In the current smartphone megapixel race, Samsung is leading with its 200-megapixel ISOCELL sensors that are used on the Galaxy S23 Ultra (HP2), HONOR 90 (HP3), and Redmi Note 12 Pro+ (HPX). A common denominator among the phones mentioned is that they use a 200-megapixel sensor for the main camera. Samsung thinks that its 200-megapixel sensors can also be utilized for telephoto cameras–and boldly claims that it will be the next smartphone trend.

In an article it released, Samsung explained that brands are utilizing its 200-megapixel sensors as a “telephoto” camera of sorts with 2x and 4x digital zoom. Given the sensor size, phones can opt for pixel binning to produce a high-quality photo even with using digital zoom.

Samsung even claims that a 200-megapixel sensor with 4x in-sensor zoom can beat an 11-megapixel sensor with 3x optical zoom and 1.3x digital zoom.

Those are bold claims from Samsung, but we do understand that 200-megapixel sensors have not yet reached their full potential at this point. In fact, one of Samsung’s proposed ideas is to put a 200-megapixel sensor behind a 3x optical telephoto lens to let phones have better zooming capabilities with 6x and 12x digital zoom.

Both the ISOCELL HP2 and HP3 are capable of doing this theoretically with their sensor size (1/1.3″ and 1/1.4″ respectively) and their features that include a 4×4 TetraPixel arrangement and advanced autofocus and HDR algorithms.

The push for using 200-megapixel sensors for telephoto cameras is also justified by the trend of phones pushing for portrait photography. Aside from eliminating distortion on faces when using a telephoto, this approach also gives a better out-of-focus effect that emphasizes the subject better compared to using a regular 24mm lens that’s found on most main cameras of phones today.

“Upgrading the size and capabilities of the telephoto image sensor not only allows users to maintain shooting scenarios close to those of wide sensors but also has the added benefit of providing better out-focusing for portrait photography,” Samsung explained in its article.

Overall, Samsung’s proposal to use a 200-megapixel sensor for telephoto cameras is promising–but we have yet to see any smartphone brand go for this approach. So far, we’ve heard rumors about vivo’s X100 Pro+ having a 200-megapixel telephoto camera with 10x optical zoom, though we’re not sure if they will also use a Samsung sensor.