Huawei and Apple Follow, Samsung Drops Out: Are Variable Apertures Worth It for Phones?

Ever notice how phone night shots tend to blow out, or how someone's face always ends up blurry in group photos?

It all comes down to a simple optics problem: how much light gets in.

The aperture is like the lens's pupil. In low light, the pupil dilates (wide aperture) to let in more light; in bright light, it contracts (narrow aperture) to avoid overexposure.

In the past, the vast majority of smartphones used a fixed aperture, so the pupil size never changed regardless of the scene, leaving manufacturers to rely on algorithms to compensate for the hardware limitation.

A variable aperture is what lets that pupil actually move.

01 What can a variable aperture actually do?

A variable aperture lets a phone deliver comfortable viewing in all kinds of lighting.

In low light, opening the aperture to its maximum dramatically increases light intake, producing brighter, cleaner night shots; in ample light, stopping the aperture down prevents overexposure and improves sharpness at the frame edges.Image source: Internet

A variable aperture also enables depth-of-field control: a wide aperture blurs the background to highlight the subject, while a narrow aperture keeps both foreground and background sharp.

For portraits, the bokeh produced by a variable aperture is a physical optical effect, so it avoids the cutout-like edges around subjects that pure algorithms often create; for group shots, stopping down the aperture keeps both the front and back rows sharp.

Stopping down the aperture also produces beautiful starburst effects, turning streetlights and car headlights in city night scenes into sharp rays of light — a physical aesthetic that algorithms struggle to replicate.

02 Diverging Strategies of the Giants

Variable aperture technology requires a precision mechanical blade mechanism, which drives up costs and increases module thickness.

Huawei began offering a 10-step variable aperture ranging from f/1.4 to f/4.0 with the Mate 50 series in 2022, and has since made it standard across the Pura and Mate series.

The standard Pura 80 has a variable aperture of F1.4-F4.0, while the Pro, Pro+ and Ultra versions are upgraded to F1.6-F4.0. The Mate 70 series likewise continues with the F1.4-F4.0 configuration.

The upcoming iPhone 18 Pro series is also rumored to feature a mechanical physical variable aperture, adjustable from F1.4 to F4.0 (reported as either 10 steps or stepless), boosting light intake by up to 40%.

Apple's entry is seen by the industry as a significant signal.

When even the consistently conservative Apple chooses to follow suit, this technology may be moving from a niche experiment to a mainstream standard.Image source: Internet

Samsung took the opposite approach.

As early as 2018 and 2019, on the Galaxy S9 and S10, Samsung used a variable aperture supporting switching between F1.5 and F2.4, but dropped the hardware feature starting with the 2020 S20 series.

In early 2026, spurred by rumors about the iPhone 18 Pro, Samsung seriously considered reintroducing a variable aperture in the S27 series.

However, after testing modules supplied by MCNEX and Samsung Electro-Mechanics, the company ultimately decided against it.

The decision was driven by both cost and device design considerations.

Variable aperture components add cost, and the larger module would further increase camera bump thickness; combined with continuously rising DRAM memory prices, smartphone makers are under broad pressure.

Samsung, however, believes that the real-world experience gains from variable apertures in phones are limited and hard to justify against the added cost.

03 The Way of the Future or Just a Nice-to-Have?

The debate over variable apertures is essentially a clash between two approaches.

One side argues that solving problems at the imaging front end through physical hardware is more reliable than relying on back-end algorithms.

The other side contends that smartphone sensors are inherently limited, so the benefits of a variable aperture do not justify the added cost and thicker design.

Samsung's exit and Apple's entry neatly represent the two poles of this debate.

But whatever the outcome, the fact that a phone camera now has a pupil that can zoom at will at least shows one thing: competition in smartphone imaging is shifting back from algorithms to optics.

#Smartphone #VariableAperture

       Original title : Huawei and Apple follow suit, Samsung gives up — is variable aperture technology really worth it?