Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra linked to crazy 200MP camera upgrade

Samsung has reportedly finished development on its latest 200MP camera module, which will reportedly be one of the headline specs to feature on next year’s Galaxy S23 Ultra flagship.

That’s according to South Korean tech industry news site ET-News (via SamMobile), who say that Samsung is keeping 70% of production in-house and will be working with supply partners to complete the remaining 30% of orders. It adds that the chaebol is working to deliver the lens in time to feature on devices launching in early-2023.

That sounds a whole lot like it could be getting primed for the upcoming Galaxy S23 series to us, which history suggests could launch around February 2023.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty, the new 200MP module rumoured to be coming to the Galaxy S23 is being called the ISOCELL HP3 and it represents an upgrade on the existing ISOCELL HP1.

While its new powers aren’t yet known, it should be pretty exciting given the existing HP1 lens can do things like record in 8K and features advanced HDR, as well as boasting that eye-popping 200MP resolution.

This corroborates a recent story from the Dutch language Samsung blog Galaxy Club, which also claims to have inside knowledge of the development of the updated HP3 sensor.

The only thing that worries us is that the HP1 has yet to appear on a consumer smartphone, though the forthcoming Motorola Edge 30 Ultra could finally give us a look at what it can do in action.

Equally, it could be that Samsung is just being cautious with the deployment of a new sensor on arugably its most important mobile product. Once it’s happy with the product and refined it to its liking, it might then break cover on a premium Galaxy device like the S23 Ultra.

We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, current Samsung flagship the Galaxy S22 Ultra is still one of the absolute best phones around and earned a perfect score in our review.

• Read more: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra review

James Laird Contributing Editor

About

James has been covering gadgets and other cool tech stuff for more than 10 years, most recently as the Sports and TV Streaming Editor at TechRadar. Before that, he was News and Features Editor at Trusted Reviews, where he developed a love of big phones and even bigger headlines. In his spare time, he can usually be found behaving badly on a golf course or watching the New England Patriots.