Latest news with #camera
GSM Arena
14 hours ago
- Business
- GSM Arena
vivo X200 Ultra review
You can't have it, so that's why you want it, right? Well, no - we know we'll want the vivo X200 Ultra because of its camera greatness, just like we did with the X100 Ultra before. Not being able to have it isn't remotely part of its appeal - all it is, is one the world's most unfortunate enduring injustices. On the X200 Ultra, vivo has decided to swap out the 1-inch main camera for a smaller-sensor one - the 1/1.28" optical format of the new imager is a bit of a downgrade. To make up for that, the company has chosen to pair it with a 35mm equivalent lens - not the most popular choice, so far almost an exclusive territory for nubia's camera efforts. It could be an attempt at misdirection by vivo so that we shift our focus away from the smaller sensor, though they just might be on to something with that focal length. A proper upgrade can be seen on the ultrawide camera. It's another unit of the same sensor that is used here as well, replacing the 1/2.0" imager in the old model's setup. The 200MP 1/1.4" sensor on the 85mm telephoto didn't really call for an upgrade so it's been kept the same. It's really more like three 'main' cameras on the back of this Ultra, joined by one of the better specced selfie cameras in the industry. There are a handful of other changes, none of them all too surprising. This year's most powerful Snapdragon replaces last year's and there's a minor battery capacity increase. And that's mostly it, in fact. Well, that, and a new Photography kit - an optional accessory that includes a dedicated case with a battery grip and a telephoto extender lens. We'll give that one a look too. vivo X200 Ultra specs at a glance: Body: 163.1x76.8x8.7mm, 229g; Glass front, glass back, aluminum frame; IP69/IP68 dust tight and water resistant (immersible up to 1.5m for 30 min). 163.1x76.8x8.7mm, 229g; Glass front, glass back, aluminum frame; IP69/IP68 dust tight and water resistant (immersible up to 1.5m for 30 min). Display: 6.82" LTPO AMOLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, Dolby Vision, HDR Vivid, 4500 nits (peak), 1440x3168px resolution, 19.8:9 aspect ratio, 510ppi. 6.82" LTPO AMOLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, Dolby Vision, HDR Vivid, 4500 nits (peak), 1440x3168px resolution, 19.8:9 aspect ratio, 510ppi. Chipset: Qualcomm SM8750-AB Snapdragon 8 Elite (3 nm): Octa-core (2x4.32 GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix L + 6x3.53 GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix M); Adreno 830. Qualcomm SM8750-AB Snapdragon 8 Elite (3 nm): Octa-core (2x4.32 GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix L + 6x3.53 GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix M); Adreno 830. Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM, 1TB 16GB RAM; UFS 4.1. 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM, 1TB 16GB RAM; UFS 4.1. OS/Software: Android 15, OriginOS 5. Android 15, OriginOS 5. Rear camera: Wide (main) : 50 MP, f/1.7, 35mm, 1/1.28", 1.22µm, dual pixel PDAF, gimbal OIS; Telephoto : 200 MP, f/2.3, 85mm, 1/1.4", 0.56µm, multi-directional PDAF, OIS, 3.7x optical zoom, macro 3.4:1; optional add-on 2.35x teleconverter lens; Ultra wide angle : 50 MP, f/2.0, 14mm, 116˚, 1/1.28", 1.22µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS. : 50 MP, f/1.7, 35mm, 1/1.28", 1.22µm, dual pixel PDAF, gimbal OIS; : 200 MP, f/2.3, 85mm, 1/1.4", 0.56µm, multi-directional PDAF, OIS, 3.7x optical zoom, macro 3.4:1; optional add-on 2.35x teleconverter lens; : 50 MP, f/2.0, 14mm, 116˚, 1/1.28", 1.22µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS. Front camera: 50 MP, f/2.5, 24mm (wide), 1/2.76", 0.64µm, AF. 50 MP, f/2.5, 24mm (wide), 1/2.76", 0.64µm, AF. Video capture: Rear camera : 8K@30fps, 4K@30/60/120fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps, gyro-EIS, Dolby Vision HDR, 10-bit Log, HDR10+; Front camera : 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps. : 8K@30fps, 4K@30/60/120fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps, gyro-EIS, Dolby Vision HDR, 10-bit Log, HDR10+; : 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps. Battery: 6000mAh; 90W wired, PD, PPS, QC, UFCS, 40W wireless, Reverse wired, Reverse wireless. 6000mAh; 90W wired, PD, PPS, QC, UFCS, 40W wireless, Reverse wired, Reverse wireless. Connectivity: 5G; Wi-Fi 7; BT 5.4, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, LHDC 5; NFC; Infrared port. 5G; Wi-Fi 7; BT 5.4, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, LHDC 5; NFC; Infrared port. Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, ultrasonic); stereo speakers; Emergency SOS via satellite (calls, messages) - 16GB + 1TB model only. vivo X200 Ultra unboxing The X200 Ultra's presentation is no different from any other high-end vivo from recent years. The squarish graphite-colored cardboard box holds the usual stuff too, the Chinese market being perfectly okay with having one charger per phone, unlike some other jurisdictions. Indeed, the package contains an adapter rated for 90W, and a USB-A-to-C cable to go with it. Also included is a soft matte silicone case in a color to match the phone's own colorway. Page 2
