The Samsung Galaxy S22’s rear camera range is unlikely to have a Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensor to Korean news press.
A ToF sensor counts the time it takes for a reflected light beam to return to a sensor, and this helps with 3D mapping for portrait images and facial recognition.
Galaxy S10 5G, Note10 + and last year’s S20 series had the technology, but it was left out of the Note 20 and Galaxy S21 range and it doesn’t look like it will return with Galaxy S22.
A secret in this issue said that the consumer response to the arrays of cameras without a ToF unit was not bad and therefore the company decided not to equip the Galaxy S22 with it.
It seems that Samsung believes that its flagship phones do not need a ToF unit because it does not have a significant purpose at the moment. It may return when augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications take off.
This does not mean that Samsung has abandoned the ToF sensors. In November last year, the company introduced a ISOCELL Vision 33D ToF unit. It has a 4-press demodulation system for accurate measurement of the depth of fast-moving objects, and Samsung also says it can accurately map a user’s face in poor environments. For now, the company plans to sell it to Chinese smartphone suppliers.
Beyond the omission of the ToF camera, almost nothing is known about the Galaxy S22 series. It will probably be revealed in the first quarter of 2022.