What you need to know
- Samsung is working on 600MP camera sensors, which will be able to capture more detail than the human eye.
- In addition to smartphones, such high-resolution sensors could be used in other fields, such as autonomous cars, IoT, and drones.
- While the 600MP sensor isn't expected to arrive anytime soon, Samsung is rumored to launch a new 150MP camera sensor later this year.
In August last year, Samsung announced the industry's first 108MP camera sensor for smartphones. While some of us believe that the 108MP ISOCELL Bright HMX sensor is overkill for smartphones, Samsung thinks otherwise. In an editorial published on the company's website, Yongin Park, who heads the Sensor Business Team at Samsung's LSI division, has revealed that his team is working on a camera sensor that will be able to capture more detail than the human eye.
As noted in the article, the human eye is said to match a resolution of around 500 megapixels. Samsung, however, is working on bringing a 600MP camera sensor to the market, which could be used in various fields such as smartphones, autonomous vehicles, drones, and IoT. As you would expect, however, it will take a long time for the company to actually launch a camera sensor with such a high resolution.
A 600MP sensor would be massive in size, making it nearly impossible to fit inside a modern smartphone. In order to shrink the sensor, Samsung will have to reduce the pixel size, which would require the use of pixel binning tech to ensure the smaller pixels don't result in dull pictures. Samsung's 108MP ISOCELL Bright HM1 sensor uses its proprietary 'Nonacell technology,' which boasts a 3x3 pixel structure. This allows nine 0.8μm pixels to function as one large 2.4μm pixel to deliver impressive low-light performance.
If rumors are to be believed, Samsung will be launching a new 150MP Nonacell sensor for smartphones in Q4 2020. Like the 108MP sensor last year, Xiaomi could be the first manufacturer to release a phone with the new 150MP sensor. Phones with a 192MP camera sensor are also rumored to arrive sometime later this year.
