For most people, smartphones have all but replaced the standalone DSLR camera for photos, in the same way that nobody really carries around an MP3 player anymore. But the upshot of this is that phones look increasingly silly, with three or more lenses crudely stuck on top of a hump that gets larger and more ridiculous with every hardware advance.
So you’d be right to be wary that Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra is rumoured to pack a faintly ridiculous 200-megapixel camera inside. The leaker Ice Universe has said he’s “almost 100% sure” that the sensor will be “an unreleased HP2” — the ISOCELL HP series of 200MP sensors, and this was backed up by the Korean outlet ET News this week.
But if you’re now worrying about a matchbox-sized camera hump sticking out the back of the S23 Ultra, you can apparently rest easy. Ice Universe popped up again this week with reassurances that the handset’s dimensions will be remarkably similar to the current flagship.
We’re apparently looking at “an increase of 0.1~0.2mm”, and that’s not actually on the thickness. Rather than hedging his bets, Ice Universe then goes on to bind himself to exact figures — the S23 Ultra will be 163.4 x 78.1 x8.9 mm, barely changed from the 163.3 x 77.9 x 8.9 mm of its predecessor.
The other specs the leaker shared are all a lot more predictable — the kind of thing you’d guess even if you didn’t have any insider knowledge. We’re looking at a 5,000mAh battery, a 6.8in, 3,088 x 1,440 screen and — shock horror — Qualcomm’s next chipset (the awkwardly named Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.)
We’re not expecting this handset — or any of the S23 range — for quite a while, of course. The last Galaxy S flagships only came out in February, but with the company’s foldables done for 2022 (and possibly less popular in 2023) Samsung is preparing to turn its attention back to the classics.