Samsung is working on a 150 Megapixel camera capable of taking 16 Megapixel images. Here's how it'll work
Samsung won't be producing the 200-megapixel photo sensor that's been rumored in the past anytime soon, certainly not within this year. But apparently it will produce a 150-megapixel one, initially intended for top-of-the-line smartphones from Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo.
The news finds no confirmation, except in a rumor published on the Korean forum Clien.net from which it appears that in December 2019 the three Chinese companies officially asked Samsung to provide the first available samples of these sensors. The 150 Megapixel sensor would be an evolution of the 108 MP one already present on the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, namely the ISOCELL Bright HM1 sensor with Nanocell technology. Also according to the rumor, then, a smartphone with a 150 MP camera could be presented as early as the last quarter of 2020.
Samsung 150 Megapixel camera: what it will look like
As we said, the Samsung 150 Megapixel sensor will be an evolution of the 108 MP one. These are sensors that turn 9 pixels into 1, so if the 108 MP sensor eventually produces 12 MP resolution images, the 150 Megapixel one will take photos with a resolution of about 16 MP. Having a lot of pixels available, and then only recording one, also means having to use a lot of artificial intelligence to determine what information to write to the file, pixel by pixel.
A 150 Megapixel sensor, finally, will be very large: it's speculated to be about one square inch in size, and this could again revolutionize the shape of the photo compartment in smartphones that will integrate it.
Samsung 150 MP camera: when will it arrive?
According to rumors circulating on Korean forums, the first 150 Megapixel sensor could be integrated on a smartphone that one of the three Chinese companies (Xiaomi, Oppo or Vivo) could announce by the end of 2020. It is not yet clear whether such a sensor will be able to be handled by the SoCs of the current top of the range 2020 or if we will have to wait for the next generation. In theory, for technical specifications, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 that today equips the vast majority of flagship devices should be able to handle shots up to 200 MP. But the amount of calculations to manage the artificial intelligence that will translate the information from a 150 MP sensor into a single 16 MP image is really high. For this, many are betting that we will have to wait for the future Snapdragon 875 (if it will be called that).