Despite it being just a few months since the Galaxy S21 was released, Samsung is already working on its next-gen S22 flagship phone and we might just have found the first bits of information of what actually will be in the new smartphone. The report comes in from a South Korean news publication ETNews.
The reports suggest that the upcoming Galaxy S22 won’t have a 3D Time of flight sensor just like its younger brother the Galaxy S21. This might come as a shocker since the newer phone should be better than the older one right? But that isn’t the case when it comes to ToF sensors. Samsung’s software has matured enough that the company thinks that they don’t need it anymore.
The last Samsung Phone to use a 3D ToF sensor was the Galaxy S10 5G. After that Samsung skipped the sensor for both the Galaxy Note 20 and the Galaxy S21 Ultra as well. According to the company, after reviewing the numbers, they came to the conclusion that consumer response to their phones without ToF sensors has been “Not so bad”.
That is true though. The Galaxy S21 Ultra is one the best android phones on the market right now and it doesn’t come with a ToF sensor of its own. A 3D ToF sensor is mainly used for portrait modes by using high-power optical pulses to get depth information from the scene in focus.
The report did say that Samsung considered putting in the sensor because Apple added it to the iPhone 12 but they decided against it due to “lack of clear advantages”. It’s weird since Samsung has started making their own sensors in November last year but now they’ll just supply them to Chinese Android OEMs instead.
The Galaxy S22 may be announced during Q4 of this year and while it may not have a ToF sensor but it will come with a significant camera upgrade.