RYO Alexandre/Shutterstock If you had a phone in the early 2000s, you’ll remember when the backs of phones were virtually uniform, with the camera being as thick as the rest of the device. Fast forward to 2016, and Apple’s iPhone 7 had its camera protruding from the back. One might expect this trend to fade over time as technology develops, allowing manufacturers to fit more into less space, but the latest iPhone 17 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra models feature the biggest camera bumps of their respective series yet. Is there a reason your smartphone camera can’t be flat, leaving a bump that causes your phone to wobble every time you put it on a table? Well, yes, a number of factors led to this design, but it’s mainly the result of companies wanting to keep their phones slim. If you make your smartphone thinner while keeping the camera size the same, there will inevitably be a bump. With phones like the Galaxy S25 Edge being just 0.23 inches thick, the tendency for camera bumps to increase in apparent size makes sense. So why can’t these companies just reduce the size of their cameras? And when it comes to phones that aren’t getting thinner – like the iPhone 17, which is slightly thicker than its predecessor – why are the cameras themselves increasing in size? The answer lies in improving camera quality, the limits of physics and our current technology. Basically, if you want better photo quality, you need a bigger sensor that takes up more space. This is why the best smartphone cameras all have visible bumps. Why smartphone makers aren’t making smaller cameras tinhkhuong/Shutterstock A camera with a higher resolution will take sharper photos, which is why manufacturers often add more pixels to their phones’ camera sensors. This is what a megapixel represents, a group of one million pixels. However, when a company upgrades from a 50-megapixel camera to a 200-megapixel camera, the new system still needs to be small enough to fit inside the phone. If it were a simple swap, each of the 200 million pixels would have about a quarter of the previous area to capture light, resulting in poorer quality despite the higher resolution. This is why smartphone cameras need a certain thickness: the sensors must be a certain size to capture enough light without compromising image quality. Besides sensors, the physics of how a camera lens works also resists compactness. To get a clear image, you can’t place the image sensor too close to the lens itself. Light travels in straight lines and at specific angles. These rays of light converge on a specific focal point, and if there isn’t some distance between these two components – the camera sensor that absorbs the light and the lens that redirects it – the resulting image may appear blurry or have significantly reduced quality. This is especially true if you want good quality photos from a distance, such as when using a telephoto lens. In the case of telephoto lenses, there are small mirrors that are used to physically increase the distance the light travels. Since there’s no way to make a physical mirror or the actual distance between two objects more compact, a lens simply can’t be as thin as the rest of the phone without compromising image quality or zoom capabilities. It doesn’t matter how thin a phone is if there’s a big camera bump Anna Hoychuk/Shutterstock Many smartphone manufacturers look for a certain aesthetic to ensure their devices are considered high-end and luxury phones. Lately, this has manifested itself in design decisions that favor thinness, with several OEMs competing in a race to have the thinnest phone on the market. A sentiment shared by many users online is that a big camera bump more or less defeats the purpose of having a slim phone. When you talk about compactness, any object is only as thin as its thickest part. Some phone cases solve the problem of camera shock by giving the entire phone a uniform thickness, but at that point, is the phone really thinner? If you use a protective case for your phone that also makes it uniformly thick, you haven’t benefited from its thinning in the first place. However, if you use your phone without a case, the trend toward thinner devices will result in a more fragile phone with uneven weight distribution and lots of wobble when you place it on your back. Given that there are no signs of camera innovation that would address the above issues or indications that smartphone brands might return to thicker phones, this trend is likely to continue. So your next phone could have an even bigger camera bump. Post navigation Stop Believing These 5 Myths About Charging Your Phone Should you buy a refurbished Galaxy Z Fold 7?
RYO Alexandre/Shutterstock If you had a phone in the early 2000s, you’ll remember when the backs of phones were virtually uniform, with the camera being as thick as the rest of the device. Fast forward to 2016, and Apple’s iPhone 7 had its camera protruding from the back. One might expect this trend to fade over time as technology develops, allowing manufacturers to fit more into less space, but the latest iPhone 17 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra models feature the biggest camera bumps of their respective series yet. Is there a reason your smartphone camera can’t be flat, leaving a bump that causes your phone to wobble every time you put it on a table? Well, yes, a number of factors led to this design, but it’s mainly the result of companies wanting to keep their phones slim. If you make your smartphone thinner while keeping the camera size the same, there will inevitably be a bump. With phones like the Galaxy S25 Edge being just 0.23 inches thick, the tendency for camera bumps to increase in apparent size makes sense. So why can’t these companies just reduce the size of their cameras? And when it comes to phones that aren’t getting thinner – like the iPhone 17, which is slightly thicker than its predecessor – why are the cameras themselves increasing in size? The answer lies in improving camera quality, the limits of physics and our current technology. Basically, if you want better photo quality, you need a bigger sensor that takes up more space. This is why the best smartphone cameras all have visible bumps. Why smartphone makers aren’t making smaller cameras tinhkhuong/Shutterstock A camera with a higher resolution will take sharper photos, which is why manufacturers often add more pixels to their phones’ camera sensors. This is what a megapixel represents, a group of one million pixels. However, when a company upgrades from a 50-megapixel camera to a 200-megapixel camera, the new system still needs to be small enough to fit inside the phone. If it were a simple swap, each of the 200 million pixels would have about a quarter of the previous area to capture light, resulting in poorer quality despite the higher resolution. This is why smartphone cameras need a certain thickness: the sensors must be a certain size to capture enough light without compromising image quality. Besides sensors, the physics of how a camera lens works also resists compactness. To get a clear image, you can’t place the image sensor too close to the lens itself. Light travels in straight lines and at specific angles. These rays of light converge on a specific focal point, and if there isn’t some distance between these two components – the camera sensor that absorbs the light and the lens that redirects it – the resulting image may appear blurry or have significantly reduced quality. This is especially true if you want good quality photos from a distance, such as when using a telephoto lens. In the case of telephoto lenses, there are small mirrors that are used to physically increase the distance the light travels. Since there’s no way to make a physical mirror or the actual distance between two objects more compact, a lens simply can’t be as thin as the rest of the phone without compromising image quality or zoom capabilities. It doesn’t matter how thin a phone is if there’s a big camera bump Anna Hoychuk/Shutterstock Many smartphone manufacturers look for a certain aesthetic to ensure their devices are considered high-end and luxury phones. Lately, this has manifested itself in design decisions that favor thinness, with several OEMs competing in a race to have the thinnest phone on the market. A sentiment shared by many users online is that a big camera bump more or less defeats the purpose of having a slim phone. When you talk about compactness, any object is only as thin as its thickest part. Some phone cases solve the problem of camera shock by giving the entire phone a uniform thickness, but at that point, is the phone really thinner? If you use a protective case for your phone that also makes it uniformly thick, you haven’t benefited from its thinning in the first place. However, if you use your phone without a case, the trend toward thinner devices will result in a more fragile phone with uneven weight distribution and lots of wobble when you place it on your back. Given that there are no signs of camera innovation that would address the above issues or indications that smartphone brands might return to thicker phones, this trend is likely to continue. So your next phone could have an even bigger camera bump.
