I tried Samsung’s superzoom and this is what I came up with

Just a preliminary note: The test report of Samsung’s brand new Galaxy S24 Ultra will follow in a few days. The new AI features alone would easily fill an article of their own. Today it will only be about the camera, namely the zoom. Why? Almost all smartphones nowadays can take nice photos – at least in good lighting conditions. As is known, a weak point of many smartphones is the zoom lens.

A year ago, mobile phone zoom shots with the Galaxy S23 Ultra reached a level of quality previously unheard of. So does the new Galaxy also have a major impact in this category?

Let’s let the pictures speak for themselves (you’re only here for the fetuses anyway).

If you don’t have curtains yet, now is the time to get some.

Behind it, hard to see, is a striking building.

The 30x zoom helps here too!

The high-rise building is located in Bülach.

Anyone who lives this high has plenty of privacy. Or?

We continue to Zurich: Oerlikon now has a small skyline.

The optical 5x zoom makes it stand out better.

And if you want to know exactly: yes, the Credit Suisse logo is still there.

Zurich’s most famous fireplace is located right next to Watson’s command center. Thanks to AI superzoom, we finally know what it looks like on top.

There is a…

Barely visible to the naked eye: the pigeons are sunbathing on the roof.

There is certainly something tasty for those with a sweet tooth, but what exactly?

And what’s in the coffee bar?

Understood!

This also shows that at 30x magnification the quality deteriorates, but the image remains usable.

This poster hangs about 150 meters away. But what does it say there?

Ah, the competition advertises their portrait photos (as the 10x zoom shows)

The iPhone takes flawless portraits, but the Galaxy zooms better. Samsung’s AI-powered 30x zoom lens does a good job.

Sounds good.

And finally back to the church in Schwellbrunn.

Overall, the S24 Ultra’s telephoto cameras deliver very good results, even at tenx magnification.

And even a zoom level of 30x can produce useful results.

However, the maximum 100x zoom remains a gimmick. The quality is almost always incredible. For once, things look good here.

Does the Galaxy S24 Ultra zoom better than the S23 Ultra?

That depends on which area you zoom in on.

Samsung has replaced the 10 megapixel telephoto camera with 10x optical zoom in the S23 Ultra with a 50 megapixel telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom in the S24 Ultra. What remains is the second telephoto camera for the triple optical zoom. What seems like a deterioration on paper is actually an advantage for most users in everyday life.

The reason: the Galaxy S24 Ultra zooms slightly better than the S23 Ultra in the medium, commonly used zoom range between five and ten times magnification – especially in low light. This is mainly because the new 5x telephoto camera was combined with a significantly better and larger sensor (50 megapixels, ƒ/3.4).

Of course, not using the 10x optical zoom also has disadvantages: at high zoom levels of more than 10x magnification – which are rarely used in everyday life – the older S23 Ultra with the 10x optics has a slight advantage. The S24 Ultra should work with the 5x optic here. As you can see, Samsung can compensate for this disadvantage with the larger 50 megapixel sensor. The image is cropped at high zoom levels, which produces surprisingly good results thanks to the high-resolution sensor and plenty of AI optimization.

A detailed zoom comparison between the Galaxy S24 Ultra and S23 Ultra can be found here.

The most important technical data for the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra