Samsung is working on a genuine continuous optical zoom camera for smartphones, but it’s not something Galaxy owners can expect to experience ahead of time. Samsung Electro-Mechanics is developing the module for Samsung Electronics and is making them by the order of Chinese clients, reported The Elec, which cited sources who are close to the matter. The move indicates a strategic rollout that favors fast adopters in China, where camera innovation tends to hit first.
Why continuous zoom matters
Most phones use fixed telephoto lenses — 3x or 5x, say — and then lean on digital zoom to paper over the gaps. It’s also why your photos at 3x are often quite crisp, while those at 4x or 6x can wobble in detail and consistency. Internal elements of a continuous optical zoom lens are translated in order to achieve optical resolution throughout a zoom range like a compact camera. The payoff is sharpness and cleaner detail and smoother transitions for video that doesn’t have the jolt effect of the quality suddenly taking a step up or down between focal lengths.
3x to 8x (as floated by the industry sources) would in practical terms cover the majority of mid-to-long telephoto scenarios in a single module. This also minimizes the need for computational crutches at “in-between” focal lengths, which can lead to artifacts, noise and replica textures, particularly in low light.
Who will get it first — and why
The Elec references several industry sources who claim that Samsung Electro-Mechanics will deliver to a particular Chinese OEM before any expansive availability to Chinese brands, never mind integration with a Galaxy.
That fits a recent pattern: Chinese flagships from companies like OnePlus and Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi have been among the first to market with aggressive camera hardware — periscope lenses, gimbal-style stabilization, large primary sensors — because of the faster design cycles and appetite for headline-grabbing features you get in a market as frenetic as smartphone hardware.
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The technical trade-offs
It is hard to have continuous zoom in a phone. Mobile groups of lenses, folded optics, and tight tolerances put new demands on actuators and alignment. The optical image stabilization has to be added as well without causing wobble or decentering as parts move. And all of that has to fit in the z-height budget of a modern flagship camera island—while dealing with heat and power draw during extended video zoom.
Sony is still the poster child for commercialized variable telephoto. Its Xperia 1 series utilise a periscope that is up to 85–170mm (about 3.5x–7. 1x), for steadier zooming and constant angle of view in video. The trade-offs have been apparent: smaller 12MP sensors in these modules can run into noise and background-separation issues vs. big-sensor, high-resolution fixed telephotos. Certainly, the mechanism offered provides a solution that does not have to be solved.
LG Innotek has demonstrated a 4x–9x optical zoom module, representing where the industry expects performance to fall. To achieve this type of range, vendors rely on next-gen voice-coil or ball guide actuators and folded lens stacks, often combined with precision OIS components from specialists like Korea’s Jahwa Electronics. For Samsung Electro-Mechanics, the trick will be in balancing range, optical quality, sensor size, and profile more effectively than those initial-wave solutions.
What it means for Galaxy purchasers
Near-term You’re not likely to see the first telescopic zoom on a Galaxy flagship. I would expect Samsung and others to continue evolving dual-telephoto strategies (3x plus a longer step, for instance) and rely more on in-senor crop, multi-frame fusion and AI upscaling to fill the spaces in between. That approach has come a long way, but it’s still no match for real optical resolution across the range of focal lengths.
When and if the continuous module does arrive on Galaxy, it might streamline the camera array and get rid of those “dead zones” where images lose quality. The hitch is packaging: If the module means a smaller sensor than today’s fixed telephotos, Samsung may wait for a second-gen design with a larger imager and tighter fusion for OIS.
The competitive picture
Zooming is a headline spec that sells handsets at the fancy end, and rivals will not stand still. Whoever does end up being first to market with Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ continuous zoom will have the kind of marketing win you just can’t fake with a spec race, and the resulting video zoom smoothness will be the new bar everyone else tries to match. For Samsung the math is familiar: come later but with a better version, or race to parity to take the wind out of the narrative.
One way or another, the direction of travel is clear. With the likes of suppliers Samsung Electro-Mechanics and LG Innotek having committed to high performing zoom modules for the years to come and Sony already having shown that the concept is viable in a consumer phone, the days of “good at 3x, not so good at 4x” are numbered. The only thing left unresolved is who’s going to hit that sweet spot of range, sensor size, and thinness and when — and if Galaxy’s chance will come after the tech has made its international debut.