Samsung inexplicably continues to find ways to enhance its flagship phone's imaging hardware each year, and the Galaxy S21 appears to continue that tradition, perhaps with a new 180-megapixel primary sensor and 10x folded optical zoom

The report comes from Korean tech publication The Elec (via WCCFTech), which says the next Galaxy S flagship will feature a quad-lens camera system However, unlike Samsung's quad-lens systems of the past, this system will remove the time-of-flight sensor (which we have heard about before) and add a second telephoto in its place

In theory, if Samsung were to achieve 10x optical zoom with a telephoto lens, a second, lower-powered telephoto would be needed for cases where 10x would be overkill Therefore, The Elec reports that the S21 could have two telephoto lenses, one at 3x and the other at 10x, perhaps with Samsung's software algorithms, like Google's Super Res Zoom technology made famous by the Pixel devices, to step these The image is probably cleaned up in between these steps

According to rumors, the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max will feature a telephoto lens along with a revolutionary LiDAR sensor that will help with everything from portraits and autofocus to low-light performance However, optical zoom is said to be up to 2x or 3x

And of course, there's the 180-megapixel sensor, not a lock for the Galaxy S21 Ultra as WCCFTech points out, SamMobile supports the theory that Samsung will continue to use a 108MP primary sensor in future high-end flagships It seems to be in favor of the theory that Samsung will continue to use a 108MP primary sensor in future high-end flagships

Given SamMobile's reliable track record on Galaxy leaks, and especially given that Samsung has just found a way to make the most of its sensor in the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, 180 megapixels really seems like overkill! Given that it seems likely that this technology will be shelved in the future

A mobile imaging sensor with a few hundred megapixels may sound impressive on paper, but the law of diminishing returns certainly applies The more pixels there are in an image sensor, the smaller those pixels must be (as is the case with cell phone sensors) due to space constraints The smaller the pixels, the less light reaches the sensor, and as any photographer knows, low light is the enemy of image quality

This is exactly why Apple and Google are sticking with 12MP lenses in their class-leading cameras, even though companies like Sony and Samsung are producing 48+ megapixel sensors

Even with such a pixel-rich sensor, the standard practice is to combine these pixels with a Bayer filter The main advantage of the 108MP sensor in the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Galaxy S20 Ultra is the freedom to crop the image after it is taken But even then, according to our tests, a significant amount of ambient light is required

Outside of camera technology, The Elec reports that the Galaxy S21 Ultra has an internal codename of "Palette," which is believed to be a reference to the rumored S Pen support It is unclear if this support means the inclusion of the S Pen or simply support for the S Pen on the side If the former scenario materializes, it could spell the end of the Galaxy Note series If the latter, the Note could live another year