Samsung's new telephoto lens brings improved zoom cameras to phones

Samsung's ALoP telephoto lens offers improved image quality for zoom cameras

Samsung's ISOCELL team has designed a new folded telephoto lens that is much more compact than the older versions. It uses a design the company calls All Lenses on Prism (ALoP), which has all the lenses on top of the periscope prism rather than placing them between the prism and the camera sensor. The company says its ALoP module uses a 40˚tilted prism reflection surface and 10˚ tilted sensor assembly.

Conventional periscope telephoto modules can't use bigger lenses, as increasing the lens's diameter increases the module's height. In comparison, in ALoP, lenses are placed horizontally with respect to the smartphone's body. So, using bigger lenses won't increase the module's height and the phone's thickness.

Since ALoP allows the use of bigger and brighter lenses, the image quality improves in both daylight and low-light conditions. Samsung claims that its new ALoP telephoto module offers an F2.58 lens aperture at a focal length of 80mm and around 3x optical zoom. In comparison, the telephoto lens on the Galaxy S24 Ultra has an F3.4 aperture.

Samsung isn't saying which phones will use its new ALoP telephoto camera module, but it is fair to expect this new lens to be used in future compact high-end phones like the Galaxy S25 and the Galaxy Z Fold 7.