Paul Briden 01/08/2017 - 2:38pm

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 camera to feature 3x optical zoom

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8’s release is just around the corner, we’re talking a matter of weeks now, and the leaks have been coming in pretty steadily during the last quarter.

We know what it will look like. We know what the specs and hardware are, generally speaking, and we also know, roughly, how much it will cost and that it will be available with an option for 256GB of storage.

But one of the handset’s major talking points, and also one of the biggest battle fields of 2017, is to do with improvements to the phone’s imaging capabilities. With the iPhone 8 coming, Samsung cannot simply repackage the Galaxy S8’s shooter.

This just wouldn’t do…

And now we have a very clear idea of where Samsung is taking imaging inside its next major release, the Galaxy Note 8.

A new leak of Samsung marketing materials shows that the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 features a dual-sensor camera, as per earlier rumours, and that this setup also enables a 3x optical zoom capability, also lining up with earlier rumours.

The leaked details come via Dutch website Galaxy Club and are alleged to be snippets from official Samsung promotional documents. We can clearly see the materials are showcasing the difference between standard capture, digital zoom, and optical zoom, and the optical zoom has significantly higher quality. According to the documents the feature is called "Smart Zoom".

What's not clear is whether this will be similar to the recent optical zoom from the OnePlus 5. OnePlus originally announced the handset with "2x optical zoom" but it later emerged that it only had 1.6x optical zoom with the remaining 0.4x zoom magnification being made up digitally via something called "SmartCapture multi frame technology".

The document also reveals a "Refocus" feature which appears to capture image depth and spatial data via the dual-lenses and allows the user to choose a new focal point after capture. Again, it's not clear whether this is a fully fledged feature or if it will be similar to past offerings by rival manufacturers; many have boasted such features but in practice they simply sharpen the selected focal point very slightly and blur everything else in the shot.

As might be expected, the details also suggest that the Galaxy Note 8 camera will be improved when it comes to low-light photography, including a Super Night Shot mode, as well as better HDR, and a new Perspective View feature that allows for image rotation post-capture.

And now there have been two, rapid, successive leaks from prominent Twitter tipster @evleaks, doing what he does best and bringing us official renders nice and early. The first one didn't show much, but this second one below shows the Galaxy Note 8 in both black and gold colour options, complete with the S-Pen stylus. We can see the dual-camera sensor on the rear with a fingerprint scanner alongside. The Infinity Display on the front means there's no physical Home key - it's just all screen, while on the sides we see a power key, volume rocker, and dedicated Bixby key.

There's not long now until this tech is fully and officially revealed, as Samsung's Unpacked launch event for the Galaxy Note 8 will be taking place on August 23 in New York, US.