Samsung is celebrating 15 years of Galaxy digicam telephones. Today the ubiquity of digicam telephones makes all of it too straightforward to take as a right the extremely highly effective cameras all of us have in our pockets, however wind the clock again solely to 2010 and the digicam cellphone panorama was very totally different, if arguably extra thrilling.
This era marked a turning level in how we outline a typical ‘digicam’. The place within the 2000s the standard compact digicam was king, it was round 2010 when the digicam cellphone grew to become a real menace to the dominance of the everyday ‘point-and-shoot’. In fact, there have been loads of digicam telephones previous to 2010, however for essentially the most half their cameras had been too primary to be thought-about a viable various to a ‘correct’ digicam. Even early iPhones, as modern as they had been in some areas, weren’t famend for having notably refined digicam {hardware}. It wasn’t till 2010’s iPhone 4 (and notably the next 4s) when Apple actually stepped up the iPhone’s photographic sport, and phrases like iPhoneography began to enter the favored vernacular.
Over within the Android camp and 2010 marked the discharge of the Samsung Galaxy S – the primary Galaxy S cellphone, and solely the second Samsung cellphone to ever obtain the Galaxy nameplate. This was additionally one of many first Samsung telephones to run Android – on this case, Android 2.1 Éclair. This was the period when every new Android variations wasn’t simply numbered, it was additionally given a reputation, with the theme all the time being candy treats.
There have been a couple of Android-based Samsung digicam telephones previous to the Galaxy S, in addition to some Home windows-based handsets, however for essentially the most half Samsung’s touchscreen telephones ran on the corporate’s proprietary TouchWiz UI (my very own cellphone on the time was a Touchwiz-driven Samsung S8000 Jet).
The I9000 Galaxy S, to present it its full identify, featured a 5 megapixel rear-facing digicam with autofocus and will file 720p video at 30fps. Humble beginnings, however only a 12 months later and the Galaxy S II bumped decision to 8MP, added 1080p video functionality and launched an LED flash, thereby bringing the digicam cellphone inside hanging distance of common compact cameras of the period, which tended to be round 10-12MP.
Come 2013 and the writing was nicely and actually on the wall for the compact digicam. Not solely did the Galaxy S4 function a 13MP sensor, which was additionally virtually as giant in dimension as a typical 1/2.3-inch compact digicam sensor; that very same 12 months Samsung took its most blatant swipe on the legacy digicam trade but, within the type of the Galaxy S4 Zoom:
This was a real cellphone/digicam hybrid, that includes a 16MP 1/2.3-inch picture sensor that would genuinely compete with what Canon and Nikon had of their modern PowerShot/Coolpix line-ups. However the massive promoting level right here was the S4 Zoom’s digicam lens, with its 24-240mm focal vary giving 10x optical zoom. Add the sculpted rear panel, a correct shutter button, and even a high-power Xenon flash and the S4 Zoom, together with telephones just like the now-legendary Nokia 808 PureView from 2012, outlined what I might argue was essentially the most thrilling time within the digicam cellphone sector. Not like immediately, when every new era of Galaxy S or iPhone is actually the identical because the final, in 2013 there was actual innovation: it was now clear that the digicam cellphone was on its ascent, and we might solely surprise at how excessive it might go on its rise to dominance.
Quick ahead to 2018 and the Galaxy S9+ launched twin rear dealing with cameras – the usual wide-angle module, flanked by a telephoto module giving 2x optical zoom. In 2019 the S10 elevated the rear-facing digicam array to three modules, with the inclusion of an ultra-wide snapper. A 12 months later Samsung shocked us by equipping the S20 Extremely with a 108MP sensor for its main digicam. And never content material with successful the megapixel warfare, it upped the ante nonetheless additional in 2023 when it dropped the 200 megapixel ISOCELL HP2 sensor within the Galaxy S23 Extremely.
By setting the digicam {hardware} bar so excessive, it most likely should not have come as a shock that the following S24 Extremely and S25 Extremely have not delivered wherever close to the identical wow issue, not less than when it comes to {hardware}, as a substitute relying totally on AI to enhance picture high quality. Whereas digicam purists like myself might lament this obvious stagnation of digicam {hardware}, there is no denying the unimaginable energy of AI, from topic recognition to picture high quality enhancement at extra-long focal lengths.
Whereas the digicam cellphone is inevitably advancing at a slower price than within the early 2010s, we should not take as a right what an unimaginable 15 years it has been for the digicam cellphone trade.