Samsung’s 108-megapixel camera sensor is coming to smartphones soon

From The Verge: Less than a week after we saw our first images taken with Samsung’s 64-megapixel mobile sensor, the company has announced a new sensor with more than 50 percent more pixels. The Samsung ISOCELL Bright HMX, which was designed in collaboration with Xiaomi, is a 108-megapixel smartphone camera sensor that Samsung says is the first to surpass the 100 million pixel milestone for phones. As well as producing high resolution photographs, the sensor can also shoot in 6K video (6016 x 3384) at 30 fps.

In reality you’re unlikely to ever need a photo with this high a resolution, so the sensor is also able to produce high quality 27-megapixel images by combining groups of four pixels into one. That results in an image that’s a lower resolution overall, but it should mean it’s far brighter, helping low-light performance. Meanwhile, the sensor is also equipped with what Samsung is calling its “Smart-ISO” technology, which will automatically adjust the sensor’s ISO levels to compensate for brightly-lit or low light environments.

Neither Samsung nor Xiaomi have announced which phone will be the first to use this sensor. However, its large 1/1.33-inch size, which Engadget notes is around three quarters of the size of the 1-inch sensor found in the Sony RX100 VII compact camera, means it might not be an ideal fit for every smartphone out there.

Samsung is yet to announce which will be the first phone to use the new sensor, but one tipster has suggested that the Xiaomi Mi Mix 4 could be the first. With the sensor expected to enter mass production later this month, we could see the first handset that uses it before the end of the year.

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