Not parent but the S22 Ultra has a 3x optical zoom, then up to 100x AI assisted that they call space zoom. No the same phone parent mention but it should answer your question: up to roughly 30x the photo is "real" in that the digital side is merely cleaning up noise. Above that you can clearly see a drop both in quality and in details, small errors that are actually there in reality start disapearing from the shot too.
Link to shots from a techradar article [1] (note that these are lossy compressed, even the 1x has artefact, so I put them only to compare between them / the zoom levels):
We can agree that the 100x shot is useless, and the 30x shot too except maybe in some specific situations, but the 10x shots are very much good. Perfect or worthy or a dedicated camera with a zoom ? No. But for every day use absolutely.
Link to shots from a techradar article [1] (note that these are lossy compressed, even the 1x has artefact, so I put them only to compare between them / the zoom levels):
1x: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/4pcFBCfWpfjjJAp7RQ7NXQ-120...
3x: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/EdzEYaf85czuW9xJNnPRwQ-120...
10x: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/vDCsCZc5EDDHyMF6sRn5UR-120...
30x: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/FWkeGcGZTopnXgfLWDbrMQ-120...
100x: https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/oGBARcTnieEBciBDn4BCEQ-120...
We can agree that the 100x shot is useless, and the 30x shot too except maybe in some specific situations, but the 10x shots are very much good. Perfect or worthy or a dedicated camera with a zoom ? No. But for every day use absolutely.
[1] https://www.techradar.com/news/we-need-to-talk-about-samsung...