Intellectual Property Office on April 26. Spotted by GalaxyClub, the documents describe the products as camera sensors. The ISOCELL branding is already enough to tell that anyways. However, the use of “Zoom” and “Pro” as suffixes to ISOCELL is fascinating. The Korean behemoth never named its cameras that way. ISOCELL is usually followed by sensor identifiers such as HP2 (Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 200MP camera) and GN3 (Galaxy Z Fold 4’s 50MP camera).
This suggests Samsung is readying something new here. The ISOCELL Zoom and ISOCELL Zoom Pro could be advanced zoom cameras for upcoming Galaxy smartphones. In September last year, a patent application from the company described a zoom lens with sensor-shift stabilization. However, Samsung continued to rely on OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) in the Galaxy S23 series. The ISOCELL Zoom or ISOCELL Zoom Pro could bring sensor-shift stabilization to the Galaxy S24 series next year.
Unfortunately, that’s just speculation for now. As said earlier, Samsung is also expected to offer variable zoom on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. It currently uses Sony sensors for zoom cameras on its flagships. The company may now be looking to switch to an in-house ISOCELL lens as it upgrades to variable zoom. The ISOCELL Zoom or ISOCELL Zoom Pro could be that lens. Samsung’s compatriot LG also recently announced a smartphone camera with continuous optical zoom capabilities between 4X and 9X magnification levels.
Samsung usually doesn’t use its latest camera innovations in Galaxy devices. It sells first-gen solutions to other brands and takes time to improve the sensor before shipping it to Galaxy customers. Time will tell whether the company continues this practice with these mysterious “zoom” cameras that it has filed trademarks for. In that case, the ISOCELL Zoom or ISOCELL Zoom Pro or both should debut inside non-Samsung phones ahead of the Galaxy S24 series. The next-gen Samsung flagships will arrive in the first quarter of 2024.
2023-04-28 15:07:25