Phone Arena
15 hours ago
- Business
- Phone Arena
Sony Xperia 1 VII review: great hardware...
Another year rolls by, another new Xperia comes out to try its hand in the high-end smartphone market. The Sony Xperia 1 VII continues the valued tradition of Xperia phones — high-end camera specs, slim body, and no hardware element omitted. The good old headphone jack is still here, the microSD card slot is not a thing of the past, and the true zoom camera is even zoomier. Alongside some camera upgrades, we have the new Snapdragon chip — of course — and the return of fan-favorite hardware shutter button. There is some bad news, though. For one, the Xperia 1 VII is not coming to the States. Secondly, it's pretty pricey wherever it does launch. In Europe, it'll cost you €1,499 — that's a big bill! Is it worth it? The Sony Xperia 1 VII scores pretty well for its price class in design, display quality, and performance. It lags behind in photo and video quality, as long as software update commitment and reputation so far. The Price Class Average score is there to help you quickly identify how it compares to its peers in the premium flagship phone area! Here's an overview of the newest Xperia 1 VII and how it compares to the predecessor: The Xperia phones barely change shape and size, but you won't find us complaining about that. They are slim, elegant, with thin bezels and grippy frames. The Xperia 1 VII is no exception. There are ribbed accents running across the aluminum frame, making it extremely easy to grip, the Gorilla Glass back has fine dimples all over, giving it a unique feel, and the forehead and chin around the display on the front are extremely thin, considering they hold front-firing stereo speakers. The right frame of the phone holds a volume rocker, a power buton with an extremely fast fingerprint scanner, and the two-step shutter button. This is not a sensor-equipped camera button like Apple recently started to make them — it's a classic camera key that feels just right and is placed where you'd expect one to be on a camera. The three colors, Sony official image It comes in three colors — Moss Green, Orchid Purple, Slate Black. The green and purple ones look quite fun, and we'd be lying if we said we aren't slightly disappointed that our test unit is the black one. That being said, we also can't deny that it looks incredibly stylish and elegant. Box contents? What's that? OK, some good news and some bad news here. The bad news is that, by default, the Xperia 1 VII comes with a lot of nothing inside the box. Phone and cable — that's it. The good news is that, in some markets, you can order it now bundled with the excellent Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones. That'll surely help that salty price tag go down easier. Sony does place a lot of importance on its display quality — it's proud to market the Xperia phones as devices for visual content creators. The OLED panel comes out with saturated, punchy colors out of the box, but if you want to tone them down and go "realistic" — pick Creator Mode. It looks soft on the eyes, the colors turn mature and lifelike and it's great not only for editing video but general long sessions on the a 120 Hz panel, of course. Unlike other manufacturers, Sony doesn't flaunt "peak brightness" numbers, which often means nothing. But that's fine, we usually do our own measurements. Here they are: 20% APL measures screen brightness when about 20% of the pixels are firing at full instead of having a white image over the entire screen. Basically, it more closely simulates looking at actual images or video, and a result north of 2000 nits is excellent here. We are also pleasantly surprised by the minimium brightness this time around — 1 nit or below is optimal for bedtime use. You will also notice that color reproduction drifts much less than the other expensive flagships shown here. Despite its impressive hardware, the Xperia 1 VII didn't quite score as high as other flagships on our camera test. Common issues were inconsistent exposure, some visible sharpening artifacts, no HDR