Samsung Galaxy Note 8 camera said to come with 12 MP and 13 MP lenses, 2x optical zoom

LG may not be the only manufacturer aiming to deliver impressive camera quality in its next flagship. While the South Korean manufacturer gears up to release a phone with the largest ever smartphone camera sensor, that being the LG V30 with its f/1.6 aperture lens, its rival Samsung could be readying a serious camera upgrade of its own.

It has been rumored that the Galaxy Note 8 would arrive with a dual rear camera setup — which would make it the first major flagship Samsung smartphone to do so — and yesterday, Korean news website ETNews offered further speculation as to what this could include.

Citing industry sources, ETNews suggests that the Note 8 cameras would come with a 12 MP optical lens with dual-image pixel sensor (the tech first introduced with Samsung’s Galaxy S7 series) and a 13 MP telephoto lens. These would include optical image stabilization (OIS) and support 2x optical zoom.

Optical zoom has been popping up more frequently on phones thanks to dual-lens technology, and it’s generally preferred to digital zoom as it doesn’t lose the same kind of quality when applied. Digitally zoomed images often look pixelated and noisier than optically zoomed images — the reasons for which you can learn more about in this explainer article.

This is only speculation for now, and it’s not known whether Samsung would target a complete optical zoom function like on the iPhone 7 Plus, or if this would be some form of “lossless” zoom like the OnePlus 5 solution, but we presume the former (note that neither of these techniques works in the same way as the physical zoom function of DSLR cameras, which utilize moving parts).

ETNews also says that the introduction of the dual lens Galaxy Note 8 setup will kick-start Samsung’s implementation of it on other devices. “[Samsung] is basically looking to replace cameras of entirety [sic] of its smartphones with dual cameras,” wrote ETnews in its report. The presence of dual cameras on the upcoming Galaxy S9 looks highly likely at this point.

Are you happy with the direction Samsung is taking with the Note 8? Let us know in the comments.