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This Samsung camera rumour could make the Galaxy S11 a huge upgrade

A well-known tipster claims to have revealed specs for a likely 2020 Samsung camera phone. This eyebrow-raising revelation seems too good to be true… but is it?

Famous for his cryptic but reliable leaks and insights, @UniverseIce is a well-known figure in the world of smartphone rumours. But has he gone too far this time? In a July 16 tweet, he claimed that next year we will see a phone with a 108-megapixel camera and 10x optical zoom.

Related: Best smartphone

The camera phone in question is most likely to be a Samsung device, since Ice Universe is best known for his insights into the South Korean firm, and the accompanying image looks just like recent alleged renders of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 10.

But that’s surely not the phone destined to house this high-end snapper, not least because it will be released this year rather than next; we’re expecting the Note 10 to have a 12-megapixel main camera.

Related: Best camera phones

The greatest optical zoom currently available on a smartphone is that of the Huawei P30 Pro, which boasts 5x lossless zoom. In our review we praised it for producing impressively sharp, well-stabilised images.

At this stage it’s difficult to imagine that within the next year that will be blown out of the water by a doubly powerful lens (on paper at least), but Samsung’s reported acquisition of Corephotonics (a leading specialist in zoom technology), does make it more likely.

As for the other rumour: the world’s highest-resolution 64-megapixel smartphone sensor was first spotted in action thanks to a tweet by Realme. But the sensor is in fact manufactured by none other than Samsung itself, again hinting that Samsung is working on high-resolution sensor tech.

Related: Best Android phones

So while on paper it may seem ludicrous to imagine such a huge leap in smartphone camera tech by the end of 2020, Ice Universe does have a commendable track record and the move certainly isn’t out of the question. Watch this space.

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