A suite of concept designs show what the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra designed with the help of Olympus could look like.
These renders, made by graphic designer Technizo Concept for LetsGoDigital, are based on recent reports of Samsung and Olympus teaming up to work on the Galaxy S22. The prospect of the veteran phone and camera companies teaming up is exciting, especially when taking other rumored information about the Galaxy S22's cameras and design into account.
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It's hard to miss the 200MP Olympus-branded camera in these pictures. While a camera with this resolution sounds absurd, it's already been rumored that Samsung is working on 200MP cameras. In fact, it may already be production-ready, based on rumors of the ZTE Axon 30 Pro using a Samsung-made camera with this resolution.
Samsung already makes the enormous 108MP camera you find in several flagship phones, and it helped propel the Galaxy S21 Ultra to the top ranks of our best camera phones guide. A 200MP camera would be a logical evolution of this megapixel-focused photography philosophy, whether Olympus is involved or not.
The source of the rumors doesn't know what the alleged Olympus/Samsung partnership will involve. Based on partnerships between the OnePlus 9 series and Hasselblad, the Huawei Mate 40 Pro and Leica, as well as many others, it will likely involve help with color accuracy and post-processing to make images look more like the subjects they've captured.
The wording of the rumor does leave open the possibility that a special edition of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 will be the first phone that gets an Olympus-enhanced camera rig. This is expected to launch in fall this year, much earlier than the Galaxy S22. While the Galaxy S line has historically been more focused on photography than Samsung's foldables, a limited edition folding phone does sound like an impressive platform to unveil a major company partnership.
The rest of the design takes cues from the current Samsung Galaxy S21 series. It's most obvious in the camera bump that flows over the side rail. But also in the flatness of the display, something Samsung has been moving back to after pursuing curved edge screens. The display also lacks a front camera punch-hole, because previous leaks claim Samsung will be introducing an under-display selfie camera on its flagships in the near future.
For a more grounded feature, we can see there's also an S Pen present, which ties to the Galaxy S21 Ultra's compatibility with the stylus, previously found only on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series and earlier Note phones.
The Galaxy S22 will likely launch next January or February, considering Samsung's product release habits. We may know earlier than that if Samsung and Olympus are teaming up. But it will be next year before we get to test out the Galaxy S22 and see if it can take back the best Android phones crown from the OnePlus 9 Pro.
