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100x zoom is pointless, and it looks like Samsung might agree with Note 20

Samsung's Galaxy S20 Ultra touted 100x zoom, but it was useless for the most part.
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Published onMay 20, 2020

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra space zoom 1

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra had arguably the best camera specs on paper in 2020, featuring a 108MP main camera and a 48MP 4x periscope camera.

In fact, Samsung touted a 100x “Space Zoom” feature on the device, claiming 100x zoom. Now, frequent leaker Ice Universe has tweeted that the Galaxy Note 20 series won’t offer this feature.

Note20 series no longer retains 100X zoom function
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) May 19, 2020

We can’t say we’ll miss 100x Space Zoom, because it was essentially digital zoom anyway. In fact, we thought it was pointless in our Galaxy S20 Ultra review.

“No matter what I was shooting, there was never a scenario where the 100x shot turned out well,” said Android Authority‘s Eric Zeman in his review, saying that 30x zoom shots churned out better results.

Don't believe what smartphone manufacturers tell you about zoom
Features
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra camera module 1

Samsung isn’t the only company to offer a crazy zoom factor on paper that’s mostly useless in practice. We’ve also seen the likes of HUAWEI offer 50x zoom on its P30 Pro, also being more in line with a digital crop. So hopefully we see companies dial back on this in favor of improving their hybrid zoom capabilities.

There’s no word on the Galaxy Note 20 Plus zoom capabilities though, but the phone is rumored to offer a 108MP main camera, and a sensor to improve autofocus. You can check out more Note 20-related articles via the list below.

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