One of the main problems we’ve discovered in recent years with budget smartphones is that despite having two, three or four cameras on the back, not all of them are exactly… useful. It seems Samsung has realised that the number of cameras isn’t that important to users as long as they don’t add extra functionality, so much so that rumours of the next Galaxy A series suggest that the base models will get one less camera. The affected variants will be the Galaxy A24, A34 and A54, basically the next models of Samsung’s best-selling mobile devices.
Galaxy A54 to get ‘only’ three-camera system
Generally, Galaxy A phones come with a main camera, an ultra-wide camera, a macro camera and a depth camera. The latter, however, is less used by users, and in the case of the depth camera, less useful in reality. That’s because the processors in these smartphones are perfectly capable of calculating the distance between the subject and the background, without the need for a dedicated camera. The bokeh effect looks just as good even without that extra camera, as portrait mode is available even on the front camera.
According to The Elec, Samsung plans to drop this camera from its cheaper mid-range models, preferring instead to keep the macro camera, which at least offers a different perspective, even if the photos are low resolution. According to The Elec, the Galaxy A24 will feature a three-camera system: a 50-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide and a 5-megapixel macro camera.
The Galaxy A34, the next model up, will use a 48+8+5 system, replacing the 50MP main camera with a 48MP one, probably with a larger sensor. Oddly, Elec says that the A54, which would replace the A53 model currently on offer next year, would use a 50+5+5MP system, suggesting it will get a “downgrade” to the ultrawide camera.
It’s likely to be a drafting issue, as this would suggest that the cheaper Galaxy A range phones in 2023 will have a better ultrawide than the Galaxy A54.
It’s unclear, however, whether the camera reduction will come with cheaper phones.