Samsung Flaunts 200MP Zoom Anyplace Wizardry, Tips Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 For Galaxy S24

Qualcomm revealed the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 this week, delving into myriad new AI-enhanced features. Among them was Zoom Anyplace, a camera capability designed for Samsung's 200MP image sensors. Qualcomm didn't have much to say about ISOCELL Zoom Anyplace, but Samsung sure does. Samsung isn't naming names, but this feature is almost certainly going to be a big part of the Galaxy S24 Ultra imaging experience.

The current Galaxy S23 Ultra is the first Samsung flagship to include a 200MP sensor, which is used to output 12.5MP photos with pixel binning. The Qualcomm AI engine can use all that resolution in different ways, allowing the user to capture multiple views of a scene or track a subject, all without losing resolution. The demo video below includes a very brief Qualcomm name drop, as well as a glimpse of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that will undoubtedly power the phone.

Samsung says that Zoom Anyplace can track subjects around a frame in real time, but you don't have to get up close to get a good shot. This feature allows you to capture the full frame while also getting a zoomed in view—the S24 Ultra will be able to record at both 2x and 4x while maintaining 4K video resolution.


Zoom Anyplace also lets you zoom in and out freely while recording video. Again, this doesn't lower the resolution like it would on current phones. This way of zooming is also much smoother than switching between image sensors in the middle of a recording. Even if the subject is on the very edge of the frame, you can zoom in without modifying the angle of the full frame recording. This unlocks more editing and composition options than you'd get on phones with lower-resolution sensors. The new Snapdragon chip also supports a feature called End-to-End (E2E) AI Remosaic, which streamlines photo processing and output to make the 200MP sensor faster.

Samsung's move to a 200MP primary camera in the Galaxy S23 Ultra looks great on a spec sheet, but it's not much more capable than the 108MP sensors used previously. The new AI-powered capture features will actually put all those pixels to work in interesting ways, making the Ultra phone feel a little more Ultra. We expect to hear more about the Galaxy S24 family in early 2024.