LG Innotek saw a lot of various innovations unveiled for the world to see. One, in particular, struck a chord with us: the company’s latest Optical Telephoto Zoom Camera Module promises enhanced optical zoom capabilities on LG systems while removing that camera bump. While they might not be present in the smartphone game anymore, providing camera parts for others is still good business.
Why did this product even come to fruition? It’s become quite obvious that camera bumps on smartphones have become increasingly sizeable as the years have passed. While most don’t mind the fact that it takes a lot of rear panel real estate, the main issue lies in laying the device down on a table. It spins around like a top and even sometimes moves out of balance just because of that protruding bulge. Let’s not forget to mention the scratches that develop on the lens due to it being the first point of contact for the device on any surface. That affects picture quality over time.
With this LG movement to remove the camera bump, these issues might just be a thing of the past. The Optical Telephoto Zoom Camera Module integrates telescopic camera technologies from DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. All that means is it can now offer 4 to 9x optical zoom. You might be thinking: “Optical Zoom isn’t new in smartphones!” You’d be correct to think that. However, similar technologies such as the one seen in the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra only do digital zoom from 3x until 10x when it switches to another Optical Zoom sensor.
That means, let’s say an 8x shot is only a 3x shot but cropped. That leads to the unfortunate but inevitable loss of detail. With its new technology, LG aims to eliminate both the camera bump issue on smartphones as well as this resolution issue within the 4x to 9x range.
It looks like we’ll be learning more about this new lens during January’s CES unveiling. We’re looking forward to seeing how it’ll be optimized with the latest chipsets and which devices will be carrying this technology. People might doubt a flat camera bump at first, but the eventual gains once proven to be on par with, if not superior to current flagship cameras are massive.