preview, and no super stabilization solutions for video (though there is an AI mode to follow subjects in action). Let's get out of the lab and take some photos out in the real world: Sony prides itself in making exceptional sensors (most smartphones out there use Sony sensors), and for years it wanted Xperias to deliver "natural" photos and let the user do the post editing on their own — like they would with pro cameras. But that method didn't work out, the reality is that small phone sensors and small lenses can only lift so much of the weight. Expert work needs to be done by software after the shutter has been pressed — companies like Google, Samsung, and Apple are well known to have excellent post-processing. Sony has recently buckled — it stopped including 3 different pro camera apps in the Xperias and put extra work into the auto mode of the one Camera app. But it's visible it's a bit behind in the game. For example — the bird in sample 3 became doubled due to the HDR algorithm not stithching the images together properly (or maybe the shutter was too slow?). That's an issue we haven't seen in years, and only expect to spot on entry level phones nowadays. Sample 4 looks extremely weird with the leaves in the background that are out of focus — they look way too hazy. The zoom may be optical, but at 5x and beyond looks soft and noisy. The good news is that the ultra-wide camera does take great photos. Apparently, the lens isn't exactly... ultra-wide, it shows as 0.7x in the app. By our calculations it should be something like 0.65x by smartphone standards. In any case, the lens itself has distortion correction in its design, so very little software work is required. And it's visible — ultra-wide shots look epic and crispy, even towards the edge of the photo. The Bokeh mode (Sony's Portrait mode) is pretty unconvincing and we strayed away from it. And the selfie camera is OK? A bit overexposed and with some pink-ish cast thrown in there. In general, the camera may have super-impressive hardware and may produce OK images... but OK is not good enough for a €1,499 phone. Don't you wish we had some PlayStation expertise here? No surprise that the Xperia 1 VII uses the Snapdragon 8 Elite — pretty much the best CPU you can get on an Android phone right now. Built on a 3 nm process, it's fast and powerful and does demand good thermal management. The Xperia 1 VII has that, trading punches with the Galaxy S25 Ultra on the benchmarks. And in real life? It's a snappy demon! On par with modern smartphones, the Xperia 1 VII hits 3,000 and above on Geekbench — you know, the casual beast. It scrolls through and opens apps as fast as the modern competition, no complaints! GPU Performance And in the graphics department, you can definitely enjoy those modern titles that are launching right now — Delta Force, Warframe, what a time to be alive! Sony Xperia 1 VII Software The Xperia 1 VII is coming with Android 15 out of the box. The user interface is pretty "vanilla" with only minor Sony improvements on top. For example, the quick toggles menu doesn't have these huge, ridiculous Wi-Fi and Bluetooth buttons that modern Android has — Sony kept the clean small buttons from before. And there's the sidebar handle which also has quick toggles and shortcuts to your favorite apps. Sony promises 4 years of Android updates with 6 years of security patches this time around, which is an improvement over the 2 / 4 year commitments of the past. Still, how fast those updates come to the flagship Xperia also matters. So, we'll be keeping an eye on that. Other than that, the software is pretty clean of any AI shenanigans. You've got Gemini, so it's all up to Google. The only place you will find AI is in a new camera mode for subject following. And it's arguable that the phone needs AI for that since they've been doing it for years now, but I digress. The Xperia 1 VII is quite compact by today's standards but still rocks a 5,000 mAh battery. And, speaking of standards — it performs comfortably, with an endurance somewhere between the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. It doesn't charge back extremely fast — about 50% in half an hour, and you need an hour and a half on the wire for a full charge. This is not bad time, not at all, but if you are spoiled by a current flagship that can get 50% in 10 minutes, you will find yourself needing to plan charging sessions ahead of time. I USB-C a microSD card tray on the right there The haptics are pretty great — quick, accurate, but a bit subtle. They work great as feedback when interacting with the phone, but not amazing for vibration when the phone is ringing through thick layers