I would have to see the photo in person to give a fair assessment, however, the results are undeniably impressive from what is shown in the images and videos provided. The kitty photo looks tack-sharp and reveals details you otherwise couldn’t see from a standard 12MP lens.
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“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the raw image enlarged to 100%,” said Hyunjoong Kim, project manager from the Global Marcom Team of Device Solutions Division at Samsung Electronics. “I was truly astonished by the degree of detail. In that moment, I knew any prejudices I previously had regarding smartphone photography had been proven wrong.”
It’s worth emphasizing that adding megapixels doesn’t always result in better image quality. You still need good optics and intelligent processing, so there is no guarantee that these 200MP shots will help Samsung leapfrog Google and Apple on the imaging front. Also, taking raw 200MP photos will quickly eat into the storage on your phone, and whichever social platform you upload to (Instagram, Facebook, etc.) will inevitably compress the hell out of it.
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Along with capturing bright images in dark conditions or high-res shots in daylight, the 200MP sensor is also being marketed as an ideal tool for capturing 8K videos at 30 frames per second. Now we’re just waiting for Samsung to reveal which phones will be the first to use the sensor. If I had to put money on it, the Galaxy S23 seems like the prime candidate.