The new iPhone 12 promises many welcome Upgrades, from 5G connectivity and a faster A14 Bionic processor to longer battery life. But there’s one feature I like that Apple stole from the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra: Space Zoom.
Before writing this off as a gimmick, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra’s Space Zoom impressed me when I tested Samsung’s new phone. The telephoto lens has an optical zoom range of 5x and it has a digital zoom up to 50x.
By comparison, the current iPhone 11 Pro has a 2x telephoto zoom and 10x digital zoom, and it has been rumored that the iPhone 12 Pro will maximize with a 3x optical zoom. There have been no credible rumors yet about the digital zoom for this flagship.
The power of 50x zoom. It’s kind of scary. # GalaxyNote20Ultra pic.twitter.com/LpGPCuzyzGAugust 18, 2020
If these leaks are true, Samsung should have a big advantage on the front of the camera. Just look how close I could zoom in on the sign above for a fish market from across a major road. It’s so good it’s awful.
Kneading the 50x zoom shot was tricky because this zoom level introduced a ridiculous amount of camera shake. But the 10x and 20x zoom shots yielded remarkable results.
Here is another example of Space Zoom in action, as you will see in the gallery below. I zoomed in on a tree from the completely opposite side of the garden. When I zoomed in, I was able to figure out the details in the bar, such as the hanging flower baskets, wine bell and birdhouse.
Since the iPhone 11 Pro Max maximizes at 10x digital zoom, I set it up against the hybrid zoom on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra in a nearby park.
As you can see in this photo of a stream, Samsung’s camera provides a much sharper image. The result of the iPhone is fuzier, which is to be expected. The image of the Note 20 is not perfect because it highlights some of the highlights lit by the sun, but overall it is clearly the superior shot.
The process of zooming in on the Note 20 Ultra is also pretty smooth. You just press the zoom button and it jumps you to 5x, and from there you can choose 10x, 20x or 50x. Or you can return it to 4x.
In July, we heard that Apple could set up suppliers of periscope lenses – by 2022. That means we should not expect a powerful optical zoom for the iPhone 12 and maybe not even the iPhone 13. I hope these reports are not true, because now I tried the Space Zoom on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, I do not want to give it up.
