Galaxy Z Fold 4’s camera tipped to include ‘stronger’ telephoto compared to S22 Ultra

Ben Schoon | May 16 2022 - 7:41 am PT

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is quickly shaping up to be a sizeable upgrade to Samsung’s flagship foldable, and that primarily comes from the camera. According to a new report, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 will even best one of the telephoto lenses on the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Ice Universe, a rather reliable source for upcoming Samsung products, says that the finalized camera layout for the Galaxy Z Fold 4 consists of a 50MP primary camera backed up by two 12MP sensors, one for ultrawide and one for telephoto. This lines up with previous rumors, and it’s especially good to see that Samsung is upgrading to that 50MP primary sensor.

However, the bigger surprise may be that the Fold 4 may actually beat Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra in at least one department. While the four-lens S22 Ultra is undoubtedly going to offer the better camera on the whole, Ice says that the telephoto camera in the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is “stronger” than the comparable lens in the Ultra. This is specifically referring to the 3x lens, and not the 10x periscope lens that the S22 Ultra is equipped with, but the Fold is not.

It’s unclear exactly what this means, but we’d assume perhaps Samsung has fine-tuned its 3x lens with better optics, or perhaps better software processing. Regardless, it sure sounds like the Galaxy Z Fold 4 will have a solid experience from its telephoto camera.

This is also great news given where the Fold 3 stands. Earlier this year we took the Galaxy Z Fold 3 out on a photoshoot alongside other Android flagships, and the foldable pretty much fell apart when it comes to shooting at a distance. The Galaxy S22 Ultra and even Google’s Pixel 6 Pro demolished the Fold for longer shots, but equipping a stronger 3x telephoto lens in place of the relatively weak 2x lens will be a welcome improvement.