Galaxy S23's 200MP camera could lack a feature seen on Chinese phones

Like the Galaxy S21 Ultra or Galaxy S22 Ultra's 108MP camera, the S23 Ultra won't actually shoot at the maximum resolution by default. It will reportedly capture 12.5MP images using pixel binning (a process that merges multiple small pixels into one single large pixel) for improved image quality, especially in low-light conditions. The option to shoot at the full 200MP resolution will no doubt be available, as well, but a new rumor says Samsung will not offer the ability to shoot 50MP pictures, unlike the competition.

Galaxy S23 Ultra could limit you to capturing either 12.5MP or 200MP pictures

If the rumor is accurate, then you will either be able to take 12.5MP pictures that don't offer much leeway in terms of how far you can zoom in but save space on the device storage, or capture huge 200MP pictures that eat up considerably more storage space. Shooting in 108MP mode on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, for example, saves images that take up to 4-5 times more space than the default 12MP mode, so you can only imagine how large those 200MP shots on the Galaxy S23 Ultra will be.

A middle-of-the-road 50MP mode would offer a great balance between picture quality and file size, and while companies like Motorola and Xiaomi give you a 50MP mode on their phones, Samsung will reportedly not do so. And while regular customers probably won't care about that, the more tech savvy customers might not like this newest bit of information about the S23 Ultra's imaging capabilities.

As usual, though, we can't fully trust any rumors about Samsung's unannounced phones, even when the rumors come from leaksters with a good track record. This is especially true about rumors on software features, as those often take a long time to be finalized before a device is announced and goes on sale.

For now we can only keep our fingers crossed that the S23 Ultra will blow the competition out of the water when it comes to actual results produced by its cameras and provide a good reason for the presence of a 200MP camera instead of just trying to capitalize on high theoretical numbers on the spec sheet.