of clothing. The sound through the front-facing speakers gets decently loud and has a surprising amount of bass. They can be a bit muddy in the mids out of the box, but activating the Dolby Sound option from the settings cleans that up proper. In general, among the better-sounding smartphone speakers out there for sure, but not quite the best (crown still belongs to the old ROG Phone 7). The Sony Xperia 1 VII is not a bad phone. On the contrary — it's pretty good. The design and feel in the hand is great. The bloat-less software is a breath of fresh air as ever. The screen is good and the speakers are well above decent. And you get a headphone jack and microSD card slot, which are considered luxury nowadays. There are two points that make this phone hard to recommend. One is the price — £1,399 / €1,499 for 256 GB is quite the asking price. Yeah, sure, some markets get the Xperia 1 VII bundled with Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones, which are excellent and quite expensive on their own. But what if you don't want the headphones or don't get them in your area? Secondly, the one serious selling point of this phone is the camera. And, sorry, but it's just not that fantastic. It's OK, but I wouldn't recommend an OK camera phone for €1,499.
Phone Arena
15 hours ago
- Business
- Phone Arena
Xperia 1 VII review
Another year rolls by, another new Xperia comes out to try its hand in the high-end smartphone market. The Sony Xperia 1 VII continues the valued tradition of Xperia phones — high-end camera specs, slim body, and no hardware element omitted. The good old headphone jack is still here, the microSD card slot is not a thing of the past, and the true zoom camera is even zoomier. Alongside some camera upgrades, we have the new Snapdragon chip — of course — and the return of fan-favorite hardware shutter button. There is some bad news, though. For one, the Xperia 1 VII is not coming to the States. Secondly, it's pretty pricey wherever it does launch. In Europe, it'll cost you €1,499 — that's a big bill! Is it worth it? The Sony Xperia 1 VII scores pretty well for its price class in design, display quality, and performance. It lags behind in photo and video quality, as long as software update commitment and reputation so far. The Price Class Average score is there to help you quickly identify how it compares to its peers in the premium flagship phone area! Here's an overview of the newest Xperia 1 VII and how it compares to the predecessor: The Xperia phones barely change shape and size, but you won't find us complaining about that. They are slim, elegant, with thin bezels and grippy frames. The Xperia 1 VII is no exception. There are ribbed accents running across the aluminum frame, making it extremely easy to grip, the Gorilla Glass back has fine dimples all over, giving it a unique feel, and the forehead and chin around the display on the front are extremely thin, considering they hold front-firing stereo speakers. The right frame of the phone holds a volume rocker, a power buton with an extremely fast fingerprint scanner, and the two-step shutter button. This is not a sensor-equipped camera button like Apple recently started to make them — it's a classic camera key that feels just right and is placed where you'd expect one to be on a camera. The three colors, Sony official image It comes in three colors — Moss Green, Orchid Purple, Slate Black. The green and purple ones look quite fun, and we'd be lying if we said we aren't slightly disappointed that our test unit is the black one. That being said, we also can't deny that it looks incredibly stylish and elegant. Box contents? What's that? OK, some good news and some bad news here. The bad news is that, by default, the Xperia 1 VII comes with a lot of nothing inside the box. Phone and cable — that's it. The good news is that, in some markets, you can order it now bundled with the excellent Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones. That'll surely help that salty price tag go down easier. Sony does place a lot of importance on its display quality — it's proud to market the Xperia phones as devices for visual content creators. The OLED panel comes out with saturated, punchy colors out of the box, but if you want to tone them down and go "realistic" — pick Creator Mode. It looks soft on the eyes, the colors turn mature and lifelike and it's great not only for editing video but general long sessions on the a 120 Hz panel, of course. Unlike other manufacturers, Sony doesn't flaunt "peak brightness" numbers, which often means nothing. But that's fine, we usually do our own measurements. Here they are: 20% APL measures screen