An incredible seamless 1x to 9x optical zoom phone camera is being developed

Technology company Tecno has revealed a pair of intriguing smartphone camera innovations, which solve two specific pain points familiar to any phone photography fan.

Advanced, seamless telephoto camera

Announced during its Future Lens 2025 event, where it concentrates on imaging technology, the Freeform Continuum Telephoto camera may have a bit of a weird name, but what it does is very intriguing.

The module’s design enables a “true continuous optical zoom” across 1x to 9x zoom, with no loss in quality or resorting to a digital zoom to bridge the gaps between cameras.

Tecno says it will eliminate the viewfinder jumps we all see when the camera switches between the main and telephoto cameras, giving us a true seamless zoom.

We’re used to smartphone cameras providing one or two different optical zoom levels, such as 3x and 5x on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, but Tecno’s camera would change that, making it more like a regular camera with a special telephoto lens.

Thinner telephoto camera

The Freeform Continuum Telephoto camera isn’t the only telephoto-related advancement Tecno announced. The second is called the Dual-Mirror Reflect Telephoto, and once again, the name doesn’t give much away.

The module uses a coaxial optical design, resulting in it being 50% smaller than standard telephoto cameras, allowing a high-performance telephoto to fit inside a thinner phone or smaller camera bump.

Tecno doesn’t give much away about how it operates, the zoom levels it will enable, or if the 50% size reduction is compared to the competition or its own telephoto cameras, so details are thin for now.

It does say the smaller Dual-Mirror Reflect Telephoto won’t compromise image quality, and will produce an unusual “doughnut-shaped” bokeh effect in photos.

When will they arrive on a phone?

Tecno’s Future Lens 2025 event is for the brand to show off its innovations and concepts, and it has not announced when, or if, these new cameras will arrive on a smartphone we can buy.

However, Tecno is well-known for its exciting concept devices, and some of these have resulted in consumer-ready products in the past. At Future Lens 2024 it talked about AI in imaging software, which has also started to arrive on its phones.

Tecno does not sell its smartphones in the U.S., and most are released in specific global regions. The company is often worth our attention though, as these camera innovations prove.