Like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, Samsung retains the Galaxy S24 Ultra's maximum digital zoom level, which can reach up to 100x. Unfortunately, in the latest camera sample showdown, where two photos taken by two different smartphones were compared, the differences between the two were minimal, and the Galaxy S24 Ultra's 100x camera produced lower-brightness images and reduced detail when displaying text.

The picture above is taken by GalaxyS24Ultra, and the picture below is taken by GalaxyS23UltraIt's impossible for smartphone manufacturers to include a 100x optical zoom lens in a smartphone. Instead, companies like Samsung often want to use computing technology to preserve as much detail as possible when zooming to 100x. Unfortunately, at this level of zoom, the software can only identify so much detail, as evidenced by the comparison photos provided by Parker Burton.

The picture on the left is a photo taken by GalaxyS24Ultra, and the picture on the right is a photo taken by GalaxyS23Ultra. In short, there is a noticeable loss of detail in both 100x photos, especially when photographing the "San Jose" sign. Images captured by the Galaxy S23 Ultra appear brighter and therefore show more detail, while images captured by the Galaxy S24 Ultra appear dull.

Some readers may say that the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s 5x optical zoom is the reason for the obvious decline in image quality, but after exceeding 10x zoom, even the Galaxy S23 Ultra begins to rely on software for image processing. Since Samsung's flagship just launched, future updates may bring some tweaks to it that could help improve image quality when using the 100x zoom option, but for now, we're not happy with these results.

The comparison tests currently obtained only test long-distance shooting. Galaxy S24 Ultra may produce better images when shooting different scenes. We need to wait for camera evaluations in various scenes to appear before we can make a conclusion.