brightness when about 20% of the pixels are firing at full instead of having a white image over the entire screen. Basically, it more closely simulates looking at actual images or video, and a result north of 2000 nits is excellent here. We are also pleasantly surprised by the minimium brightness this time around — 1 nit or below is optimal for bedtime use. You will also notice that color reproduction drifts much less than the other expensive flagships shown here. Despite its impressive hardware, the Xperia 1 VII didn't quite score as high as other flagships on our camera test. Common issues were inconsistent exposure, some visible sharpening artifacts, no HDR preview, and no super stabilization solutions for video (though there is an AI mode to follow subjects in action). Let's get out of the lab and take some photos out in the real world: Sony prides itself in making exceptional sensors (most smartphones out there use Sony sensors), and for years it wanted Xperias to deliver "natural" photos and let the user do the post editing on their own — like they would with pro cameras. But that method didn't work out, the reality is that small phone sensors and small lenses can only lift so much of the weight. Expert work needs to be done by software after the shutter has been pressed — companies like Google, Samsung, and Apple are well known to have excellent post-processing. Sony has recently buckled — it stopped including 3 different pro camera apps in the Xperias and put extra work into the auto mode of the one Camera app. But it's visible it's a bit behind in the game. For example — the bird in sample 3 became doubled due to the HDR algorithm not stithching the images together properly (or maybe the shutter was too slow?). That's an issue we haven't seen in years, and only expect to spot on entry level phones nowadays. Sample 4 looks extremely weird with the leaves in the background that are out of focus — they look way too hazy. The zoom may be optical, but at 5x and beyond looks soft and noisy. The good news is that the ultra-wide camera does take great photos. Apparently, the lens isn't exactly... ultra-wide, it shows as 0.7x in the app. By our calculations it should be something like 0.65x by smartphone standards. In any case, the lens itself has distortion correction in its design, so very little software work is required. And it's visible — ultra-wide shots look epic and crispy, even towards the edge of the photo. The Bokeh mode (Sony's Portrait mode) is pretty unconvincing and we strayed away from it. And the selfie camera is OK? A bit overexposed and with some pink-ish cast thrown in there. In general, the camera may have super-impressive hardware and may produce OK images... but OK is not good enough for a €1,499 phone. Don't you wish we had some PlayStation expertise here? No surprise that the Xperia 1 VII uses the Snapdragon 8 Elite — pretty much the best CPU you can get on an Android phone right now. Built on a 3 nm process, it's fast and powerful and does demand good thermal management. The Xperia 1 VII has that, trading punches with the Galaxy S25 Ultra on the benchmarks. And in real life? It's a snappy demon! On par with modern smartphones, the Xperia 1 VII hits 3,000 and above on Geekbench — you know, the casual beast. It scrolls through and opens apps as fast as the modern competition, no complaints! GPU Performance And in the graphics department, you can definitely enjoy those modern titles that are launching right now — Delta Force, Warframe, what a time to be alive! Sony Xperia 1 VII Software The Xperia 1 VII is coming with Android 15 out of the box. The user interface is pretty "vanilla" with only minor Sony improvements on top. For example, the quick toggles menu doesn't have these huge, ridiculous Wi-Fi and Bluetooth buttons that modern Android has — Sony kept the clean small buttons from before. And there's the sidebar handle which also has quick toggles and shortcuts to your favorite apps. Sony promises 4 years of Android updates with 6 years of security patches this time around, which is an improvement over the 2 / 4 year commitments of the past. Still, how fast those updates come to the flagship Xperia also matters. So, we'll be keeping an eye on that. Other than that, the software is pretty clean of any AI shenanigans. You've got Gemini, so it's all up to Google. The only place you will find AI is in a new camera mode for subject following. And it's arguable that the phone needs AI for that since they've been doing it for years now, but I digress. The Xperia 1 VII is quite compact by today's standards but still rocks a 5,000 mAh battery. And, speaking of standards — it performs