Samsung details the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 200MP camera
Samsung was the world’s first company to announce a 200MP smartphone camera sensor. Its ISOCELL HP1 sensor was unveiled in September 2021, and it eventually debuted on the Moto X30 Pro, theworld’s first smartphone to feature such a high-resolution camera. Rumors suggest Samsung’s upcomingGalaxy S23 Ultrawill pack a 200MP camera as well, though it won’t be the HP1 sensor. Instead, it would reportedly house a new shooter with significant technological improvements to deliver superior low-light performance. Now, just afew weeks before the Galaxy S23 launch event, Samsung has announced its third 200MP ISOCELL sensor.
The ISOCELL 200MP HP2 shooter measures 1/1.3" optically—the same size as most 108MP cameras today—and features 0.6µm large pixels. This is down from the 0.8µm receptors on theGalaxy S22 Ultra’sprimary camera. The company says this size ensures flagship smartphones don’t ship with an even larger camera bump. For comparison,Sony has a bigger 1-inch camera sensorthat you can find inside Xiaomi’s flagship Xiaomi 12S Ultra and Xiaomi 13 Pro.
The Korean company claims its Tetra pixel technology improves low-light sensitivity. Using 16-to-1 pixel binning, the sensor can output 12.5MP images with an effective 2.4μm pixel size for better results. You can also shoot photos in 50MP 1.2μm mode if you want the extra resolution. Focusing issues were quite common with Samsung’s initial 108MP sensors. The company’s latest 200MP sensor features Super QPD, in which all the pixels are used for focusing to avoid any such problems.
Samsung claims to use a new Dual Vertical Transfer Gate technology on the HP1 to improve dynamic range and reduce washed-out pictures in brightly lit environments, thereby reducing overexposure and improving color reproduction.
The 200MP shooter switches to 50MP 1.2μm mode when recording 8K videos to reduce cropping and provide a wider field of view. It also features Dual Slope Gain (DSG) in 50MP mode to deliver improved HDR performance.
Samsung’s new 200MP sensor is already in mass production and should debut inside the Galaxy S23 Ultra first.Purported camera samples from the phoneindicate it could capture a lot more details, signaling the Korean giant’s newest 200MP sensor could pack a punch.
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