Miss the S23 Ultra’s 10x camera? This brand could revive it (and then some)

Samsung made a splash with 2021’s Galaxy S21 Ultra, being among the first phone makers to offer a 10x periscope camera. We haven’t seen a phone with a 10x camera in a few years, but it looks like a rival manufacturer might offer this tech.

Regular leaker Digital Chat Station has hinted on Weibo that a next-generation flagship phone could adopt a 200MP periscope camera and a 50MP ~10x periscope camera. The leaker has frequently used this red emoji for OPPO-related leaks, which means this new claim applies to an upcoming OPPO Find series flagship.

Digital Chat Station said the 200MP zoom camera would have a large sensor size while the 10x camera would feature a small sensor. This wouldn’t be a surprise as a 10x periscope camera requires plenty of room, leaving virtually no space for a large sensor.

A big step forward for smartphone zoom?

If confirmed, this means the OPPO phone would have the most advanced zoom cameras on the market. We’ve seen vivo, Xiaomi, and HONOR all offering 200MP periscope cameras before, but we haven’t seen a 10x periscope camera since the Galaxy S23 Ultra. And we haven’t seen a 50MP 10x camera at all.

A 50MP 10x camera would also theoretically be capable of 20x shots at lossless resolution, delivering a hitherto unseen level of zoom quality for a conventional smartphone. We’ve also seen OPPO and Xiaomi offering AI zoom tech to spruce up images, with mostly good results. The combo of a 50MP 10x camera and similar AI zoom software suggests solid picture quality beyond 20x in some situations. In fact, our own testing reveals that the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s aging 10x camera can still beat the vivo X200 Pro’s 200MP telephoto camera in a few scenarios.

We really hope this rumored phone comes to global markets if it actually has a 10x camera. But we don’t have high hopes as none of OPPO’s previous Ultra phones have launched outside China.