Apple developed something called a tetraprism telephoto lens assembly for the iPhone 15 Pro Max‘s 5x periscope telephoto. While a 5x optical zoom is not anything new for its Android counterparts, the underlying optics and the tetraprism branding were certainly something new in the industry.
In the latest news, a patent application from Samsung Electro-Mechanics suggests that the company is working on something that sounds like an upgraded or more cutting-edge version of Apple’s periscope telephoto solution. It’s called the ‘hexa prism’ lens.
As the name suggests, this is going to be a six-lens setup that offers an advanced periscope zoom. It may compete with Apple tetraprism periscope telephoto tech. As you can see from the image, three of the six lenses are concave (light bulging outwards) and the others are convex. The lenses will be placed inside a periscope that allows the assembly to have a longer focal length (in the range of 180mm to 7000mm).
The abstract of Samsung‘s patent provides further insight into the optics that Samsung may be planning to use in one of its future Ultra flagships:
“An optical imaging system includes a first lens with negative refractive power, a convex object-side surface, and a concave image-side surface; a second lens with positive refractive power; a third lens with negative refractive power; a fourth lens with positive refractive power; a fifth lens with negative refractive power; and a sixth lens with positive refractive power and an image-side surface featuring an inflection point. The first through sixth lenses are arranged sequentially in ascending numerical order from the object side of the optical imaging system toward the imaging plane.”
While the company is likely to use this technology in one of its S Ultra flagships, it’s unclear which model will first feature the new ‘hexa prism’ lens. The Galaxy S25 Ultra is rumored to have a 5x periscope telephoto camera, but given the focal length of the ‘hexa prism’ lens, it doesn’t seem to be the S25 Ultra. For context, the 5x periscope telephoto of the Galaxy S24 Ultra has a focal length of 111mm, so the ‘hexa prism’ tech might debut in the S26 Ultra or a future model.
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