Although not the most exciting subject matter, the shots from leaker Ice Universe are tantalizing from the sheer difference in image quality. The two photos have both been magnified 16x and with AI detail enhancement switched off so you would expect them to be distorted. While neither phone was explicitly mentioned as taking the pictures, the megapixel counts listed by Ice Universe match exactly the S22 Ultra and the supposed S23 Ultra camera sensor. Coincidence? The “S22 Ultra” snap blurs as it stretches pixels to fit the 16x magnification but with nearly twice the pixels to play with, the “S23 Ultra” (reportedly a test model) image has impressive clarity and a high level of detail. This seems a massive improvement on the S22 Ultra and we would love to see whether there is a similar disparity between the two models on close-up shots and images without magnification distortion. If this leak is anything to go by, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has a real rival on its hands when it comes to the best camera phones. It is worth noting of course that megapixels are just one measure of a camera. Camera software and AI plays an equally important role in how a phone best leverages the sensors, but cramming in 200MP is a great start toward creating possibly the best phone camera ever. We are excited to see what Samsung’s latest flagship has to offer, but aside from the camera some of the underlying numbers are a tad disappointing. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra’s benchmarks allegedly leaked and revealed that it will still lag slightly behind its direct competitor, the iPhone 14 Pro.
