Samsung debuts its smallest 200-megapixel smartphone sensor yet

Samsung Electronics has unveiled its latest 200-megapixel camera sensor with some of the tiniest pixels yet, which it says will allow manufacturers to keep their premium smartphones slim. At the same time, the HP3 sensor packs technology like autofocus capability in every pixel, binning for better low light capability and multi-gain ISO for maximum dynamic range. 

The sensor is 1/1.4-inches in size, fairly large for a smartphone but extremely tiny for a 200-megapixel sensor. Samsung claims that it has the industry’s smallest pixels at 0.56 microns, 20 percent smaller than the 0.64 micron pixels of the ISOCELL HP1 launched last year. However, that’s not quite accurate, as Chinese manufacturer Omnivision unveiled a 200-megapixel sensor with the same 0.56 micron pixel size back in February. 

Still, Samsung’s sensor has some nice tech tricks. Each pixel has autofocus detection capability and the “Super QPD” tech uses a single lens over four pixels that allows for quicker and more accurate autofocus. It can also bin four 0.56 micron pixels into a larger 1.12 micron 50-megapixel sensor for better low light capability, or even combine 16 pixels into one 2.24 microns in size. That’s still considerably smaller than most camera sensor pixels …read more