Samsung launches its 108-megapixel smartphone camera sensor
Tuesday, August 13, 2019 at 4:02AM 
The future of smartphone cameras features hundreds of megapixels. Samsung and Xiaomi partnered to develop the 108-megapixel ISOCELL Bright HMX sensor. It's one of the largest smartphone sensors ever at 1/1.33-inches. That is about three quarters the size of the 1-inch sensor on Sony's RX100 VII compact camera and just a bit smaller than the sensor on Nokia's legendary Pureview 808 phone. The sensor will still feature small pixels. By default and with Samsung's Tetracell tech, it will gather the light from four pixels and transform this into a 27-megapixel photo. If you want to take 108-megapixel photos, you'll need to make sure the room is brightly lit, so you can get decent shots. The sensor also allows for recording 6k video at 30fps.
With Samsung's Smart-ISO mechanism, it'll automatically select lower ISOs in brighter light and high ISO in dim areas. Samsung has been criticized in the past for inferior low-light performance when compared to its competitors like the Huawei P30 Pro and other models that use Sony chips. But by putting in a bigger sensor, the company might finally have an answer. Production of the chip will start later this month.
Source: Engadget