Have smartphone camera bumps gotten out of control?

Opinion from

Eric Zeman

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra contains a whopper of a smartphone camera module. Not only does it come with multiple lenses, but it also comes with a 1.1-inch OLED display so you can take the perfect selfie. Oh the vanity. This is the phone you get if you accidentally fall off a cliff while taking a picture of yourself. Hey, at least the shot will be good.

Seriously, a selfie screen? What will phone makers think next? To be fair to Xiaomi, this isn’t a completely pointless rear window like that of the most recent ROG Phone 5 Ultimate. Instead, the back-mounted display of the Mi 11 Ultra, which increases the size of the smartphone camera module from just obnoxious to obscene, not only helps you to create your recording. It also doubles as an always-on display that shows the time and can show notifications.

See also: The best camera phones you can get

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is just the newest phone to exaggerate the arrangement of the rear cameras. We understand why. Camera sensors are getting bigger every year. This is good for your photos. Larger sensors can capture more light, which means faster shutter speeds and sharper photos. The lens arrangements common in today’s telephones are becoming more and more complex. A typical smartphone camera module has half a dozen lens elements that sit in front of the sensor. These elements require physical distance.

For more information on why camera bumps get so big, check out our article linked below and the video above where we go into more detail. The TL; DR is that right now smartphone makers looking to deliver a cutting edge camera experience have a mystery: make the entire phone really thick, or just the part that contains the camera bits. It’s obvious which way they went – for now.

Continue reading: Why are the bumps on the smartphone camera so big?

Right now, Samsung is perhaps the worst culprit. Last year’s Galaxy S20 Ultra and this year’s S21 series as a whole have gigantic camera modules. The back walls are absolutely dominated and defined by the chunky camera blocks. The S20 Ultra in particular came with a periscope zoom camera so it really took up space, although I’m not sure the 100x room zoom was worth the extra bulk. Other gawky camera modules appear on phones, including the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, the standard Xiaomi Mi 11, and the Realme 8 Pro. Huawei should also go further with the P50 series.

Phones that have managed to integrate multi-lens camera systems and pack them into tasty camera modules include the Google Pixel 5 and OnePlus 9 Pro.

Then there are smartphone camera modules like that of the Oppo Find X3 Pro. Rather than forcing a clunky, functional design into our hands, the company has integrated the large camera module beautifully. No other camera module is so attractive. Well done Oppo.

Without a doubt, we want our smartphones to have the best cameras possible. Camera quality and performance have become top features for potential buyers, and the competition is fierce. With each passing year we see increasing numbers of megapixels, more creative lens configurations as well as powerful flashes, microphone arrays and even laser focusing systems. These all require larger camera modules.

When will the camera design determine the phone design itself?

The question arises when the camera design determines the phone design itself. Will phone manufacturers make significant changes to the plate-style device to support high-tech camera systems? What would that look like? Would consumers choose it?

We saw a few examples. The Nokia PureView 808 from 2012 is one such device. The 808 put the emphasis on camera design, which resulted in a clunky phone. Then there was the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, which was definitely a camera first and then a phone. These devices compromised the phone experience to provide better imaging, although it wasn’t a real market success. And therein lies the friction.

Connected: Compact camera versus smartphone shootout – it’s not even close

Smartphone buyers prioritize devices with large screens and thin profiles. As long as consumers want it, phone manufacturers will give it to them. Point-and-shoot cameras are already a dying breed in the world of photography anyway, being supplanted by the high quality cameras we now carry as part of our phones. Modern phone manufacturers make little sense of bringing back the 808 or S4 Zoom form factors.

However, this does not mean that phone manufacturers can increase the size of the camera module with each generation. Is there a turning point? What is too big Eventually we will get to a point where yields will go down. Until then, I expect the smartphone camera modules to continue to grow in size and complexity.

What do you think?

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