It looks like Samsung could be taking a quality-over-quantity approach to the cameras in some of its upcoming phones, as a report suggests the Galaxy A54, Galaxy A34, and Galaxy A24 will each have one less lens than their predecessors.
Specifically, TheElec (opens in a new tab) claims that none of these phones will have a depth sensor, leaving them with triple-lens setups where the Samsung Galaxy A53, Galaxy A33, and Galaxy A23 all have quad depth sensors. lens camera settings.
That's good news, because while a decent depth sensor isn't a total waste of time (as it can help with portraits and such), cheap and mid-range phones tend to be crowded and add little to nothing to performance. . of the camera
Of course, if Samsung removed the depth sensors but kept everything else the same, that wouldn't be great either, but according to this report, the company will focus on beefing up the core camera offering. So the money saved by not including a depth sensor is likely to be injected into the other lenses or sensors.
Speaking of which, apparently the Samsung Galaxy A54 will have a 50MP main, 5MP ultra-wide and 5MP macro camera, while the Galaxy A34 is said to have a 48MP main, 8MP ultra-wide and 5MP macro camera. Finally, the Galaxy A24 will reportedly have a 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide, and a 5MP macro.
In terms of number of megapixels, the Samsung Galaxy A24 will be strangely in the best shape if that's true, although it's probably the cheapest of these phones, while the higher-end Galaxy A54 is said to have fewer total megapixels. .
But that just goes to show that megapixels aren't everything either. If they were, Apple's 12MP phones wouldn't continue to rank among the best camera phones.
As well as potentially leading to camera improvements, ditching the depth sensor could also cut costs, but whether those savings will trickle down to consumers remains to be seen.
As for when you might be able to buy these phones, the Samsung Galaxy A34 is apparently coming in March, with the Galaxy A54 expected to arrive in April. It's unclear when the Samsung Galaxy A24 might launch, but the Galaxy A23 landed in March this year, so it seems likely to launch around March 2023.
Analysis: less is more
This is promising news, assuming this report is accurate, because while a quad-lens camera might be a good spot on the spec chart, the actual quality of the cameras is likely to improve with this change.
Ideally, it would be nice to see Samsung go a step further and ditch the macro cameras on these phones. Macro lenses on budget phones also tend to be crowded, and since they're only said to be 5MP, we're not optimistic about their effectiveness. So it would be nice to see Samsung either ignore the macro lens or focus on making it really worthwhile.
But it's still a step in the right direction and could help these phones compete with the best cheap phones, most of which currently have triple- or quad-lens cameras, with some padding.