comfortably, with an endurance somewhere between the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. It doesn't charge back extremely fast — about 50% in half an hour, and you need an hour and a half on the wire for a full charge. This is not bad time, not at all, but if you are spoiled by a current flagship that can get 50% in 10 minutes, you will find yourself needing to plan charging sessions ahead of time. I USB-C a microSD card tray on the right there The haptics are pretty great — quick, accurate, but a bit subtle. They work great as feedback when interacting with the phone, but not amazing for vibration when the phone is ringing through thick layers of clothing. The sound through the front-facing speakers gets decently loud and has a surprising amount of bass. They can be a bit muddy in the mids out of the box, but activating the Dolby Sound option from the settings cleans that up proper. In general, among the better-sounding smartphone speakers out there for sure, but not quite the best (crown still belongs to the old ROG Phone 7). The Sony Xperia 1 VII is not a bad phone. On the contrary — it's pretty good. The design and feel in the hand is great. The bloat-less software is a breath of fresh air as ever. The screen is good and the speakers are well above decent. And you get a headphone jack and microSD card slot, which are considered luxury nowadays. There are two points that make this phone hard to recommend. One is the price — £1,399 / €1,499 for 256 GB is quite the asking price. Yeah, sure, some markets get the Xperia 1 VII bundled with Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones, which are excellent and quite expensive on their own. But what if you don't want the headphones or don't get them in your area? Secondly, the one serious selling point of this phone is the camera. And, sorry, but it's just not that fantastic. It's OK, but I wouldn't recommend an OK camera phone for €1,499.
GSM Arena
a day ago
- Business
- GSM Arena
Google Pixel 10 series will keep this important connectivity feature despite modem swap Comments
CAD renders for the Google Pixel 10 show a third camera, 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL also with three
CNET
a day ago
- Business
- CNET
Samsung Surprised Us With the S25 Edge's Camera, Rivaling the Top-Notch Ultra
Cameras lead the list of features people look for when choosing a new smartphone. Every pro-level phone distinguishes itself with more cameras, more resolution and more zoom. But when the goal is to create one of the thinnest phones on the market, bulky cameras are easy targets for chucking aside. And yet the new Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge includes a surprising 200 megapixel (MP) f/1.7 wide camera that shares the same specs as the one in Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra. In fact, you could argue that the 200MP camera alone justifies the Edge's $1,100 price, with the latest versions of Android and Gemini as added bonuses in a thin and light body. That same resolution on the S25 Ultra starts at $1,300. So why did Samsung choose to include a top-tier feature in a phone that sits in the middle of the company's S25 lineup? People want a good camera they can take everywhere, and they'll pay for it. Read more: CNET's Abrar Al-Heeti reviews the Galaxy S25 Edge. Watch this: Galaxy S25 Edge Hands-On: Samsung's Super-Thin Phone Is Impressive 03:33 Most phones are cameras with phone features The difference between phones in the same lineup often comes down what each model adds over the others. The Galaxy S25 is a thoroughly capable phone that (to cherry pick specs) runs the latest software on a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, packs a 4,000 mAh battery, has a 6.2-inch display and features the following array of cameras: 50MP wide-angle, 12MP ultra-wide, 10MP 3x telephoto and 12MP front camera. For 256GB of storage, it costs $860. The 128GB base model starts at $800, but I'm using the 256GB version to keep the storage consistent across all our examples. The Galaxy S25 Plus shares all of those same features in a larger package, with a 6.7-inch screen and -- due to its roomier case -- a larger 4,900 mAh battery. For that you'll pay an extra $140 more than the S25 to get the 256GB config at $1,000. Then you jump $300 for the $1,300 Galaxy S25 Ultra, which boasts several specs such as the aforementioned 200MP main camera, a 50MP ultra-wide camera, a second 50MP telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom, a slightly larger 6.9-inch screen and a 5,000 mAh battery. The Galaxy S25 Ultra justifies its higher price with a large array of separate