Recent leaks have disappointingly suggested the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra would drop from 10x optical zoom to just 5x. But that might not mean less digital zoom range, as we’re now hearing that it will retain the 100x digital zoom of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. But there’s reason to doubt this, and reason to doubt this 100x zoom will be any good if it is present.

First let’s look at the claim itself though. This comes from leaker @RGcloudS (via Phone Arena), who concurs with claims of a 5x optical zoom, but says the Galaxy S24 Ultra will offer 100x digital zoom despite that.

In the same post, they also claim that the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra will have a 200MP main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide, a 10MP telephoto offering 3x optical zoom, and a 48MP telephoto offering 5x optical zoom.

Those specs aren’t too far off what we’ve heard elsewhere, but multiple sources have recently pointed to a 50MP 5x zoom camera rather than 48MP, and in a reply, leaker @UniverseIce points out several other details they disagree with, mostly in terms of sensor sizes.

In fact, @UniverseIce recently made a whole series of posts pointing out numerous inaccuracies in previous leaks from @RGcloudS. These inaccuracies were for phones that have now been released, so we can say for sure that @RGcloudS got these details wrong.

Does that mean you shouldn’t trust this latest leak? It certainly means you should take it with a pinch of salt, but no leaker is 100% accurate.

There are other reasons to doubt the headline 100x zoom claim though, in that while the quality of the 100x digital zoom on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra isn’t great, we’d think it would be far worse when the starting point is 5x optical rather than 10x.

So it’s questionable whether Samsung would bother offering 100x digital zoom on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. If the phone does have this – and also tops out at 5x optical zoom – it will probably be little more than a spec to put on the box. We wouldn’t expect it will be very useful for photography anyway.

Better screens all round

Still, there is some better Samsung Galaxy S24 news today, as leaker @Tech_Reve claims that all three Samsung Galaxy S24 models (meaning the standard phone, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus, and the Galaxy S24 Ultra) will have a maximum screen brightness of 2,500 nits.

That’s not a new claim, but now multiple sources have said it, adding to its credibility. That would be an upgrade in brightness for all three phones, with the Samsung Galaxy S23 line topping out at 1,750 nits.

In fact, according to @Tech_Reve the only tech differences between the various Galaxy S24 screens will be their resolution, with all three models apparently also using a new M13 panel, which is reportedly more power efficient. We’ve heard talk of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra getting an M13 screen previously, but it was unclear whether the other models would too.

So it sounds like the Samsung Galaxy S24 trio might have some substantial screen upgrades. But fans of long distance optical and digital zoom might end up wanting to stick with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.

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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.