Samsung is working on a continuous zoom camera, but Galaxy phones don’t have first dibs

We’ve seen very few Android phones with continuous zoom cameras. In fact, Sony is the only major company offering this tech on its devices. However, Samsung is also working on this technology, but it won’t come to Galaxy phones first.

The Elec reports, citing “multiple” industry sources, that Samsung Electro-Mechanics is working on a continuous zoom camera system at the request of several Chinese smartphone makers.

“Samsung Electro-Mechanics will initially aim to supply continuous zoom to Chinese smartphone manufacturers, but will also work to supply to Samsung Electronics and others in the future,” a source told the outlet. A source added that Samsung was preparing to supply the technology to a “specific Chinese smartphone company.”

That’s bad news if you were hoping for this tech to arrive on the Galaxy S26 Ultra or another imminent Samsung release. For what it’s worth, a trusted leaker previously suggested that an upcoming Xiaomi phone (likely the Xiaomi 16 Ultra) could adopt continuous camera zoom.

The outlet didn’t have details regarding the module’s optical zoom range, but a source mooted the example of a system that offered 3x to 8x zoom. LG previously announced a continuous zoom system capable of 4x to 9x optical zoom.

What is a continuous zoom camera?

A continuous zoom camera system sees lenses and other components moving to provide optical zoom across a wide zoom range, much like a standalone camera. This ensures a consistent level of picture quality and detail at multiple zoom levels. This approach differs from most telephoto cameras used on phones today, which are fixed at one zoom level.

For example, the Samsung Galaxy S25 has a 3x telephoto camera, so images shot at 3x have the highest image quality. But the fixed nature of telephoto cameras means Samsung has to use digital zoom and other software techniques for photos at interstitial zoom levels like 2.5x, 4x, or 10x. This usually results in a worse-looking picture.

Phones like the Xperia 1 VII have a continuous zoom camera system, allowing the phone to offer a consistent level of image quality from 3.5x to 7.1x. This isn’t a silver bullet for good camera zoom, though. Continuous zoom cameras tend to be bulky, limiting the size of the camera sensor that can be used. Colleague Rob Triggs criticized the small 12MP sensor used on the Xperia 1 VII’s continuous zoom system, noting that images taken with this camera setup feature quite a lot of noise and don’t offer a shallow depth-of-field. He also noted that rival phones with higher resolution telephoto cameras could use their megapixels to offer more detail at long range (e.g., 10x).

Either way, it’s clear that a continuous zoom camera system isn’t necessarily going to solve all your camera zoom problems. But we’re still keen to see more phones with this tech, especially if it’s paired with a high-resolution camera sensor.