The Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus is hogging all the limelight right now even though there is still some time before its release. Samsung’s upcoming flagship is in the news not only for its expected features, but for the five cameras that it is expected to come with. With the next iPhone also rumored to sport more than three cameras, it will surely be an interesting battle between the two arch-rivals.
Five cameras of Galaxy S10 Plus
Rumors are that Samsung would launch three variations of the Galaxy S10 models. There would be an entry-level S10, a larger phablet, and a third one that would fit somewhere in the middle of the phone and a phablet.
The claim regarding the five cameras of Galaxy S10 Plus came from a South Korean website – The Bell. The website claims that the five cameras of Galaxy S10 Plus would be mighty enough to blow users minds. The phone is expected to have dual front facing cameras and three rear cameras notching up the total count to five cameras.
About the three rear cameras, The Bell says that one would have a variable aperture, the second a super-wide-angle lens, and the third a telephoto lens. Previous reports hinted that the main camera would be 12-megapixels with f/1.5 to f/2.4 variable aperture, while the second one will be a 16-megapixel super-wide-angle lens at f/1.9 aperture. The third camera would be a zoom lens with a 13-megapixel sensor and f/2.4 aperture.
Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus’ main camera would be placed in the middle, the super-wide-angle lens to the right and the zoom lens on the left. Further, it is believed that the wide-angle lens may not get autofocus or OIS.
According to the report, the front-facing camera setup on the new Galaxy S10 Plus could be similar to what we’ve already seen on the Galaxy A8 smartphone which launched earlier this year. It will apparently have a standard camera sensor and a secondary telephoto sensor that would enable Portrait Mode selfies with a blurred background, similar to photos captured with a DSLR. It’s the same effect that was first introduced by Apple on the iPhone 7 Plus in 2016, and has been used on dozens of Android phones since then.
What is Apple doing to retain supremacy?
It is only natural to compare Samsung’s upcoming lineup with that of Apple, even though nothing specific is known about the upcoming phones. A report from Korea’s ET News claims that the upcoming iPhone may have three cameras. The third camera would be used for the augmented-reality purpose. Further, the report says that the camera setup would be more advanced even when compared to the TrueCamera system on the front-side of the iPhone X.
Jesset Taunch Chippak Korea (JSCK), a Korean investment company in China is rumored to be developing the additional camera sensor that would be used for sensing 3D space. The company is expected to wrap up the development early next year, and prepare for mass production somewhere in the second-quarter. For the camera module, Apple is currently dependent on other suppliers including LG Innotek.
Even before the report from Korea’s ET News, there have been rumors and speculations about Apple working on a triple camera phone. In April, Taiwanese publication Economic Daily News stated that the next iPhone would include a trio of 12MP rear lenses in addition to the 5x optical zoom.
Then, there was a report from Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co. analyst Jeff Pu suggesting that the California-based company would launch a new iPhone with a triple camera setup in the second-half of next year. A Bloomberg report last year claimed that Apple is planning to add a 3D sensor to at least one iPhone model in 2019 for augmented-reality capabilities.
Who will win?
On just comparing the number of cameras that Samsung and Apple are speculated to fit in their upcoming smartphones, the South Korean giant probably wins. However, the quantity of cameras is no guarantee of the quality of the image, and Google’s Pixel phones prove this well. Also, Apple seems to have an edge in the camera quality department over the rivals.
Recently, Apple advertised the iPhone X camera as capable of taking studio quality portraits. After a brief tussle with two complainants over the claim made, Apple got a green chit from the Advertising Standard Authority (ASA). The agency stated that the iPhone maker can use the term “Standard Quality Portraits” for the advertising of the iPhone X.
The obsession of the phone makers with the camera is understandable. It is the camera features that give an edge to their differentiation claims as every other feature can be found in a dozen other phones in the same range. Moreover, several new features such as slow motion videos are not used much by the customers.
Users need something unique in terms of features to pay the insane amount of money for the expensive phones from Samsung or Apple. Thus, smartphone makers see better or even more cameras resulting in more sales. With this backdrop, it would be interesting to see whether or not the five cameras of Galaxy S10 Plus are enough to dominate Apple’s camera tech.
