This is what OPPO is promising when it unveiled its newest camera technology here in Barcelona during the annual Mobile World Congress. OPPO is looking to put a 5x zoom into their future smartphones this year, the first one to be announced later this month (although we can’t really confirm if that one will already have this camera module).
A 5x optical zoom in a smartphone is not unheard of before. Samsung had the Galaxy S4 Zoom back in 2013 and it had a 10x optical zoom, BSI sensor and OIS. However, the S4 Zoom is more like a camera rather than a smartphone. And it’s also very thick and bulky (15.4mm and 208 grams) when not zooming in. That was followed by the Galaxy K Zoom which has a similar form factor and thicker body.
The most recent smartphone with high optical zoom is the Asus Zenfone Zoom at 3x, though the recent Zenfone 3 Zoom only has 2.3x optical zoom.
Once deployed, OPPO will have the highest optical zoom in a smartphone this year. To get to a higher zoom capability of 5x, the body of the camera needs to get thicker to accommodate the lens module. This is where OPPO is trying to innovate — keep their smartphones under 8mm thin and yet afford to include a 5x zoom capability to the phone.
The periscope-style lens solves this problem and OPPO is executing this using a dual-camera setup as illustrated above. It will be complemented with a new type of optical image stabilization to keep the shots steady and blurry-free.
Some of the initial tests showed that the 5x zoom is indeed superior compared to some flagship phones (we tried it with the iPhone 7 Plus) but it’s just a prototype device. OPPO still needs to launch a phone that will have this camera module and they did promise it will be soon.
This also begs the question — is a great camera a huge factor in consumer’s purchasing decision? If the answer is yes, and we believe it is, then the next obvious question would be “is zoom capability a significant contributing factor” for a great smartphone camera. This is the challenge that OPPO is attempting to achieve. But until we can see a real phone released with this technology, all these are just theories waiting to be proven.
