Vivo Just Set The Telephoto Standard — Can The S24 Ultra Keep Up?
The launch of the Galaxy S24 series is just days away and with it comes the S24 Ultra, Samsung's ubiquitous dance flagship for 2024. It's almost guaranteed to have Samsung's best camera, and it should be better. There is a lot of competition for the Google Pixel 8 Pro in this category.
At least that's what happened in America. The big Chinese smartphone manufacturers always have a few extras in store for buyers around the world, and the Vivo X100 Pro, launched in December, has set the bar pretty high for smartphone photography this generation. The only question right now is whether Samsung has something that can compete with Vivo's excellent offering - especially when it comes to telephoto lenses.
If you don't know Vivo, it is one of the largest manufacturers in the Chinese and Asian markets with limited expansion in Europe. Thanks to its long-standing partnership with lens manufacturer Zeiss, the camera is best known for its exceptional photographic performance on the flagship X series phones.
The X100 Pro is no exception. It features a triple rear camera system, with each of the three sensors offering 50MP resolution.
I spent most of December visiting my partner's family in Macau and China and couldn't be happier with the X100 Pro during the trip. Whether I'm showing off casino signs in Macau, views of snow-capped mountains in northern China, or endless food shots, wherever I go, Vivo delivers every time.
The main camera is impressive and is powered by Sony's popular 1-inch IMX989 sensor, which can capture more light than smaller sensors, allowing the phone to produce light in low-light conditions. The ultra-wide-angle camera is also impressive, as it can keep up with the main camera in terms of the number of pixels and a relatively large f/2.0 aperture.
Both do an excellent job at low-light photography, especially when it comes to dynamic range. They capture bright moments without flare or blur while preserving details in the dark. Each will compete against the Pixel 8 Pro or the corresponding S23 Ultra. But that doesn't make the X100 Pro special - or a contender for Samsung's upcoming flagship.
Ultra phones have always had a number of advantages, including their larger size, S Pen support and superior cameras. But since launching the first S20 Ultra four years ago, Samsung has put a little more emphasis on the phone's telephoto capabilities, starting with the first phone's impressive - if unreliable - 100x "space zoom."
Leaks suggest the same thing will happen this year. While the S24 Ultra's main and ultra-wide-angle lenses are the same as the 2023 version, the company has updated the telephoto lens, switching to a pair of 3x and 5x zoom lenses. The latter may seem like a step down from the S23 Ultra's 10x periscope, but the resolution will increase to a much larger 50MP, and if it has a larger aperture and wider sensor, it could be a significant improvement.
However, it is not yet clear whether this will be enough to outperform Samsung's flagship product. Oppo made headlines this week when it announced the Find
With a 4.3x zoom equivalent to a focal length of 100mm, the X100 Pro's single telephoto lens sits between the S23 Ultra's 3x and 10x lenses. Still, it has the same 100x digital zoom as Samsung and, more importantly, it looks great every step of the way.
This is thanks in part to advanced stabilization technology, which makes images stable and detailed, especially in low-light conditions where most telephoto shots tend to be difficult. Note the sharp edges of the neon lights in these 4.3x magnification night shots, where you can see every detail of every light and the dim exterior of the building, but the night sky is pitch black.
More importantly, the zoom lens can change its focus point while producing beautiful bokeh. This means it can do double duty as a macro shooter, but also when framing an image you can choose exactly where to focus and decide whether to blur the background or foreground using an additional slider in the main interface . This allows you to adjust the focus manually and precisely.
The best example is these two shots, taken with a 4.3x telephoto lens from exactly the same location, but with focus selection on each of the two plates in turn. In particular, note that in the second image, the background outside the frame is still blurred, even though the background field is the focus point. This puts the focus not only far away, but exactly where I want it, exactly where I want it before and after. It gradually faded
Don't get me wrong, this isn't a perfect camera. As you can see in the image above, the focus shift directly affects the brightness and the sensor sometimes fails. Sometimes the images are too dark and warm, especially in indoor lighting - the yellow tones sometimes appear stretched.
Although it is the best telephoto lens I have ever used on a phone. It's so good that I often use the telephoto lens on the main sensor and rearrange shots with that lens instead of just using a regular camera. It doesn't make sense, it never happened. No other phone has a TV camera that can match the main camera on a phone with this level of performance.
All three lenses are powered by the Vivo V3 chip, which works in tandem with the MediaTek Dimensity 9300 chip that handles the processing. The Dimension chip is perhaps the phone's biggest weakness - mainly due to generally poor battery life - but damn it.
We'll have to wait a week to find out what Samsung brings with the S24 Ultra, but Vivo has already thrown down the gauntlet, and its sister company Oppo isn't far behind. Samsung has to give everything if it doesn't want to give up.
