The Aperture Illusion: Why Your Next Phone's Camera Upgrade Might Not Be What You Think

Samsung pioneered it years ago, and Apple is rumored to be next in line. The race to equip smartphones with variable aperture cameras—lenses that can open and close like those on professional gear—is heating up. Yet, a significant number of imaging specialists are questioning the entire endeavor. On the tiny sensors inside our phones, they argue, this complex hardware might be solving a problem that doesn’t really exist for most photographers.

Samsung’s earlier attempt, with two aperture settings on the Galaxy S9, was quietly shelved. The difference in background blur and sharpness between the settings proved so minor it was essentially invisible to the average user. The core issue is physics. A phone’s main camera has an extremely short physical focal length. At that scale, changing the aperture makes a negligible impact on depth of field, the very effect marketers promise. Phones already rely on software, not hardware, to create portrait-mode blur.

Where could variable aperture make a visible difference? Analysts point to the telephoto lens. With a much longer focal length, a telephoto module naturally creates more background separation. Giving it aperture control would allow for genuine creative tweaks and could sharpen images by stopping down from its often-soft widest setting. This is where the optical math adds up.

However, engineering a reliable mechanical aperture into an already complex periscope telephoto design is a costly challenge. Meanwhile, other manufacturers like Xiaomi and Vivo are improving image quality through better lenses and larger sensors, not moving parts. Sony is advancing sensor technology to offer similar exposure flexibility electronically.

The pursuit risks repeating a familiar pattern: a spec-sheet feature that generates buzz but leaves everyday photo quality unchanged. If the goal is a meaningful upgrade, the industry’s focus may be on the wrong lens. The real innovation wouldn’t just be adding variable aperture, but placing it where the laws of optics finally allow it to shine.