cameras. James Martin/CNET So where does the Galaxy S25 Edge slot into the lineup? For $1,100, it has the same 6.7-inch screen as the S25 Plus with an additional layer of protection (it's covered with Corning's Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2), the same Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, a smaller 3,900 mAh battery (to be expected in a thinner case) -- and that 200MP wide camera. The Galaxy S25 Edge's 200MP camera is an unexpected feature. Samsung/Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNET Although the camera shares the same specs as the one in the S25 Ultra, it's not yet clear whether it's the same hardware. In Samsung's event video officially announcing the S25 Edge, the company described how it redesigned the camera housing to fit the 200MP camera. I'm assuming it's the same core hardware, just repackaged to fit a smaller form factor, but a direct photo comparison will be the real test. Samsung redesigned the wide camera assembly to fit into the Galaxy S25 Edge's svelte frame. Samsung/Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNET Thin isn't enough on its own By the name alone, the primary appeal of the S25 Edge is its thin design. The company's introductory video is full of schematics and computer-generated animations of all the phone's components slotting together into its svelte body. And thinness does have value -- just look at Apple's obsession with making everything thin and light over the years, including its own rumored iPhone 17 Air. But thinness as a feature isn't additive enough (to make the obvious joke, it's literally reductive). Samsung could have easily included the 50MP wide camera used on the S25 and S25 Plus and focused solely on the phone's design to set it apart. By including the top-end 200MP camera from the series' most expensive and premium phone, though, it hits a sweet spot where a customer thinks, "I'm getting a super thin version of the S25 but with the camera of the $1,300 S25 Ultra." The thin profile of the Galaxy S25 Edge is absolutely appealing. Carly Marsh/CNET Decent zoom is still possible, even without a telephoto camera The other thing that sets the S25 Edge apart is the fact that it does not include a dedicated telephoto camera. Every other S25 model includes at least one telephoto camera to zoom in on distant subjects. That extra reach is usually the dividing line between "consumer" and "pro" models. For example, the Pixel 9 and 9A and iPhone 16 and 16E all include wide-angle and ultra-wide cameras, but no telephoto. People regularly zoom in when taking photos, so Google and Apple pitch higher-quality optical zoom as a premium feature at the higher price levels of the pro models. But by including the 200MP camera on the S25 Edge, Samsung can still claim a 2x "optical quality" zoom. Technically that's a crop into the middle of the sensor, but the high megapixel count means there's still plenty of resolution to get quality images. You can still zoom at farther ranges, but you're leaning heavily on image processing to enhance the digitally-zoomed image. Even at 10x digital zoom, the wide camera in the Galaxy S25 Edge performs well. Abrar Al-Heeti/CNET (An important aside about resolution: Keep in mind you're not always capturing images at 200MP resolution. The default resolution is a pixel-binned 12MP, where the camera groups pixels together on the sensor to act as a larger pixel that gathers more light. So at that resolution, the S25 Edge is likely using AI upscaling to zoom. But at the 50MP and 200MP resolution settings, the 2x zoom is more likely to be a straight crop from what the sensor is recording.) This also reinforces the fact that phone photography is increasingly buttressed by real-time, AI-supported image processing. Shooting at the full 200MP resolution involves considerable processing to enhance details recorded by such a physically small image sensor. Even with pro phones, I regularly see people use pinch-to-zoom instead of switching among the better quality preset optical options. (Android Authority surveyed its readers and found that about 27% of respondents zoom freely versus sticking to preset zoom levels.) Will customers specifically buy the S25 Edge because of its camera features? Not entirely, but touting the 200MP camera prominently along with the new thin design gives them extra incentive to choose it. Be sure to check out Abrar Al-Heeti's photos from her first 24 hours with the Edge. To see more of what the 200MP can do, see CNET Managing Editor Patrick Holland's Galaxy S25 Ultra review, as well as Andrew Lanxon's images pitting the S25 Ultra head-to-head against the iPhone 16 Pro.
