LG plans new optical zoom camera for phones

LG might be out of the phone business, but the company still continues making all the parts you’d need to make one, including a potential new camera.

Having left the mobile phone business in 2021, LG still continues to make a vast majority of the modules and parts that go into phones. Much like their business in TVs, they actually provide a lot of the panels for OLED TVs, on top of selling their own hardware.

The company’s Innotek division has come out ahead of CES 2023, revealing that they have developed a brand-new camera module that can zoom in up to 9 times telephoto range. For perspective, Apple’s iPhone can manage a 3x optical zoom before defaulting to digital.

Optical zooms are the preferred method of capturing an image from afar, as they don’t destroy the image. Once digital zooms have to take over, it is up to the software to fix the image on processing.

LG’s last zoom camera for phones wound up in the Sony Xperia 1 IV. Apple has rumored plans for it to be featured in the upcoming iPhone 15.

This particular zoom module is reactive and works on micrometers. It would function similarly to cameras with swappable lenses, allowing the components to push lenses around to best grab a zoomed image.

The plan is for phones to start including the module from January 3, CES 2023’s start date. LG’s lineup is mostly unknown, but expect to see a large array of various refreshes to their TV lineups and kitchen gear for days.

We’ll be covering CES 2023 from afar this year, but be sure to keep tabs on the tech section for just about everything coming up with the Computer Electronics Show.