List of longest smartphone telephoto lenses

This is a list of smartphones with a telephoto lens that offers a focal length (35mm equivalent) of at least 100mm or "4× optical zoom" with an imaging area equivalent to a 1/3.5″ or larger sensor.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra with periscope telephoto lens (rectangular opening below the two lenses)

Smartphone lenses are often marketed in terms of "optical zoom"[1] relative to the phone's main camera. For example, 120mm is usually referred to as "5× optical zoom", because the main camera's focal length is commonly around 24mm. However, only a few smartphones, such as the Sony Xperia 1 IV and V, include a true zoom lens that offers continuous optical zoom, whereas nearly all smartphones feature a collection of prime lenses interpolated by digital zoom.

Note that this is not a list of the "best" smartphone telephoto lenses, since there are many factors that affect image quality. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra's telephoto lens outperforms the S21 Ultra's, due to hardware and software improvements despite the S22 Ultra's smaller sensor size and shorter focal length.[2]

Another factor is that, within a fixed space, higher focal lengths further constrain the size of the image sensor. Inversely, some manufacturers have recently been able to improve image quality by switching to a lens with a slightly shorter focal length but a much larger sensor.[3] For example, the Vivo X90 Pro+'s 90mm lens still has a 60% larger effective sensor area when digitally cropped to match the field of view of the X80 Pro's 125mm lens.[a]

As such, the following list excludes lenses using sensors smaller than 1/3.5″, which seems to be a lower bound for acceptable image quality (for comparison, most compact travel zoom cameras use 1/2.3″ sensors, which are over twice[b] as large).

Model Sensor
size
Optical
zoom[c]
Focal
length
[d]
Aperture Equivalent
aperture[d]
Pixel
count
Release
year
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra[4] 1/3.2" 10× 240mm f/4.9 f/37 10 MP 2021
Huawei Mate 40 Pro+[5] 1/3.5" 10× 240mm f/4.4 f/37 8 MP 2020
Huawei Mate X2[6] 1/3.5" 10× 240mm f/4.4 f/37 8 MP 2021
Huawei P40 Pro+[7] 1/3.5" 10× 240mm f/4.4 f/37 8 MP 2020
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra[8] 1/3.5" 10× 230mm f/4.9 f/42 10 MP 2023
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra[9] 1/3.5" 10× 230mm f/4.9 f/42 10 MP 2022
Sony Xperia 1 VI[10] 1/3.5" 3.5-7× 85-170mm f/2.3-3.5 f/19-30 12 MP 2024
Oppo Find X7 Ultra[11] 1/2.5" 135mm f/4.3 f/26 50 MP 2024
Sony Xperia 1 V[12] 1/3.5" 3.5-5× 85-125mm f/2.3-2.8 f/19-24 12 MP 2023
Sony Xperia 1 IV[13] 1/3.5" 3.5-5× 85-125mm f/2.3-2.8 f/19-24 12 MP 2022
Huawei P40 Pro[14] 1/3.5" 125mm f/3.4 f/29 12 MP 2020
Xiaomi 14 Ultra[15] 1/2.5" 120mm f/2.5 f/15 50 MP 2024
Xiaomi 13 Ultra[16] 1/2.5" 120mm f/3.0 f/18 50 MP 2023
Xiaomi 12S Ultra[17] 1/2.0" 120mm f/4.1 f/22 48 MP 2022
Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra[18] 1/2.0" 120mm f/4.1 f/22 48 MP 2021
Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra[19] 1/2.0" 120mm f/4.1 f/22 48 MP 2020
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL[20] 1/2.5" 120mm f/2.8 f/17 48 MP 2024
Google Pixel 8 Pro[21] 1/2.5" 120mm f/2.8 f/17 48 MP 2023
Google Pixel 7 Pro[22] 1/2.5" 120mm f/3.5 f/21 48 MP 2022
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max 1/3.2" 120mm f/2.8 f/21 12 MP 2023
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra[23] 1/2.5" 115mm f/3.4 f/21 50 MP 2024
Google Pixel 6 Pro 1/2.0" 4x 104mm f/3.5 f/19 48 MP 2021
Vivo X100 Pro[24] 1/2.3"[25] 100mm f/2.5 f/14 50 MP 2024

See also

edit

Notes

edit
  1. ^ The X90 Pro+'s 90mm lens uses a 1/2″ sensor, whereas the X80 Pro's 125mm lens uses a 1/4.4″ sensor, so the difference in area is:  .
  2. ^  .
  3. ^ Maximum "optical zoom" relative to the phone's primary camera lens.
  4. ^ a b 35mm equivalent.

References

edit
  1. ^ "12 Best Optical Zoom Camera Phones To Buy in 2023".
  2. ^ "20X zoom difference S21 Ultra / S22 Ultra". 12 February 2022.
  3. ^ "Oppo Find X6 Pro review: zooming past the competition".
  4. ^ "Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G - Full phone specifications". GSMArena.
  5. ^ "Huawei Mate 40 Pro+ - Full phone specifications". www.gsmarena.com. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
  6. ^ "Huawei Mate X2 - Full phone specifications". www.gsmarena.com. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
  7. ^ "Huawei P40 Pro+ - Full phone specifications". www.gsmarena.com. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
  8. ^ "Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra - Full phone specifications". GSMArena.
  9. ^ "Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G - Full phone specifications". GSMArena.
  10. ^ "Sony Xperia 1 VI - Full phone specifications". GSMArena.
  11. ^ "Oppo Find X7 Ultra - Full phone specifications". GSMArena.
  12. ^ "Sony Xperia 1 V - Full phone specifications". GSMArena.
  13. ^ "Sony Xperia 1 IV - Full phone specifications". GSMArena.
  14. ^ "Huawei P40 Pro - Full phone specifications". www.gsmarena.com. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
  15. ^ "Xiaomi 14 Ultra - Full phone specifications". GSMArena.
  16. ^ "Xiaomi 13 Ultra - Full phone specifications". GSMArena.
  17. ^ "Xiaomi 12S Ultra - Full phone specifications". GSMArena.
  18. ^ "Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra - Full phone specifications". GSMArena.
  19. ^ "Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra - Full phone specifications". GSMArena.
  20. ^ "Google Pixel 9 Pro XL - Full phone specifications". www.gsmarena.com. Retrieved 2024-08-14.
  21. ^ "Google Pixel 8 Pro - Full phone specifications". GSMArena.
  22. ^ "Google Pixel 7 Pro - Full phone specifications". GSMArena.
  23. ^ "Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra camera sensors size revealed". GSMArena.
  24. ^ "vivo X100 Pro - Full phone specifications". GSMArena.
  25. ^ "Vivo X100 Pro Review: An Impressive Choice for Smartphone Photography".