Expect future Samsung Galaxy smartphones to boast an even bigger camera sensor.
On Friday, Samsung revealed it’s created the world’s first 200-megapixel image sensor, with a pixel size of 0.64μm.
The sensor, dubbed the Isocell HP1, is capable of taking ultrahigh resolution images, but it’s still small enough to fit on a handheld device. “With the Isocell HP1, pictures hold an astonishing amount of detail that helps the image stay sharp even when cropped or resized,” Samsung says.
The new sensor essentially doubles the megapixel resolution found in the Samsung Galaxy Ultra S21, which has a rear 108MP sensor, dubbed the Isocell HM3, for the main rear camera. You can use it to take images at full resolution, but in general the camera snaps photos at a 12MP resolution to help save on storage space. The images are condensed through a process called “photo-binning,” which can combine several photographed pixels into one high-quality pixel.
According to Samsung, the new Isocell HP1 can also take photos even better during low-light conditions through an upgraded photo-binning technology called ChameleonCell.
“The HP1 transforms into a 12.5MP image sensor with large 2.56μm pixels by merging 16 neighboring pixels,” Samsung adds. “The newly formed 2.56μm pixel is capable of more light absorption and sensitivity, producing brighter and clearer photos in in-doors or in the evening.”
In addition, the Isocell HP1 can also take 8K videos at 30 frames per second. But through the same photo-binning technology, it can merge the pixels together to record a video over a 50MP resolution without needing to crop the video’s size.
Samsung didn’t say when the sensor would arrive in a real product. But the company has already begun making it available to smartphone manufacturing clients, which will almost certainly include itself.
